Fabrizio Romano has weird take on Liverpool transfer problem – based on Minamino and Tsimikas early struggles

It’s actually easy to forget we signed Kostas Tsimikas for over £10m in the summer.

The Greek has barely had a sniff so far due to injuries and his arrival, to take some slack off Andy Robertson, hasn’t yet worked out.

Of course, we have hopes long-term for the left-back and look forward to him getting fit again.

Taki Minamino has similarly struggled for minutes, despite being here an extra six months. In fairness, the Japanese has been used in multiple positions and has the best frontline in world footballer starting ahead of him – so too much blame shouldn’t be directed at him – either.

But transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano thinks the fact such players have arrived at Anfield and not got many opportunities has created an atmosphere in the market that has made potential new signings concerned to join the Reds.

“A lot of players now don’t want to join Liverpool [and just] play 5, 6, 7 matches, [before] the big ones are coming back from their injuries and then [the new signings] are on the bench for one season or more,” Romano told his Here We Go podcast.

“So, at the moment, Liverpool are still with the same idea: ‘We can stay with this team. If we have an opportunity, OK. If we don’t, we stay with this one’.”

We find this claim a little odd, as Liverpool is still clearly a go-to destination for any top player on the planet.

Only this summer just gone, Thiago, one of the world’s best midfielders, turned down an extension at Bayern Munich, Champions League winners, to sign for Jurgen Klopp.

Diogo Jota similarly moved to Anfield knowing he’d have to compete with Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino…

Liverpool’s quietness in the window this January has more to do with Michael Edwards and Jurgen Klopp’s incredibly sensible approach, and less to do with players turning down our advances.