Crystal Palace 1-1 Leicester: 3 things we learned

The turnaround time for Leicester City was ridiculous

A year ago Leicester had less than 48 hours between being beaten at home to Liverpool on Boxing Day to beating West Ham United on the 28th December. This year Leicester had the same challenge playing 48 hours after playing Manchester United on Boxing Day.

The same can also be said for Crystal Palace, who were returning from a boxing day defeat to Aston Villa. Brendan Rodgers managed the side in a similar way to last year by making seven changes and resting much of his side. Perfectly justifiable when you consider the amount of football that his side have played with a heavy European schedule and a constant barrage of two games a week. Add this to the fact a second string team also won in London last year and Rodgers selection was expected.

But why were both teams made to play with such a quick turnaround when teams like Liverpool and Manchester United were given three days rest? This remains a mystery as the fixture list didn’t seem to warrant it. On Tuesday the 29th and Wednesday the 30th there are games at both 6pm and 8pm, with no games scheduled at 3pm on either day. Would it have been such a massive problem to put those games  a day or two back? Both teams would have been grateful for the extra rest and could well have put on a better show.

Rodgers may well have still made changes but given the way he normally manages his squad the amount of changes wouldn’t have been so severe and Leicester City’s bigger players may well have also started. Although Jurgen Klopp possibly over reacted to a media interview at Brighton regarding kick off times and protecting players, his point possibly had merit. There are easy decisions to be made regarding kick off times and the tv companies seem lax in their management of it, whether it was Sky Sports or Amazon Prime they need to be working harder to protect the players and the Premier League product.

I’m fairly sure if Klopp was made to do 26th and 28th December games two seasons in a row we’d be having the issue talked about in football circles, Brendan Rodgers as always quietly gets on with his job with no fanfare.