2 years ago
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Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
An injury crisis in midfield has forced the team and coaching staff to reconsider their approach to signing midfield reinforcements.
Liverpool started the summer trying to sign Aurélien Tchouaméni from Monaco but the talented young midfielder opted for Real Madrid. They then tried to sign Jude Bellingham but Dortmund refused to deal.
Jürgen Klopp and the club then decided to head into the season with what they had, waiting for next summer to make a run at Bellingham. On paper, they had enough options in midfield to do so—then injuries struck.
Now, Klopp says that Liverpool will try to sign a midfielder before the transfer window slams shut at the end of the month. That doesn’t change that they will be picky, though, and won’t sign a player simply to sign a player.
“We are looking for it,” Klopp said when asked about bringing in midfield reinforcements before the close of the transfer window. “If it is the right player, we need him. If it is not the right player, we don’t need him.”
Given the currently injured players will all return over the next month and any new signing may take as long to settle, simply bringing in a body was never going to be an option and that hasn’t changed in recent days.
The club, though, are looking. If a deal can be done for a player Klopp and his coaching staff believe will improve the club long-term and not just when half the midfielders are out injured, a deal will soon be done.
“I know we have had this discussion and I am the one who said we don’t need a midfielder,” he added. “I was wrong. That’s the situation, but the specific point doesn’t change—we will do something but it has to be right.
“Curtis [Jones] comes back, Thiago is not too far off, Diogo [Jota] is not too far off, Joël [Matip] comes back and that all eases the situation slightly. We will not change how we deal with the situation, so we will see.”
