Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp believes that English football needs to streamline itself to stop players at the highest level from burning out, with Senegal international Sadio Mane set to miss the Community Shield after only returning to training on Monday.
Having played 111 games since August 2017, Mane is a prime example of a player who has hardly had a moment's rest throughout the last two years, something which has also affected a lot of South American players during the same period.
Klopp believes something needs to be done sooner rather than later to help stop players putting themselves at risk, comparing the situation in England to that in Italy following a conversation with Carlo Ancelotti.
"Somebody has to start this discussion," Klopp said, quoted by The Daily Mail. "Italy has 20 teams as well and starts the season on August 24th. [Kalidou] Koulibaly, who played with Sadio at the Africa Cup of Nations has four weeks holiday. He's not even close to coming back.
"I don't know why we start that early. Next year we have the European Championship and Copa America and we start this same week in England?
"I don't know why. The Premier League is such a wonderful product: everybody will watch it anyway. We don't need these two weeks where nobody in the whole world is playing, only the Premier League. It doesn't make sense. I love football but somebody has to think about the players and nobody is.
"I start a discussion and people say he's looking for excuses. I'm not, but we have to think about these things, especially in England."
Liverpool have been without six first-team players throughout the majority of their pre-season campaign, with the Reds now facing a race against time to ensure he has the strongest possible lineup on matchday one next week against Norwich City.
