Dominik Szoboszlai admitted that he found the 12:30pm kick-off for Liverpool's opening day game versus Ipswich Town a struggle - with his remarks in agreement with both Arne Slot and Jurgen Klopp .
The Hungarian midfielder impressed during a solid performance from the Reds during the new head coach's first game in charge at Portman Road. The 23-year-old played the full 90 minutes in the victory, as the Merseysiders clinched all three points after a sterling second half display.
With the game evenly matched in the first period, Liverpool showed their class as Diogo Jota opened the scoring on the hour mark, before Mohamed Salah doubled their lead. Reflecting on the clash, Szoboszlai admitted that the early start in Surrey asked a lot of him and his teammates in the first game of the campaign.
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Speaking to Optus Sports, he confessed: "I think we are at the maximum fitness we just need to use it. It is not an excuse but 12:30 is still morning, but for them as well so it is not an excuse. But from the next week on we have to be ready from the first minute onwards sometimes it works like this and sometimes you concede a goal and it is already too late."
His comments seemed to reflect the views of new boss Slot too, who said of the kick-off time: "When I started here there were many things and one of them was that Jürgen hated 12.30pm kick-offs. And we showed we hate the 12.30pm kick-offs. The first half was not good enough, second half was a real good performance."
That said, speaking before the game, his stance was slightly different as he put things, saying: "It’s different to a normal 12.30 because it’s not after a game in Europe. Looking forward to it. A promoted team so it’s going to be special for them as well. I think every team might prefer a home game to start with, but we’re going to face Ipswich and we are looking forward to that."
The irritation of the Dutchman's predecessor in the Anfield hotseat when it came to the 12.30pm slot was abundantly clear throughout his tenure. At one point, Klopp issued a stern response when asked about his stance on the subject, saying: "Are you serious with this question?'
"What do you mean what is the difference when you play 30 hours ago in Bolivia? What do you think is the reason, I don't understand. Is it something about the time or the lack of recovery in between. It's not a problem if you have a normal week, we've always said that. The only problem is the lack of recovery time."
The German said: "We have four international breaks until March, and on two of them we have the 12.30pm kick-off. If I say one word about it again the whole world goes "He's starting to moan again", but it's a joke - we have players in South America that I haven't seen yet and we play in 24 hours. It's a joke."
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