Jurgen Klopp explains how Barcelona have set the model for the Reds to follow

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Jurgen Klopp is keen for the discussion to halt over transfers – or, more accurately, the lack of them – ahead of the new season.

The German opted against spending big this summer, instead choosing to go again with most of the squad that won the Champions League a couple of months ago, and he says there are plenty of examples when this approach has paid off in the past.

According to the Daily Mirror, Klopp said: “Do me a favour when I say this. I am not comparing us with Barcelona of five, six, seven years ago. [But] I really think big teams of the past, they stay together for a number of years. They do not need a lot of changes. 

“They stayed together. A new player came in and then struggled and the same players played again. We are a good team together in a very difficult league with a lot of competitors desperate to get the position we are in.”

Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona spent big on the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, only for the transfer to fail. The Catalan side then went back to using the players they had before he arrived, to great success.

The point Klopp makes is not that any player he signed would be bad – his record recently suggests that would not be the case – but that adding more players to the squad could alter the balance, which right now is spot on.

Sometimes trying to fix something that isn’t broken can be a bad idea.

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Klopp is unconcerned about the lack of new arrivals heading into the new campaign, though he and the players are more than aware of the challange that Manchester City will pose.

He added: “Nobody knows how it will look exactly but Sunday [in the penalty shootout defeat to City in the Community Shield] showed we will be fine. The rest is what we make of it.”

The second half performance at Wembley will give great confidence to the players after they dominated against Pep Guardiola’s side.

When the Premier League kicks off at Anfield this evening, if the Reds perform at that level again, the three points will be theirs in the first game of the title race. It would also be a great help in putting the lack of transfer activity to the back of people’s minds.

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