Jurgen Klopp rules out Liverpool FC centre-back signing barring 'serious' injury

Getty Images/Liverpool FC
David Lynch27 September 2020

Jurgen Klopp has insisted that Liverpool won’t enter the transfer market for defensive reinforcements before the window closes unless they are hit by a ‘serious’ injury blow.

The Premier League champions sold defender Dejan Lovren to Zenit St Petersburg earlier this summer and have thus far opted against bringing in a replacement.

Instead, midfielder Fabinho has taken on the role of fourth choice centre-back, as seen during the 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last weekend.

Injuries to Joel Matip and Joe Gomez forced the Brazilian into action in an unfamiliar position, though the latter is back in training ahead of the upcoming visit of Arsenal.

As such, Klopp is content with his options at the heart of defence for the season ahead barring a major injury between now and the October 5 deadline.

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He said: “I don’t expect a lot to be honest.

“You think you are well covered, we have three absolutely top, top, top centre-halves, young players in line, Fabinho in the back hand if you want and then all of a sudden three players are out for a few days and that is not nice.

“But you cannot solve that in the transfer market. That is just not possible. We will not even try if nothing more serious happens. I hope we don’t have to try that.

“If the situation stays like it is at the moment then no there will be nothing.

“All the rest we are in quite a good place squad wise and what the outcome [on outgoings] will be I have no idea at the moment. We will see.”

Liverpool have been busy reshaping other parts of their squad, with Kostas Tsimikas, Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota having all joined the club this summer.

Asked about the adaptation process each player must go through, Klopp added: “You cannot train a lot of intense stuff in between the games, but you can work on tactics. That is possible. Not for very long but working on tactics is possible.

“On the other side, our football - because I am a pretty simple person - is pretty simple. It is not rocket science and it is not that complicated what we do. It just needs a little time to get used to it in moments: counter press stuff like this.

“It will not take ages, it will take time. We will see how long. But the three new players came in a team which worked pretty well before so there is no rush no need to say that if you don’t play tomorrow we have no chance, absolutely no chance.

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“That is actually good because that takes the hectic out of things - I know you will bring it in anyway but that is something I really like.

“That we can bring them in, in the right moment, in the right situation and then last night when Diogo goes on I didn’t stand there and explain you have to stand there or there.

“I wanted him to be as natural as possible and he was. I really liked that. I saw a lot of the things that he is really good in. his behaviour between the lines and stuff like this, physically really strong, it is difficult to get him off the ball, he knows where the goal is.

“That is the first thing: be yourself and then we start working on a few things and hopefully you can be better than before.”

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