Pep Guardiola agrees with Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool boss calls for major Premier League change

Pep Guardiola has said he agrees with Jurgen Klopp’s view that the Premier League’s scheduling is having a negative impact on English teams’ success in Europe.

Just one Premier League side made it to the semi-finals of the three main European competitions this season, and Aston Villa’s journey looks likely to end at the last-four stage after a damaging 4-2 loss against Olympiacos in Thursday’s home leg of the Europa Conference League semi-final.

Manchester City and Liverpool - along with Arsenal and West Ham United - were among the sides to bow out of the Champions League and Europa League at the quarter-final stage this season, and Klopp said on Friday that is down to the quick turn around in fixtures and limited recovery time in the Premier League.

“A little advice from an old man on the way out. Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday 12.30 is a crime,” said the ongoing Liverpool boss.

"I was actually waiting for Amnesty International to go to them. I would like to be part of that meeting when someone says ‘Liverpool 12:30’ and the whole room is bursting into laughter.

“I watch a lot of football. The Premier League is the best league in the world so it's not overrated, the players are over-worked,” added the German, who said he will not watch TNT Sport again.

A few hours later, Guardiola echoed the views of his old adversary and said he does not hold out much hope for change in the future.

“I don’t know if it is the main reason [for English sides’ European exits], but I completely agree with Jurgen that it is one of the main reasons,” claimed the City manager.

“It’s not going to change. Maybe next season we have three or four English teams in the final stages and for a long time it has been difficult.”

Guardiola has spoken out about the scheduling issues in each of the last two weeks, and labelled the decision to put City’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea just three days after the loss on penalties to Real Madrid as ‘unacceptable’. He also complained about a gap of less than 72 hours between games against Brighton & Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest last week.