Klopp Talk: Liverpool “Still Looking” to Make First Team Signings

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It’s been a quiet transfer window so far but the manager says a deal or two could still happen.

It’s fair to say it’s been a rather quiet summer for Liverpool so far in the transfer market, with only Sepp van den Berg and the as-yet unannounced Harvey Elliott, a pair of promising young players and fringe first teamers, having been signed.

And while a quiet summer wasn’t unexpected, just how quiet it’s ended up being has been surprising. Lest fans start to worry Liverpool are this summer’s Tottenham, though, manager Jürgen Klopp says there are potential deals being worked on.

“We are still looking, but it will not be the [biggest] transfer window,” Klopp told The Liverpool Echo. “It just will be a transfer window. We will see what we do, and if we haven’t done anything by the end it will be for different reasons.

“It’s about using this team. In the transfer window, you have to build a team that you think you want to go into the season with. But I have that team already. If we can bring somebody else in that makes it even better, we will see.”

On the one hand, improving a Champions League winning side that earned 97 points in the league is a difficult task—at least for a side without Manchester City money—but that reality is why many fans were content with the idea of a quiet summer.

That quiet summer, though, was still meant to include a handful of depth signings. Signings meant to round out a squad competing for seven trophies this season and that has seen key players playing international football through the summer.

Klopp, though, has never been one to make signings for their own sake. His Liverpool tenure has made it clear that he would rather work with the players he already has and, when possible, find his solutions internally.

So while fans are crying out for at least a depth signing here and rotation option there and worried about a mid-season, fatigue-induced collapse, perhaps even the degree to which the summer has been a quiet one shouldn’t surprise.

“Transfer strategy has to be long term,” Klopp added. “It has to be long-term. Short-term covers the problem but doesn’t solve it if someone gets an injury and you buy someone to fill the position and three weeks later the injured player is back.

“It’s good for everybody on the outside, because they can say, ‘Well if he can’t play, then he can play or he could play’ [but] if you’re working together all week and then three of the players can’t play, they won’t get any better.

“You have to create a situation where you need the player, you need the boys. That’s what we try. We have 100% always long-term plans. That’s what is really good about this football club.”

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com