Jurgen Klopp has no desperate desire to enter the transfer market in January and says he has the experience in his career to give him plenty of optimism despite Liverpool’s spate of injuries in defence.
The Reds are likely to be without Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez for the rest of the season, the very heart of the defence.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is also absent from right-back, while others who can cover the same areas of the pitch have also been out, such as Joel Matip and Fabinho.
Fabinho has filled in at centre-back several times already and likely will do so again for the rest of 2020, but even aside from the Brazilian – who is ready to return to action after injury – Klopp says there are players in and around the first-team scene who will get their chance and he’s not currently thinking about adding to the squad.
“Fabinho was part of the normal team training,” the boss told reporters on Friday. “What we make of that we have to see because we don’t know how he reacts.
“We will see. I don’t know what we can do in January, I have no idea. That we look for solutions that’s clear, but at the moment we have the situation we have.
“These are the solutions we have at this moment; what we do in January? I have no idea. If we can do something I have no idea. If we want to do something, I have no idea!
“For the moment we are fine, we use how we always [do]: we use the boys we have.”
Giving an example as to why he isn’t insistent that the club race into the market to secure a new arrival, Klopp pointed to when he took over at Borussia Dortmund and the inexperience he was faced with in defence.
As well as youthful options, the Reds have versatile performers who can drop back to get game time – and already the boss has noted that a few hopefuls are even more eager to seize their chance to shine.
“In 2008 at Dortmund my two centre-halves were 19 and turned 20 that winter. We played with them the entire time, [Mats] Hummels and [Neven] Subotic.
“We have talents here, they are young, 18, 19, 23 and then we have more experienced players so we will see. We have midfielders, not in this moment but in a couple of weeks we’ll have midfielders who can play a more defensive role as well.
“I am happy about the chance they have now. You should see them in training, they can smell the chance and they want to step up and show they are ready – that’s good.
“I am really confident it will work out with the boys and hopefully then we can convince the rest of the world as well!”
A lack of bodies might make the fans nervous and cast eyes towards the market, but Klopp has earned plenty of credit and trust from everyone around the club and, ultimately, if he feels the options available to him are good enough to win the league, then that’s exactly what the Reds should, and will, do.
Fan Comments