Jurgen Klopp‘s belief that Liverpool have no need to enter the transfer market to replace Georginio Wijnaldum will come under serious scrutiny against Chelsea at Anfield on Saturday.
Whereas neither Norwich or Burnley on the first two weekends had the quality to test Klopp’s insistence that he has enough midfield resources to fill the gap left by Wijnaldum’s free transfer move to Paris St Germain, Thomas Tuchel’s Champions League winners certainly will.
Klopp is pinning his hopes that experienced regulars Jordan Henderson and Fabinho will be ably aided abetted this season by Naby Keita and Thiago Alcantara, neither of whom have shown their best form consistently since their moves to Anfield from German football.
Then there is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who is eager to make up for so much time lost through injuries, plus the expected continued development of young talents Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott, who impressed when given his first start against Burnley and has been rewarded with an England under 21 call-up, along with Jones. And, of course, there is still the evergreen James Milner.
Klopp argues that they will all get more opportunities now Wijnaldum has gone and is confident that between them they can cover all the midfield bases.
“People think because we lost a midfielder and we haven’t replaced him we must be light there,” he said. “But if you count our midfielders it is an area of the pitch where we really have all the skill sets, all the dynamics: creativity, defensive-orientated players, attacking-orientated players. There is no gap.
“Last weekend it is not that Harvey was the saviour of our midfield problem because obviously we don’t have one. But if Gini was still here then Harvey might not have played against Burnley. I knew before that there was a good chance he would play well and he did.
“There are others. Curtis is 20 years old played 15-20 games last season and he can make, he will make, he has to make the next step.
“Naby has not played a full season in the two years he has been here and that is not exactly how he, or we, expected it to go but he still has had some good games, big games, when we have won when he has started. Would he have started both games so far this season if Gini had still been here? I don’t know but maybe not.
“We have Thiago who hasn’t started yet this season, Hendo who has played only one, Ox who has a dynamic you can’t buy at the moment if you want to buy a midfielder and, of course, Fabinho.
“So if you think about it there is no need to buy a midfielder just because he is on the market. If there was a player available who would really improve us, I would go for him, I promise.”
Klopp praised the job done by his fellow German Thomas Tuchel and acknowledges that Chelsea are even more of a threat following the arrival of Romelu Lukaku who faces an intriguing head-to-head with Virgil Van Dijk.
“What Thomas had done at Chelsea is exceptional,” he added. “I was never in doubt he would have a massive impact but not even Thomas would have expected it to happen that quickly. He won the UEFA coach of the year and really deserved it.
“Last season people very often spoke about Chelsea playing really well but not finishing off enough situations off and that was obviously the idea behind signing Romelu. It’s smart business. Each ball into the box is now immediately a problem for you.
“If you don’t want to have problems in an area then you should avoid passes there. That’s what we will try. But if the ball is there, we have to defend it anyway.”
Andy Robertson is set to return at left back after missing the first two games with an ankle problem while Fabinho and Thiago are also set to start.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3kyMItt
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