MY ACCOUNT
Jurgen Klopp has ruled out a transfer raid to lift Liverpool for a push towards the Champions League places.
The Reds manager became riled by questions on the subject when speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, ahead of the trip to Brighton and Hove Albion.
Luis Diaz, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota are sidelined by injury, reducing Klopp’s options in attack, and Darwin Nunez could also miss the Brighton game.
Key defender Virgil van Dijk is also out of action, but Klopp dismissed the idea Liverpool could use the January transfer window to solve their problems.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “My job is to use the boys we have, so that’s it. I like the teams we line up, but when we start to change things you see we don’t have three, four, five options, and if we have options they are pretty young.
“You cannot solve all problems in a transfer window. In a dreamland you would just buy players now and bring them in, but I don’t see that coming.”
Liverpool have been linked with the likes of Benfica’s Argentina World Cup star Enzo Fernandez, but judging by Klopp’s tone there will be no deal materialising there in the near future.
Asked why Liverpool would not be targeting the market for new additions, Klopp said: “What could be the reason? That we have money like crazy, but we don’t buy the players even when they are available?
“That’s what you think of me after all the years? Why ask the question when the answer lies on the table? I really don’t understand that.
“If I sat here and said we have money in the bank, massively, like we don’t know what to do with, but the players are out there but nah, we don’t do that…
“We have on top of that the problem that in the moment four of our offensive players are injured, strikers.
“So if we buy another one and they come back, and we have seven strikers, we couldn’t even put them all on the Champions League list. We’d have to make a decision.
“So it’s just not that easy, you cannot solve the problem, especially with injuries.
“Injuries, that’s the main, big, big shadow over all of us, because you cannot solve it in the transfer window. Sometimes you have to, but usually you have to get through until the boys come back and then you can use them again.
“The transfer market is for us not in this moment a solution. But if something’s out there and someone tells me we can do it, we will do it, but in this specific situation I don’t think it will happen.”
Liverpool were held 3-3 by Brighton at Anfield in October, in a game that saw Leandro Trossard hit a hat-trick for the Seagulls.
That was early in the reign of Roberto De Zerbi, who replaced Graham Potter as Brighton head coach, and the south-coast club won none of their first five Premier League games under the Italian (D2 L3).
They have won four of their last six under De Zerbi, however, while Liverpool have lost three of their last seven in the league, as many as in their previous 37 games combined (W26 D8).
Klopp’s side sit seventh in the table entering the latest round of games, seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester United.
A defeat last Monday to Brentford was a jolt for the Reds, who have not begun a calendar year with two league losses in a row since 1993, in the inaugural Premier League campaign, when they were beaten by Aston Villa and Wimbledon.
Klopp said of the trip to the Amex Stadium: “It will be a tough one, but I’m really looking forward to it because we’ve had a good week [in training] and I hope the players who are available during the week will stay available and be ready for a fight.”
