Jürgen Klopp Exasperated by Transfer Focus

The summer transfer window is a magical time of the year, where fans can let their imaginations runs wild, agents can let drop strategic nuggets to move their players and cash in their cut, and media can recycle old rumours or fabricate nonsense our of whole cloth. In the case of managers, it makes sense to assume that the transfer window is more of a mixed bag; the potential to add to your squad and improve it for the upcoming campaign offset by the possibility of losing your stars to richer, more successful clubs.

Also, the questions. The never-ending, incessant questions. Jürgen Klopp, for one, has had it up to here with the questions:

"I really wait for the day when finally the transfer window is closed because I can’t believe how obsessed you all are with this and that you don’t believe for a second in improving things on the training pitch.

"I understand after Arsenal, it was far away from being a perfect game and everybody said we scored four, so obviously we can score goals, but we conceded three, so obviously we have a defensive problem. That’s if you’re not very interested in us, then that’s a way you can see the game.

"Then we play at Burnley and have 81 per cent of ball possession but didn’t score a goal, so now we could say we need another striker, if you want.

"I think it makes sense that we think about these things without watching the results we’ve had. That’s what I’ve said always, until August 31 everything is possible because a lot of things can happen, but in this moment it’s not that we have a main thing to do, that our feeling is in this position we have nobody or we have the feeling we cannot work with the player in the position or something like this."

This is not uncommon ground for Klopp, who in the past - both at his previous clubs and at Liverpool - has shown a willingness, and even a preference, for improving his current players rather than spending big on stars. The pattern seems to be repeating this summer, as the Reds look set to break even in the transfer market, despite adding six players, including the big-money arrivals of Sadio Mané and Georginio Wijnaldum.

The club's owners showed tremendous faith in the charismatic German when they extended his contract by six years this summer, likely in part due to his reputation for getting the best out of his players, a trait that will be necessary if the club is to succeed against their ultra-rich competitors. Fans will hope these improvements show up sooner rather than later, and that the free-flowing dispositions of the win at Arsenal become a more common trend than the frustrating futility that plagued their most recent match.