Jurgen Klopp would double down on his insistence that Liverpool won’t strengthen their squad further in January in his latest pre-match press conference.
The German had already ruled out the possibility of the Reds adding to the signing of Cody Gakpo this month, and reacted in spiky fashion when he was asked why that was the case before last week’s trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Again asked about Liverpool’s transfer stance when previewing the Reds’ FA Cup replay with Wolves, Klopp would elaborate on why additional incomings are unlikely this month.
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"It's all about what you can do,” he said. “As well (as) what you want to do, but it's much more important what you can do…
"If the solutions for us would be out there, available and doable, of course we would bring in players to help… If you bring in players, we cannot bring them all on the Premier League list or all on the Champions League list. It's impossible, our squad is not too small.
“Yes, we have to strengthen. Oh yes, but is the right time to do it? I can't see it because of the situation we are in."
‘Available’ and ‘doable’ are the key words there, it would seem. Ultimately, while Liverpool will have a shortlist of players they would like to sign in an ideal world, their desired high-quality targets are either not currently available or are currently priced out of the Reds’ reach.
Liverpool have already signed Gakpo in January, bringing him in for an initial £37m from PSV Eindhoven. With such a move initially pencilled in for next summer, the Reds decided to move early after losing both Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota to long-term injuries, aware they risked missing out on the Dutchman to rival interest if they waited and that his price-tag would surely rise come the end of the season.
Available and doable, Liverpool swooped. But following the forward’s arrival at Anfield, Klopp admitted the deal could impact any future Reds business in January and that he doesn’t expect to “splash the cash” and “play like Monopoly” in this month’s transfer window as a result.
Having to consider future business and the knock-on effects to their long-term pursuit of long-standing targets, Liverpool seemingly aren’t in a position to operate on a deal-on-deal basis. Forced to look at the bigger picture, if Gakpo had cost substantially more than an initial £37m, we can assume he would not currently be a Reds player.
By the same logic, if one of the club’s alternative targets was on the market for such a meagre fee, they would have made their move. Instead, Liverpool seem resigned to waiting until the summer to revamp their ageing squad.
The fact that their Premier League and Champions League squads are already set to be full won’t help matters, with Klopp suggesting this has also played a part in the Reds’ transfer stance.
Yet there would be a very easy loophole for Liverpool to sidestep such issues to strengthen their domestic squad at least - simply sign a target under the age of 21.
While the Reds are currently limited to naming a 24-man Premier League squad as they don’t boast enough senior home-grown players to register a full 25-man rota, they haven’t been left short as clubs are still free to select Under-21 players without needing to name them in their squad.
For the 2022/23 campaign, Under-21 players are born on or after January 1, 2001, with Stefan Bajcetic, Luke Chambers, Bobby Clark, Ben Doak, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones, Calvin Ramsay, and Sepp van den Berg are all qualifying players who have been named in Klopp’s matchday squad at some point or another this season as a result.
Liverpool have inevitably been linked with a plethora of midfielders in recent weeks and months ahead of their planned overhaul in 2023, amid their ongoing woes in the engine room. And a number of them still class as Under-21s players so wouldn’t need to be registered to play in the Premier League.
Despite celebrating his 22nd birthday this week, Benfica’s Enzo Fernandez still qualifies as an Under-21s player. Meanwhile, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Moises Caicedo, Nice’s Khephren Thuram, and Borussia Monchengladbach’s Kouadio Kone are also still all 21 and wouldn’t need to be registered this season.
Beyond that, Valencia’s Yunus Musah is still only 20 so would qualify as an Under-21s player next season. As for Jude Bellingham, the the 19-year-old would not need to be registered for the next two seasons. Considering he could also count as home-grown, it reiterates how crucial a signing the Borussia Dortmund man could be at Anfield.
Admittedly, European rules are slightly trickier, and not just because clubs are limited to making a maximum of three changes to their squads in January. UEFA rules state that Under-21s players have to have been on a club’s books for ‘any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with UEFA, or for a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year,’ to be registered on ‘List B’ and be eligible to play without being named in a club’s 25-man squad.
Therefore, any January signing would need to be registered in Liverpool’s squad to play in the Champions League this season. Considering the Reds have signed Gakpo and left both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita out of their squad for the first half of the season because of injury, they are already set to leave out senior players regardless without the addition of further new recruits.
While not ideal, that shouldn’t put Liverpool off from recruiting now if possible. Ultimately, they’re facing European champions Real Madrid in the Champions League round-of-16. Even if they rediscover their form before locking horns with the La Liga giants, it’s still a limited number of European games any would-be signing, or current member of the Reds’ ranks, could miss.
In contrast, there is still half of the Premier League season left to play and Liverpool’s squad certainly needs strengthening if they are to stand a chance of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
There are midfielders that the Reds could bring in to aid their cause as a result, without being left with a Premier League registration headache. But whether those players are available and doable for Liverpool in January, now that’s another question.
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