Jürgen Klopp Responds to Calls for Liverpool to Buy New Centre Half

The Liverpool manager was quick to dismiss suggestions the club should reinforce at the back this month.

Dejan Lovren is expected to miss at least the remainder of January due to a hamstring injury suffered against Wolves in the FA Cup. With Joël Matip and Joe Gomez also out and neither likely to be available for the weekend, it leaves Jürgen Klopp with one fit senior centre half.

The obvious question for many is, will the Liverpool manager turn to the transfer market to ensure he has a veteran centre half to play alongside Virgil van Dijk on Saturday when the Reds look to get back to their winning ways against Brighton. Klopp’s answer? A hard no.

“The only country that asks a question like this is England,” Klopp said dismissively when TalkSport asked if reinforcements were coming. “Everything is solved with buying players. We have four centre halves. Three are injured. So we try and come through in the moment.”

What that means, in all likelihood, is another start for Fabinho at centre half on Saturday. It’s also possible that Jordan Henderson could play at the back, as there were reports he and not Dejan Lovren was scheduled to start there against Wolves before picking up a knock.

Either way, Klopp says that with his issues at the back only expected to be short-term, he can’t go out and bring in a new player for just one or two games—that that wouldn’t be fair to anyone involved. So he will have to just figure out a solution with what he already has.

“We need them back,” Klopp said. “You cannot buy a fifth centre half and say, you play two weeks and after that others come back in. Joe is getting better but he is not yet involved. Joël is maybe closer but there are still a few days until we can have them in team training.”

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com