Everton hero Michael Ball says the early kickoff is killing the atmosphere of the Merseyside derby.
Everton's 2-0 defeat at Liverpool on Saturday kicked off at 12:30pm.
Ball wrote for the Liverpool Echo: "The atmosphere was so flat on Saturday, to the point where it felt like a pre-season game or charity match. Both sets of fans were not really at their best. You go to derby games and you expect a huge atmosphere because of the excitement and the nerves and there was just nothing.
"You can't exactly blame the fans for that, who have dragged themselves out of bed first thing to be there. The same could also be said for the players, who struggled to create any kind of tempo and took their time to wake up. This slot is not working and this has to be looked at by the people who control the TV picks.
"A game of this magnitude should not be starting so early in the day."