Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said his club cannot behave like ‘clubs owned by oligarchs and countries’ as questions are raised over the Premier League champions’ relative lack of summer transfer activity.
After a first league title in 30 years, Liverpool’s challenge for the new season is going to be harder given teams around them have strengthened. The club don’t have the weight of history on their shoulders but there is a possibility that the 2020-’21 season could be anti-climactic.
A lack of fresh blood for the second consecutive season is a risk for Klopp’s men, who have amassed 196 points over the past two seasons. Left-back Kostas Tsimikas is the only addition so far, as back up to Andy Robertson.
Meanwhile, Chelsea have splashed the cash in bringing in fresh faces. The Blues have been busy in the past few weeks, spending nearly £200 million on Timo Werner (a reported Liverpool target), Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell and bolstered a leaky defence with the signing of former PSG and Brazil captain Thiago Silva on a free transfer.
“For some clubs, it seems to be less important how uncertain the future is,” the Liverpool manager told BBC’s 5 Live. “Owned by countries, owned by oligarchs. That’s the truth. We’re a different kind of club, it’s always been that way.
“We got to the Champions League final two years ago, we won the Champions League last year and became Premier League champions by being the club we are. So we cannot just change it overnight and say so now we want to behave like Chelsea.”
Klopp said signing quality players in one window will not always result in success as it takes time to gel in a team.
“They’ve signed a lot of players. That can be an advantage of course, but you cannot bring in the 11 best players in the world and hope that just a week later they will play the best football.
“It’s about working together on the training ground—that will probably be an advantage for us. We’ve worked a lot with each other. I know people don’t want to hear about that, but we did it last year that way. We always want to improve, but there are different ways,” added Klopp.
It is worth noting that Chelsea had a transfer ban in place last summer and had to manage the previous season by playing a lot of their academy-produced players. But with the ban lifted, Lampard has been allowed to spend freely to improve the squad that finished in the Champions League spots in the former midfielder’s first season in charge.
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