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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Richard Garnett

Liverpool's transfer business will likely see Jurgen Klopp have to make two sacrifices

There was a more than one moment last season when Liverpool's super-human attempt to win all four major trophies looked like it could actually happen.

Fine margin triumphs over Chelsea in both cup competitions set the foundations for an all-out assault on silverware that, if successful, would have swept all that had gone before it.

One of those moments even included the frankly unbearable stress of hearing that Aston Villa had gone two goals up against Manchester City on the last day of the season, but although you won't thank me for reminding you of that particular heartache, the final 90 minutes of a league campaign and a morale-sapping Paris loss to Real Madrid show just how close the Reds came to completing the mother of all seasons.

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Jurgen Klopp's Anfield reign has been one of huge success in a time of peak financial competition, but up until last season, his domestic cup record was not a good one. One League Cup final appearance against Manchester City left the German open to criticism in some quarters that the EFL Cup and the FA Cup - a trophy that older Reds still hold in high regard because of its historic prestige - were competitions that the club were not necessarily taking seriously.

The same of course, could not be said of the campaign just gone, with both cups now proudly sitting in the Anfield trophy room. Liverpool Football Club exists to win silverware, as they say, so here's two more.

You'd have to struggle to find a right-minded supporter who would prioritise either of those cups over the Premier League or the glamorous Champions League, but competing for all four certainly satisfied the appetite of a silverware-hungry fan base.

More of the same this season? It's doubtful.

For all its fairy tale narrative and admirable drive for ultimate perfection, any notion that the Reds could repeat the feat this season is surely the talk of a supreme optimist. Across all competitions, Liverpool played 63 competitive matches last season and the fall-out from that is already in plain sight.

Just three matches into the new Premier League campaign and the Reds can name a full XI of injured players plus one who is suspended, all of which can realistically stake a claim for a first team place if available. Few would have been particularly chuffed at the prospect of this year's Qatar World Cup being moved to the winter, slap bang in the middle of the Premier League season, but the reality is that had the players not been afforded a summer's break like they have done, the situation could have been even worse.

Right now, the confidence that Liverpool will beat any team put in front of them is not present because the performances in their first three Premier League matches suggests the opposite. Even with so many players missing, the starting XIs have still been - on paper - strong enough for any betting man to plump for a Liverpool win, but even some of Klopp's most consistent performers are showing a drop-off in their levels, just at the wrong moment.

Liverpool's start to the new season may look like a shocker, but it is very much recoverable. Players will return and fans will continue to hope that there will be at least one new face before the transfer window pulls down the shutter until January.

Should supporters' expectations be revised as a result of this slow start? In terms of the Premier League, not necessarily. The Champions League draw was only made yesterday and as time-served followers of that competition are all too aware, the strongest team doesn't always win it.

But when it comes to the domestic cup front, Klopp can be forgiven for protecting his star men this time round and keeping them fresh for the priority business of chasing Manchester City and whoever else sets an early pace.

Derby County will quite-rightly be delighted to secure a trip to Anfield in the Carabao Cup third round, but don't be surprised if they witness an opposition largely comprising of U23 players rather than Ballon d'Or nominees when they do.

Liverpool may one day get another pop a quadruple challenge, but right now that should be the furthest thought from anyone's mind.

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