Arne Slot saw the funny side of Liverpool being handed a lunchtime kick-off in his first Premier League game in charge.
The Reds will start their season with a trip to Portman Road to face newly promoted Ipswich on August 17.
Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was a constant critic of playing matches at 12:30pm on Saturday, with the Reds given more early kick-offs than any other side during the German’s time in charge.
Klopp in one of his final press conferences as Liverpool manager described them as a ‘crime’, and vowed never to watch TNT Sports – who broadcast the early kick-offs – again.
Slot, during his first interview with Liverpool’s official website, joked that Klopp’s complaints had a hand in the scheduling of the Ipswich game.
He said: ‘They’ve told me it’s going to be 12:30… from what I know, Jurgen complained a lot about this so probably they thought, with Jurgen being out let’s put them at 12.30 again.
‘No, 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.’
After facing Ipswich, Slot’s first Anfield game in charge will see Brentford head to Merseyside, and the Dutchman is looking forward to kicking off the Reds’ new era.
‘Every new club you go to and it’s your first home game, it’s special,’ he said.
‘I remember it being special at Feyenoord and I’m expecting it to be really special here in Liverpool as well. But like I said, the first thing I’m going to look at is the first training session we have and then afterwards all the sessions that come after and games we will play.’
Klopp’s main gripe with early kick-offs was when his Liverpool sides had to play at 12:30pm right after a mid-week European clash.
This meant that the Reds had less than 72 hours to prepare for the next clash.
In one of his final interviews he said: ‘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 had a discussion only the other day with colleagues from our favourite TV channel, which I will definitely not watch again, TNT.’
Klopp concluded that his view was nothing more than ‘little advice from an old man on the way out’. He added that Liverpool being asked to play ‘Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday 12.30pm, is a crime’.
Since the start of the 2017-18 season, no team has played more 12:30pm games than Liverpool’s 37.
