Jurgen Klopp says he was happy to splash more cash than any other Premier League club. And he is more than happy to defend the financial splurge given that it will be in the pursuit of silverware.
The Kop giants have dug deep during the summer and Klopp has forked out around £177million bringing marquee signings such as Samba keeper Alisson, Guinean midfielder Naby Keita, Brazilian defender Fabinho and Swiss attacker Xherdan Shaqiri to Merseyside.
Klopp, who saw his side agonisingly miss out to Real Madrid in the Champions League final at the end of last season, says no-one should be surprised at the level of money spent on new recruits.
Speaking at the press conference ahead of the top-flight encounter against West Ham United at Anfield on Sunday, Klopp said:
“My own expectations are always pretty high, we’ll have to make the most of the pressure after spending a lot. It’s always my expectation to reach the highest level but it doesn’t work all the time.
“I think for us it was pretty normal there would be one point where we spend more money. The last few years I’ve had to sit here and defend our transfer behaviour, we sold more than we brought in. It all makes sense, we had to create a squad which is strong enough and wide enough to cope with the Premier League.
“People ask me is it the best squad I’ve ever had? I don’t think about that. It’s about what we make of it, how often we deliver, how often we bring ourselves in a mood to fight against all these Premier League teams who want to have our points.”
And while the transfer window has firmly shut meaning no new players will arrive at Liverpool now, Klopp hasn’t ruled out selling some of his unwanted stars. He explained:
“The window is only one way closed so we cannot buy any more but we can sell, not in Premier League, but it is clear things will happen.”
The challenging task ahead for Klopp and his troops is to reach the summit and it is widely accepted that if they are to do that they must pip Manchester City. And Klopp remains confident that his charges can achieve this given their track record against Pepe Guardiola’s men.
He added:
“You all ask me about the gap to City and what we have to do, it has nothing to do with City. City took three points from us, we took three points from them but we lost them in other games. Win all of them and it is good but it is pretty difficult to do because not only the other Big Six, you see how Wolverhampton acts, how Fulham acts and how Everton acts — they are all ambitious.
“I don’t think too much about what we have to do — I thought about it pre-season but now we have to be in this championship mood. It is like you jump in the water and dive and then let’s go for it until you don’t have enough air any more or oxygen and you have to go up again. That is the plan, that we really go for it.”
