In his pre-Newcastle press conference, Jurgen Klopp opened up on the importance of “the right owners” and admitted he would be happy to “risk” more signings if the club allowed him to.
Here are five key points from the manager ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with Newcastle:
Still hoping for another signing? – “Ish”
With two days to go until the close of the summer transfer window, the question many Liverpool supporters wanted to hear Klopp answer was whether he was still hoping for a new midfield signing.
The boss has again left the door open for a potential new addition, but he explained how any deal becomes more and more difficult the closer we get to Thursday night’s deadline.
When asked on the eve of Newcastle‘s visit to Anfield if Liverpool are still in the market for a midfielder, Klopp said: “Ish.”
“The closer we get to the last minute the more unlikely it gets, that’s how it is. But we are not out.
“It’s difficult because, there are for sure some players out there that would be the right ones, but they have different issues some of them are contracts, clubs don’t want to sell – these kinds of things.
“That’s how it is. We cannot force it. We will see.
“Thursday 11pm [is the deadline], there is still time. But when it’s then over and we’ve signed or not signed [a player] then I’m really happy about that because we can stop thinking about it.”
Importance of “the right owners”
The big Premier League news on Tuesday morning came when it was announced that Bournemouth manager Scott Parker had been sacked, following Liverpool’s 9-0 rout of the Cherries on Saturday.
Klopp, for one, was surprised to see Parker go, and said the news reminded him of how important it is for a manager to have “the right owners” above him.
“When I heard (the Scott Parker news) today I realised how important it is in this moment to have the right owners at the football club,” he said.
“Some clubs are owned by countries but others have a structure like us and maybe Arsenal. Then three teams who came up, Nottingham are spending, Fulham is and I can’t remember Bournemouth doing a lot, which is difficult for a coach. I felt for Scott.”
“I think Scott is an outstanding manager.”
4 more closing in on return from injury
After Joel Matip and Curtis Jones returned to training on Monday, Klopp revealed that four more players who have recently been sidelined are now close to returning to action.
Darwin Nunez will serve the final game of his three-match suspension against the Magpies on Wednesday, and it seems Klopp will have more players to choose from in the coming weeks.
“I think Diogo can train from Thursday on, and Thiago I think a slightly later, so we’ll see,” Klopp told reporters.
“But Calvin is getting closer, Caoimhin I saw walking outside for normal goalkeeper training.
“So yeah, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, definitely.”
“I would be ready to risk more”
An interesting admission from the boss as we enter the final days of the transfer window.
Klopp again made clear that he is not in control of the money he is told he can or can’t spend on players, but for the first time, he admitted he would perhaps approach transfers differently if he could.
“Let me say it like this; from time to time I would be ready to risk a bit more,” Klopp admitted.
“But, how I said, I don’t decide that. It’s fine.
“We try everything until somebody tells us it is now the deadline and we cannot do anymore, in that moment I don’t think one second back.
“That’s what we have to all do then. Let’s go from there, let’s make something special of this team now. It’s a great team, they have everything.
“Yes, we already had problems and we didn’t always play great football but we will really try to squeeze everything out of this season.”
Big praise for the youngsters
The boss was able to hand Stefan Bajcetic and Bobby Clark their competitive Liverpool debuts against Bournemouth, and says he has been hugely impressed with the talent coming out of the academy.
Klopp said he watched the under-21s come back to draw 3-3 with Tottenham on Friday, which may explain why the likes of Luke Chambers, Dominic Corness and Max Woltman were all pictured training with the first team on Monday.
He did, however, admit that in an ideal world, he wouldn’t need to be using so many of the club’s younger players at this moment in time.
“We have a lot of wonderful talents. I’m not sure if you watched it, but if you saw our U23s game against Tottenham the day before the game, we could watch it in the hotel, we have a lot of real talent.
“Barry (Lewtas) is doing an incredible job there, but in an ideal world you don’t play with three or four 17-year-olds in the same game, to be honest.
“It was a wonderful thing to do, on Saturday. For Bobby and Stefan I was really happy that I could be the one to give them their opportunity.”
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