Jurgen Klopp has confirmed he is preparing a summer squad re-build because he no longer trusts which Liverpool team is going to turn up for games.
A season riddled with inconsistency reaches a defining week for the Merseyside club’s top-four hopes withSaturday’s clash against old rivals Manchester City followed by a trip to Chelsea on Tuesday, and then a home game against leaders Arsenal next weekend.
While the Merseyside club go into the crucial nine-day spell buoyed by the fact they are the current leaders of the “top six mini-table”, they have been undermined by unexpected defeats to relegation strugglers Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.
Refreshing Liverpool’s midfield department is Klopp’s priority and it is no secret Jude Bellingham is his No 1 target. Mason Mount, Declan Rice and Morocco’s World Cup star Sofyan Ambrabat have all been linked too.
Klopp would not be drawn on who he wants or how much he will be given by Liverpool’s American owners Fenway Sports Group. But he knows salvaging Champions League qualification from a season of under-achievement is crucial to his transfer plans.
Asked whether he will be able spend £100m on a player, he said: “I will not answer the question because we never speak about these kind of things. We will spend in the summer, that’s what I can say definitely. For who and how many and stuff like this, there is nothing to say about, really.”
Klopp is bewildered by how players that produced a “world-class” performance in trouncing Manchester United 7-0 can then lose their next game to Bournemouth 1-0.
He once described his team as “mentality monsters” but is now no longer certain what sort of performance they will produce.
“I would love to say ‘how can you ask this question?’ but that is the situation we brought ourselves in – that we showed all these kinds of faces,” said Klopp.
“I have spoken to the players since they came back from international duty this week and everything looks like it goes in the right direction and now we have to show it.
“But, yes, in this moment nobody can be 100 per cent sure what we will be like. Usually we are there and that’s what we will be tomorrow.”
Liverpool and City went head-to-head for the title in three of the last four seasons but Klopp’s team go into Saturday’s game 19 points adrift of Pep Guardiola’s side – a huge gap he describes as “an anomaly.”
But he pointed to his side’s inability to deal with setbacks as a key reason.
“The reaction after going 1-0 down in games has been bad and that’s something we have to change,” he added. “If you can only perform when everything is going in your direction, then there’s absolutely no chance.”
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