Jurgen Klopp has assured Liverpool fans that he does have plans to buy players this summer, but claims that no deals are as of yet close.
He also explained why we didn’t do any business in January, intimating that we’ll likely need to buy a new forward come the end of this season.
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“The plan is to begin with about improvement of the players here, because we always forget these things,” Klopp told the official website.
“Is it possible that these players could improve? Yes, it is. And I think that is very important.
“Are we looking for transfers and for players? Yes. Are we close to signing them? No, nothing to say about them.
“It’s not for us about exactly four players or five players and ‘oh, thank God you asked’. There are different challenges, different plans.
“But we know what we want, and we are working really hard to get what we want, as you can imagine.”
“This season we have had the issue of whether the squad is big enough or not. If you look back now, it looks like it was not.
“But at the start of the season, Danny Ings was involved in our plans and so was Daniel Sturridge. So if you have those two competing for the No.9 position, plus Ingsy could play wide as he has in the past, then Roberto [Firmino] is free for the wing, for example.
“But the injury of Ingsy, and Daniel with a few problems, then Phil [Coutinho] was injured and yes, it was like this. We didn’t have enough options, only young options. Ben Woodburn? Nice talent but you cannot put too much pressure on his shoulders.
“In winter we were looking, but you cannot buy a player only because you need one, and not care who. Buying no player is better than buying the wrong player, actually.
“So we left it, then Phil came back, Sadio [Mane] came back, and now the basis is good, really good. Now we have to build on it.”
“We didn’t make the transfers last summer in order to have a positive transfer record – not at all,” he added.
“The squad is fluid. Players come in, players go out. We have created a market by ourselves if you want, bringing in a few young players. They have not perhaps played as much as they would like but they could move on now and we have a market for that.
“I think we are in a situation where we have a good basis to improve. Of course we will spend money this summer, and probably we will earn money too.
“But you can’t see then at the end of the window that we are £20m plus, and think ‘oh, we need to buy somebody of clout’, it doesn’t work like this.”
This campaign has proved that Liverpool not only need better squad depth, but also greater quality injected into the side.
We’re on course to concede 50 Premier League goals again for the fourth consecutive season, suggesting we desperately need a top centre-back.
James Milner has done well at left-back, but a naturally left-footed defender in this role would help.
In midfield, we need a robust, physical player who can dominate matches. Naby Keita from Red Bull Leipzig or Monaco’s Tiemoue Bakoyoko would do very nicely.
Sadio Mane is the only quick wide option we have and we badly need another, with Bayer Leverkusen’s Julian Brandt a potential option.
A centre-forward who can register 20 league goals a season would also be terrific – with Alexandre Lacazette the most exciting potential option.