Liverpool will regain title by remaining a 'results machine' says Jürgen Klopp
Consistency more important than new signings, insists manager
Liverpool still have not followed up interest in Thiago Alcântara
Jürgen Klopp has said the success of Liverpool’s title defence will be determined more by their ability to remain a “results machine” than the number of signings the club make before 5 October.
The Premier League champions, who face Arsenal in the Community Shield at Wembley on Saturday, have signed the left-back Kostas Tsimikas for £11.8m but have yet to follow up interest in Thiago Alcântara with a bid for the Bayern Munich midfielder.
Klopp said the financial situation at Liverpool is “clear enough” but a move for Thiago may rest on another midfielder leaving first. Georginio Wijnaldum has entered the final season of his contract and, despite reported interest from Barcelona, the Liverpool manager insists negotiations over an extension are “all good at the moment”.
Amid uncertainty over Covid-19’s long-term effect on football, Klopp believes it is essential Liverpool follow their own careful and successful transfer model despite big spending at Chelsea and Manchester City.
The Liverpool manager said: “We never had, and will never have, the type of relationship where I go to Mike Gordon [FSG president] and say: ‘That’s the money I need and without that we cannot survive.’ It’s about the club. I am clear enough about our situation. There are other clubs that have different policies and you have to expect that but that was the same last year and the year before.
“We all have our individual approaches to situations and our way didn’t harm us. I cannot change that and I don’t want to. I knew this was the way it goes when I arrived and nothing changed. Only the times changed, especially now, and as a sensible person I know this is not the best time in our lives and why should we plan for the long term?
“We are in a good place. We have a good team. We cannot just bring in five players because people want to be busy with that. Every year was pretty much the same – I don’t think I ever bought enough players in a transfer window to satisfy everybody. It was always: ‘Aaargh, we need another one.’ But so far it worked out.
“It doesn’t mean it will always work out for ever. We made mistakes and we will probably make mistakes again but it’s really all about what kind of mood we can create again for this season.
“That means creating a unit which is absolutely difficult to beat and being a proper team that is ready to suffer for each other. That is the most important thing, not who you can buy in a very strange moment of all our lives.”
Klopp categorically denied Liverpool could sign Lionel Messi and doubts the disillusioned forward will leave Barcelona for the Premier League. “Who doesn’t want Messi in their team?” he said. “But no chance. The numbers are absolutely not for us. I would like to see it [Messi in the Premier League] but I’m not sure I will.”
Klopp believes having a settled squad will be more advantageous than a lot of signings and that the champions’ mentality will also make a decisive contribution.
“It is probably harder to win the title every year,” he said. “Was it easy last year? For sure not. It looked that way in some moments only because we were a results machine.
“If you make a lot of changes to a squad that is good – but more good in the long term than the short term because you need to get used to each other.
“It is not a big advantage, it is a little advantage, but we are used to each other. We know what we are doing in specific moments and we know we have to mix it up with a sensational attitude and a sensational desire within the game.”
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/aug/28/jurgen-klopp-liverpool-new-signings-community-shield-no-chance-lionel-messi
