Klopp: I know we need to buy; here’s the plan

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Jurgen Klopp wants to buy new players before the transfer window closes, but doesn’t think solving our defensive frailties is simply a case of inserting new personnel into the backline.

Liverpool drew 3-3 with Watford on Premier League opening weekend, which mirrored many of our performances last season.

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The attack was scintillating, but the defence was very, very poor – enraging many supporters who are quite rightly questioning why no improvements have been made to the area of the team which so obviously needed attention.

For Klopp though, the situation isn’t as simple as that – although he did admit wanting to strengthen his hand.

“It’s not about a player,” he told the Echo. “It’s not as though one player can sort all the set-piece problems for Liverpool.

“Of course, it’s about positioning. Do the right thing, at the right moment, in the right position.

“It’s not like it happened to us last year and now we say ‘this will not happen any more’.

“There’s no chance it isn’t going to happen again. All over the world in football, you’ll concede from set-pieces.”

“We are still working on all parts. We cannot build them. We have to have talks, we’re looking at all parts of the team.

“The squad at the moment is not too wide for a lot of games because decisive players are not available. But that’s our situation.”

“Yes, we did wrong, and what do I want to do to sort it?” he said.

“People will say I need to buy a new player in the position. I don’t know if that makes real sense.

“We did well in the pre-season in this situation. We conceded goals, but we also did good things. We can’t only focus on one thing, but we know it’s an important thing, of course.

“I don’t feel comfortable because I can’t change it at the moment. But I know what to do.”

Klopp’s right in his analysis that new players won’t necessarily automatically improve us, and that the team as a whole needs to improve at the back.

But the fact that since the first day of last season, we haven’t bought a central defender in three different windows, is unforgivable.

Virgil van Dijk remains unlikely to us, so we really, really hope the boss decides to bring in an alternative, although all his hints suggest he won’t.

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