Jurgen Klopp believes “smart recruitment” can be the catalyst to get Liverpool competing for major honours again as they approach a pivotal summer transfer window.
Liverpool have established themselves as some of the shrewdest operators around in the transfer market over the last five years and Klopp feels his team can get back to the lofty heights they have generally enjoyed between 2019-2022 if they can make a number of similarly intelligent purchases in the next window.
Jurgen Klopp said: “The difference is whatever we do next year will never be enough from people’s point of view and your point of view (the media). But yes, with smart recruitment we will improve – definitely. That is the plan. It is one of these moments where it is really not good that I am not native because I can’t explain it better in English. You get in this whirlwind and it sucks you in that direction. And all of a sudden it’s like: ‘Wow, where are we?’ I am not a worse manager than last year, definitely not. It doesn’t mean the outcome is good enough, not at all. But I’m not worse – and the players are not worse players. They just play worse. That’s definitely the case. We cannot make 24 changes [this summer] and say ‘here we go’- not even 10 – but it is just that we have to make changes – smart changes – and then we go again. We have other moments when we think about what happens next year, but this is not the moment.”
Klopp made six changes for Tuesday night’s goalless draw at Chelsea as the Reds ended a run of three successive defeats across all competitions. Virgil van Dijk was ill but the manager also left out Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott, Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Trent Alexander-Arnold as a much-changed team battled to a point at Stamford Bridge.
Asked specifically about Alexander-Arnold’s omission,
Jurgen Klopp added: “He was one of six but [leaving him out] brought [more] focus on him? He’s not been as good or consistent as he used to be, like pretty much all of the boys. For Trent, it is the same, there is no difference. Do you expect me to say he played a world-class season and I leave him out anyway? That makes no sense. No, nobody performed on the level we saw and the level we know they can. In moments, yes, of course, great games, fantastic games, super situations but consistently nobody, no. Him not as well.”
