Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp must act quickly or regret later

Jurgen Klopp must act quick or risk regretting later

Some months ago, I visited the longest natural sand beach in the world at Cox’s Bazar. It’s a beautiful place, stretching 120 kilometres along the horizon. One of the best moments to spend there is during the sunset as thousands of people, even on a working day, swim in the sea while bathing in the glorifying rays of the setting sun.

On the first day, I had to be at a conference but was confident that I would make it to the beach to witness the sun submerging in the horizon’s bosoms. However, out of sheer awe of the event, I decided to stay at the conference a little longer to soak the aura of the place – after all, it was my first ever conference.

As you may have guessed it already, I missed the sunset. I was mesmerised by the presentations at the conference, so much that by the time I came to my senses, there were only a couple of minutes before the sun would wave goodbye to this part of the world.

So I ran like a person with a complete suit on his body and a case in his hand. And, as expected from such a man, I couldn’t go anywhere near to the beach as the sun went down without waiting for me. Obviously, I was a bit upset that I couldn’t lose myself in the divine rays of the setting sun – and now I would have to wait another 24 hours before I could do so.

As the transfer merry-go-round has started spinning at full speed, some Premier League clubs are seemingly enjoying themselves by taking part in it. Manchester United have signed Romelu Lukaku and Victor Lindelof while Manchester City have quickly moved to sign Bernardo Silva and Ederson.

Chelsea and Arsenal have also opened their account with the purchases of Antonio Rudiger and Alexandre Lacazette, respectively. Liverpool, however, have only signed Mohamed Salah – and Dominic Solanke recently – thus far. As talented as they might be, they don’t really solve the deepest problems in the team.

The shortcomings

Klopp will have to take a deep look at the centre of defence

Klopp did an admirable job with Liverpool last season, finishing 4^th with a rather light squad. The way the Reds started their season last term, they were taking the league by storm and looked like genuine contenders. By the turn of the year, however, their heavy metal way became more like country music.

Their shortcomings became very apparent. For one, their defence looked really depleted at times. Indeed, Liverpool conceded the most goals among the top four clubs and were only beaten by Arsenal when the top six are taken into consideration.

The lack of a creator in midfield also became strenuous at times for Klopp’s men. Indeed, if it weren’t for the guile of Adam Lallana, things would have been a lot difficult for the front three of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho.

While both Jordan Henderson and Wijnaldum are tenacious players, they lack the creative vision necessary to make plays from the middle and set the tempo of the game with quick and crisp passing.

And left-back. Well, James Milner had to play there. What else needs to be said?

In attack, the Merseyside outfit were short of bench-strength and looked toothless in the second half of the season, failing to convert most of their chances. With the signing of Salah, this problem has been solved as the Egyptian provides options to the German manager.

But the deeper problems still live.

Has the solution has been identified?

Naby Keita could provide creativity from deep

The first step to solving a problem is to admit that there is a problem and then identify it. Klopp has identified Liverpool’s lacking and has targeted the right players to fill the cracks. To solve the midfield conundrum, Naby Keita has been looked upon. Whereas, in defence, Virgil van Dijk and Benjamin Mendy were targeted.

Mendy is almost certain to join Manchester City, which leaves Liverpool with no quality left-backs to target as of now. Van Dijk’s £60 million asking price has stalled the proceedings, so has RP Leipzig’s demand of £70 million for Naby Keita.

It’s being reported that Liverpool aren’t willing to meet the prices placed on the aforementioned players’ heads, but neither are their clubs interested in lowering the asking value.

The waiting game

And so the waiting game is the flavour of the hour at Anfield. This is a huge gamble given the nature of the current window, where the wisest thing to do would be to move quickly and sign the targets or risk losing them and regret later.

Look at Bayern Munich. It is not even 15 days into the transfer window and they have already made two big signings to strengthen their weaknesses. Real Madrid, also, have signed a back-up for Marcelo while Dani Ceballos has almost joined the capital club.

The same is the case with the Manchester clubs while things are picking pace at the Stamford Bridge and Emirates. Indeed, Spurs are the only club yet to open the chequebook among the teams that finished top six in the Premier League last season.

The desperation that comes from playing the waiting game is what makes clubs prone to mistakes. As the deadline day comes closer and closer, the time to complete deals get shorter and that’s when clubs tend to overpay for players.

What could also happen is that their initial target – the plan A – could be snapped up by some other club and then they will have to look for an alternative. The club of the alternative player will know of their desperation and try to exploit, which could end up in Liverpool paying over the odds for their plan B.

Given that Liverpool are in dire need to improve their defence and deep midfield, they are in a position where they have to sign at least two players as a means to strengthen the backbone. In such a scenario, it would be foolish of Liverpool to wait and waste precious time.  

In a market where the other clubs are buying quickly and spending more money than ever before, it would be naive of Liverpool to think that the waiting game will decrease the prize of their targets.

It simply won’t. Rather, this is the moment and Jurgen Klopp should seize it – or end up regretting like I did on my first day at Cox’s Bazar.