Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted he is unsure whether the club will sign a new center-back in the coming weeks.
Long-term injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez have left Joel Matip as the team’s only senior center-back, but the 29-year-old has already suffered a few injuries and is currently sidelined with an hamstring -leg. problem.
Injury issues have seen midfielders Fabinho and Jordan Henderson at times convert to defenders, while academy graduates Isc Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips have been trusted. Liverpool are still at the top of the table, but there have been many calls for the Reds to add another senior defender to help them defend their title.
“We have solutions in the team obviously, but we’ve always struggled with injuries,” said Klopp (via The Telegraph). “Most of the time it was with the center half. It can happen like this when it starts and doesn’t stop.
“We have solutions with the team but if we can do something in the window I don’t know. It is a very difficult transfer window as you can imagine. Not all clubs have real money. Doing something doesn’t make sense. Doing the right thing makes sense. So far we’ve really enjoyed what we’ve done.
“I liked Nat against Newcastle. He’s a smart boy who knows his abilities and uses them, does his job and has helped us a lot. We have three center halves and if Rhys had played Nat wouldn’t have played for five or six weeks and has to get that out of his system.
Klopp also made his point to Sky Sports, insisting that Liverpool did not have the money to sign a new defender in January.
“I really can’t say anything about [the financial impact of the COVID-19 outbreak]but you can imagine, six months ago we talked about how difficult all football clubs are and thank God we were able to keep going, and that helped all clubs too, ”Klopp added.
“But it’s still not the time when you [throw money around], at least not for us. I don’t know exactly how it is at other clubs, but we have to be very careful and very serious, and so I don’t know what we can and what we cannot do. “
Liverpool have been linked with a whole host of potential signings, with Schalke’s Ozan Kabak and Lille’s Sven Botman regularly named as targets for the Reds.
For more thanTom gott, follow it onTwitter!
