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The Reds coach admits a new center-back would help his struggling team, but the champions are unlikely to sign this month.
Jurgen Klopp has admitted that a new center-back would benefit Liverpool, but says the Reds’ recent downfall has changed nothing in terms of the club’s ability to act in the transfer market.
The reigning champions are on their worst form streak in four years, without a win in five Premier League games and without having scored in the last four.
On Thursday, they lost their proud record of 68 undefeated games at home, losing 1-0 to Burnley on a miserable night at Anfield. The title favorites a month ago are now in fourth place and could fall behind both Tottenham and Everton if those two teams win their games at hand.
With Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez out with long-term knee injuries, Liverpool were expected to sign a central defender in the January window to ease some of the pressure.
But with just over a week to go until the deadline, it seems likely that there will be no such move, and Klopp explained the situation to reporters on Friday before his team’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at Manchester United.
When asked if the last few weeks had changed anything in terms of the club’s thinking about transfers, he replied: “No, nothing changed. Sorry, short answer! “
Later, I would delve into the subject.
“I’m not a five-year-old anymore and if I don’t get what I want I start crying,” he said. “Most of the time in my life I didn’t get what I wanted, to be honest!
“I am responsible for a large part of this club but there are people who are responsible for everything and I cannot make their decisions. I know they are with us, I know they want to support us and they do.
“Now we are talking about a central half. Yes, it would help 100 percent. Would we score more goals with a center? I’m not sure. Would it give us more stability at specific times? Probably yes.
“But it is not about that. We never, ever talk in the transfer window like this because that would be an excuse and we don’t need it. What we have to do is improve football in the decisive areas with this squad, and don’t sit here and be disappointed or frustrated with some decisions. I am not.
“Of course we know what we would do in an ideal world, but the world is not ideal and not only for us. We have to deal with the situation.
“A midfielder last night would not have won the game, so we don’t have to talk about that. I know it’s good for you to talk about it, but it’s not that important to me.
“Everything is on the table, everything is clear and we only have to work on football.”
Klopp also dismissed the idea that he faced his biggest challenge since arriving in Merseyside in 2015.
“Everything we did in the last five years felt like a challenge, to be honest,” he said. “But yes, now there is a different challenge.
“It’s not that we win the league and I put my feet on the desk and smoke a cigar and think ‘well done, from now on everything will work without me doing anything.’
“It is not a situation that we want, and if we are not happy with a situation, then we must work, and that is what we will do.
“I think we can 100% change it with this template. We don’t say ‘if we don’t get this or that, we can’t act’ or whatever. We are very self-critical. We know what we did and we know that we also have to change it. ”
