Now Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp must vindicate decision not to dive into transfer market after recent blip

Pressure's on: The Premier League and Champions League are Liverpool's only silverware hopes
Getty Images
David Lynch11 January 2019

Jurgen Klopp’s decision-making has faced rare scrutiny from Liverpool fans and pundits alike over the course of the last week.

Following defeat at Manchester City that saw a potential 10-point lead over the champions turn into four, the German was faced with the sort of tough choices that define his job.

The first of those resulted in nine changes being made to his starting XI for a trip to Wolves in the FA Cup third round that marked the end of a run of 12 games in just 45 days.

Consequently, the Reds were consigned to a 2-1 defeat that left the Premier League and Champions League as their sole trophy hopes this season.

In Pictures | Wolves vs Liverpool | 07/01/2019

1/22

Beyond the usual criticisms around disrespecting the world’s oldest cup competition, Klopp was also accused of taking a huge risk in limiting his options to end the club’s trophy drought this term.

What’s more, the loss of Dejan Lovren to injury during Monday’s fixture at Molineux gave rise to further agitation among supporters.

The primary source of that disquiet was the revelation that, despite the Croatian joining fellow centre-backs Joel Matip and Joe Gomez on the sidelines, Klopp was still not considering adding to his squad in the January window.

It was news that - completely inevitably - went down poorly on social media.

In Pictures | Manchester City vs Liverpool | 03/01/18

1/35

With the club’s medical staff hopeful that Matip and Lovren will be available to face Crystal Palace on January 19 and Gomez only a week or two behind in his recovery, the logic of the Reds boss’ decision is clear.

But a fear driven by 28 years without a league title and eight years without a trophy means fans typically find this January inaction much harder to reconcile.

And so the only way for Klopp to prove himself right is to do what he has for so much of the season so far: win matches.

Thankfully, the manager’s belief that his squad can do that will not have been shaken by this recent blip.

As he stated somewhat defiantly in the aftermath of a narrow defeat at City: "I have so much faith in my players you can’t imagine.”

Gomez expected back before the end of the month.
Action Images via Reuters

Klopp is not one to quickly dismiss the fact that, even amid their current ‘crisis’, Liverpool sit top of the league having lost just once in 21 games and boasting the best defensive record by some distance.

They also begin a run of five games against teams outside the Premier League’s top six when they travel to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday.

The Reds’ record so far in such fixtures this term is arguably the primary reason they top the table at this stage and reads: Played 14, Won 14, Drawn 0, Lost 0.

Of course, anything less than an extension of that flawless run this weekend is likely to have severe consequences in terms of belief among the club’s fanbase, if not Klopp’s squad.

But then and only then might there be justification for panic over a season of promise taking a turn for the worse.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in