Dominik Szoboszlai bemoans 12:30 kick-off time as Liverpool open new season with 2-0 away win at Ipswich Town despite former manager Jurgen Klopp’s least favourite match

Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai has lamented Liverpool’s early kick-off against Ipswich Town in the season opener.

Arne Slot’s debut as a manager in the Premier League could not have gone better, with his team winning 2-0 after a tough draw, thanks to goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah.

But Liverpool, like last season, found themselves in kick-off on a Saturday afternoon, a time that often frustrated former manager Jurgen Klopp.

And it seems their Hungarian midfielder isn’t a fan of the 12:30 kick-off time either.

However, he was quick to point out that this also applied to their opponents and that he did not want to use this as an excuse for their slow start.

Liverpool started their Premier League campaign with a win against Ipswich

Dominik Szoboszlai was not exactly happy with the early kick-off, joking that it was ‘still morning’

After the win, Szoboszlai told Optus Sport: “I think we’re at the maximum of our fitness, we just have to use it.”

‘It’s no excuse, but half past twelve is still morning, but for them it’s no excuse either.

But from the week after we have to be ready from the first minute. Sometimes it works like that and sometimes you concede a goal and it’s already too late.’

The 12:30 kick-off was a moment that irritated former manager Jurgen Klopp during his time as Liverpool manager and especially during his final season.

In his penultimate season as national coach, the German team failed to win a single of their six early kick-offs.

Jurgen Klopp has often complained about the early kick-off time his team was given

And when he was called up early twice after international breaks last season, Klopp told reporters: “Are you serious?” he replied when initially asked if his team had problems with this particular position.

He added: ‘What do you mean what’s the difference if you play in Bolivia 30 hours ago? What do you think the reason is, I don’t get it.

“Is it something about the time or the lack of recovery in between? It’s not a problem if you have a normal week, that’s what we’ve always said. The only problem is the lack of recovery time.

‘We have four international breaks until March and two of them we have kick-offs at 12.30. If I say another word about it the whole world will say, “He’s starting to whine again”, but it’s a joke – we have players in South America that I haven’t seen yet and we’re playing in 24 hours. It’s a joke.’

And his issues with time to start a match go back even further than last season, when he apparently blamed BT Sport for an injury to James Milner in 2020.

During the post-match interview with the announcer, he said ‘congratulations’ to Des Kelly before continuing: ‘Well, you work for them, ask Chris Wilder how we can work on that. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but you choose the 12:30 kick-off.

“Between now and December there is one more Wednesday, Saturday. These are difficult times. I’m just telling it like it is. Wednesday to Saturday 12:30 is really dangerous.”

There is often a somewhat subdued atmosphere around lunch break, but that was not the case here.

The visitors started off slowly, but the fans were not. Portman Road was already restless before kick-off.

And who could blame them, it had been 22 years since they last played in the Premier League and it was clear they were ready for this moment.

That energy was certainly transferred to the players who went to work in a particularly physical manner against Liverpool.

Diogo Jota opened the scoring to complete a convincing Liverpool move

Mohamed Salah took the points with his ninth goal on the opening days of the Premier League

It was certainly too physical for referee Tim Robinson, as The Tractor Boys were shown three yellow cards within the first 25 minutes.

Liverpool’s physical approach meant they could never really find their rhythm and went into half-time with the score at 0-0. Kieran McKenna was clearly the happier of the two managers.

The visitors took control in the second half and were rewarded 15 minutes after the break when Diogo Jota tapped home a fluid move after Salah had laid the ball on the board.

And the Egyptian superstar became the scorer for Liverpool’s second goal, securing the three points with a fine strike.