Jurgen Klopp thinks it is impossible that Liverpool could sell Naby Keita in this transfer window without replacing him.
The midfielder has entered the last year of his contract and Liverpool risk losing a £52 million buy on a free transfer next summer.
But Klopp, who has reiterated that he feels Liverpool will make no more signings this year, also thinks it would be hard to bring in someone of a similar quality in the next two weeks.
He said: “Selling Naby now? And not replacing him? Yeah, sure, it would be very difficult to replace him - no, that is not possible; of course not. But it is not the plan.
“We are done [in the transfer market]; it’s not that we think a player can go and we don’t replace him. There’s no chance. No. Naby will not go but if he would - but he will not do - then there must be a replacement of course, it’s clear.”
Liverpool have been hit by injuries in midfield with Thiago Alcantara, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Curtis Jones all missing Monday’s game against Manchester United.
Klopp has long insisted he is content with his options in the centre of the pitch and reiterated that he will not settle for second best in the transfer market and that his budget is limited.
“Yes, [we have what we need], when they are all fit, 100 percent, but even then we always look to strengthen, and we always did, but we have to. It must be the right player and if the right player is not available then we tend to say: ‘OK, we deal with what we have before we sign a player who is not 100 percent the right player.’
“So this situation never changed. Now we have more injuries than we would have imagined, and now would be cool to have a new midfielder in of course now. But we don’t know when the boys come back. So you can just not do that.
“And then there would be another fact: we are not in charge of, though [the time] I am here, what we spend, we are not. But that’s the situation, we get things told and then we deal with it. It was always the same.”
