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The transfer window can be a difficult time for any fan base.
You only need to take a brief look at the Twitter posts of any football club to see vociferous demands in the responses for them to announce a new signing or spend more money.
That is especially the case for clubs that have underperformed on the field or have large gaps in their first teams to fill, with underperforming players.
It’s a feeling that Liverpool fans will know very well. Take the 2014/15 season, in which the talisman Luis Suárez had left in a record move to Barcelona, with a kind of scattered approach to new recruits: Lazar Markovic, Mario Balotelli, Alberto Moreno, Rickie Lambert and Javier Manquillo, to name but a few.
Needless to say, that year’s business was not particularly successful and subsequent transfer windows had to be spent searching for updates and plugging gaps.
When Jürgen Klopp walked through the door in October 2015, there was a lot of work to be done to build the German a team worthy of his coaching pedigree.
“I think fans generally don’t understand how physically difficult it is to make a transfer,” explained Tottenham Hotspur president Daniel Levy on Amazon’s recent All Or Nothing series.
“It frustrates me a lot if we come to the end of a transfer window and the team is not in a better place than when we started.”
That is the plan of all clubs, but easier said than done.
In the summer of 2020, as Liverpool enter a new season with a league title to retain for the first time in three decades, they have had nothing to worry about in terms of recruiting.
The Klopp Reds have recorded 196 points in the last two seasons and followed the Champions League in 2019 with the Premier League last season. They have done it with a stable and well balanced team that has been improving little by little during Klopp’s tenure.
The former Borussia Dortmund coach inherited club captain Jordan Henderson, Joe Gomez and Roberto Firmino and saw Trent Alexander-Arnold rise through the academy.
With pinpoint accuracy on the market, almost all transfers over £ 20 million have been an indisputable success: Sadio Mané and Georginio Wijnaldum in 2016, Mohamed Salah the following summer, Virgil Van Dijk in January 2018 with Alisson and Fabinho a few months later. Not to mention crafty additions like Andy Robertson.
Such a hit rate has left them feeling calm in 2020 and with no positions in the first XI to improve.
Liverpool have conceded the fewest goals in the last two seasons, while the three forwards have scored a combined 213 goals in all competitions in their three full seasons together as a trident.
Rather than desperately fighting to improve on Klopp’s conquering first team, the focus could be on supplementing the team with solid options for depth and competition. Konstantinos Tsimikas on the left back and Diogo Jota on the front row.
The state of the game also allows Liverpool to be opportunistic and to act when exceptional and exceptional quality is available.
The addition of Thiago Alcantara, only available at an affordable £ 27 million when he entered the final year of his contract at Bayern Munich and was eager to depart for a new challenge, will offer Liverpool something new, helping them evolve and avoid becoming obsolete. and predictable.
Compare that to clubs in the Premier League and elsewhere in Europe.
Manchester United have spent the summer chasing after Jadon Sancho but failed to sign him, while there is still a big question as to whether new recruit Donny van de Beek is a natural fit in midfield with Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes.
The jury is still out on whether Nathan Ake alone will fix Manchester City’s defensive weaknesses. Chelsea have spent over £ 200 million, but have yet to sign a replacement for Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Tottenham have brought in Matt Doherty and will reportedly allow Serge Aurier to leave. Barcelona are selling Nelson Semedo to the Wolves and targeting Norwich’s Max Aarons as his replacement. Will any of them noticeably improve?
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Only Bayern, who have won the treble, can compete with Liverpool for a sense of calm in the transfer market this summer, as they have also built their squad intelligently in recent years.
Liverpool fans will feel a pang of dread as they look around to recall the aimless “throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-stick” strategy before Michael Edwards and Klopp.
Business will be done if the right players are available at the right price, but there is no despair if not.
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