Klopp says Nations League akin to opera overdose

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has once more criticised the Nations League, comparing the tournament to watching opera every night or having world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua box week in week out.

Klopp believes there is no place in football's already congested calendar for a major new competition, with the German arguing that the increased number of fixtures risked devaluing the currency of international football.

But the Reds boss accepted his was not a popular view, saying he might as well talk to his coffee machine for all the likelihood of changing the minds of European football chiefs trying to create a more meaningful framework for international fixtures.

"It's too much in that competition: 'Proper games, real opponents, it is better than having any friendlies'," Klopp said on Friday ahead of English title-contenders Liverpool's match away to Huddersfield.

"That's all good but you don't want to see Joshua fighting every second night, it's not possible. This week he fights in Leeds, next week he fights in Manchester and no-one asked for it."
"Where is the rest? When can we have normal things?"
"With all the rest, we have to see how it develops."