Klopp Talk: Further January Signings Unlikely

In his press conference ahead of Saturday’s match against Brighton & Hove Albion, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp was asked if he expected any more players to be signed:

I don’t think [we will get more players in], it’s just the situation. It’s like it is. I have to talk about it because you ask me about it, so that’s it. In the end, my job is to use the boys we have, so that’s it. Absolutely no problem, I like the teams we line up, all these kinds of things.

But when we start changing, you realize up front we don’t have now three, four, five options. And if we have options, they get pretty young immediately, which is fine. But that’s the situation and you cannot solve all problems in the transfer window. I know in a dreamland you would just buy now players and bring them in, but I don’t see that coming.

This answer seems strange, as it suggests a concerted interest on attacking players, when most of the calls from fans of the club have focused on midfield depth.

Klopp is likely correct, however, that more attacking signings would be a problem: when Luis Díaz, Roberto Firmino, and Diogo Jota return from injury the attacking positions are over-full.

Asked again on his view of the market, Klopp seemed irritated:

I’ve had 6000 press conferences at Liverpool, I have to tell you again the money story?Why could it be the reason we have money like crazy and we still don’t buy players? You know the answer!

It’s not that we have so much money we don’t know what to do with but we think ‘ah we don’t need anyone. It’s just not that easy, we cannot sort the problems [in the window] with injuries.

While more depth in midfield would certainly be welcome, it’s clear that depth alone is certainly not the only problem Liverpool is facing: signing a new midfielder cannot alone improve the performances of everyone else.