Jurgen Klopp has ruled out a move for a midfielder in the current transfer window.
But the Liverpool boss made clear his admiration for young England star Jude Belliingham, and offered a cheeky admission: “He’s not on the market, so that’s the first problem with that player. Well, the only problem with that player!”
Klopp has long been linked with the capture of a new signing to strengthen his midfield this summer, but with Borussia Dortmund rising star Bellingham unavailable, it is clear the Reds manager is ready to bide his time. And he insisted he doesn't need to move before the window closes at the end of August, explaining he has so many options in his current squad that the is no pressure to sign another big money star.
But the German coach hasn’t completely ruled out a plunge in the summer window: “I don’t think something will happen in midfield, but you never know. “If somebody comes to you and says ‘I want to go’...Nobody came to me yet, but if that happens then we have to talk new. But if the situation stays like it is, then tell me why?”
Even if Bellingham is unavailable, Klopp is happy with the players he has to cover a midfield that was good enough to chase a quadruple next season. And he pointed out he has already added strength to that area, with the signing of one of the best young players in world football in Fabio Carvalho, who at 19 is recognised as one of the most promising midfielders in England.
“I’m not looking to buy, I can say that. I don’t understand. I do not understand. People told me about this discussion (about the midfield), but the last thing that would have crossed my mind is that we have to do this. I know all these things, that we don’t score enough goals from midfield, this and that, but what do we want? This ‘Golden Cow’ that is producing absolutely everything, milk as well!
We can go through it. Where do you want to start? So, Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago, Milner, Keita, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, Oxlade-Chamberlain. Now you tell me what kind of player are we missing? One who is offensive, 1.95m and arrives into the box to head balls in? OK, apart from that!”
Klopp believes Carvalho could become one of the break-through stars of the Premier League after rising to the top with Fulham as a teenager, and he argued that he MUST make space for young players to develop. And that includes Liverpool’s own teenage sensation Harvey Elliott, who he believes will blossom this season, along with England U21 sensation Curtis Jones.
“What do we need…Creativity? If we bring in a player just for that, we immediately make it more difficult for Harvey, Curtis and Fabio. So where is the need for a midfielder? The day when somebody comes to me and tells me why exactly? Of course I rate our young players highly. We should not forget that last season, in the first four games, Harvey Elliott was the best player. He was outstanding.
“Then he had a bad injury, came back, [he was] high, low. Normal for a young player, and normal after a long injury. He looks sharp now, he’s back, and like everybody he needs luck.”
Along with Elliott, Klopp thinks there is a real chance Jones and Carvalho will also make the next step towards the top this season. “Curtis Jones - what a player he is as well. Fabio, you look at him and what he did at Fulham. Why should we bring a boy in and tell him he is midfielder number nine? It makes no sense. You have to leave the doors open for the boys. I really don’t understand the discussion.”
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And Klopp threw another player into the mix, with last season’s breakout player from the youth team, another 19-year-old Tyler Morton. “We always try to improve, and we can improve internally as well. They can put pressure on the more experienced guys, for sure. By the way, Tyler Morton in training, incredible!
“He plays as a No.8 now, we don’t force him to play as a controlling No.6 in a Premier League game [like versus Tottenham Hotspur last December]. He’s training as an 8, and it’s like ‘wow, how good is that?!’ He’s still here. There’s really a lot of excitement for this situation from our side, and like I say, if you want guarantees then you have to look somewhere else. We work a lot with expectations, and our starting point most of the time is very, very positive.”
