Jurgen Klopp has halted Liverpool’s rebuilding process by declining to sign six new players.
Liverpool’s rebuilding is well underway, but Jurgen Klopp has yet to see several of his new signings play.
Only Liverpool fans who haven’t been paying attention – and given the Reds’ form this season, that’s understandable – would have been surprised by Jurgen Klopp’s comments about the need to rebuild his team.
“It was one of the main reasons I signed a new contract because I knew it was necessary,” Klopp said this week on the BT Sport podcast Michael Calvin’s Football People. “It won’t go away overnight. I understand that the majority of the outside world is only concerned with the short term, but we must also be long-term oriented, which we are.”
Klopp has long hinted at a rebuild, referring to his team’s “transformation” in May, but the Reds squad has always evolved during his tenure. Of course, the current debate is whether that process has been sufficiently accelerated in recent seasons.
But there is no doubt that Liverpool has been working with one eye on the future in their transfer dealings since winning the Champions League in 2019. Only two of the 17 players they paid money to sign – Thiago Alcantara and Ben Davies, the latter of whom did not play for the club – were over the age of 24 when they were signed.
Over the last 18 months, around £230 million has been committed to bringing in new players. However, those additions highlight a conundrum with which Klopp has been wrestling for much of the season.
Can a rebuild truly be called that if it consists primarily of using the same bricks in the same places? To stretch the construction analogy, it would end up looking pretty much the same. Nothing will have changed significantly.
Take a look at this. Liverpool has played 30 games this season, 19 of which have been in the Premier League. And in that time, the six senior players who have been recruited since the end of the 2020/21 season have only made 47 starts.
Darwin Nunez, the potential club record £85 million signing from Benfica last summer, has made the most appearances, but has only made 15 in a debut season marred by suspension, injury, and the obvious need to adjust to his new surroundings.
Luis Diaz comes in second with 11, but hasn’t played since suffering a knee injury at Arsenal in October and isn’t expected to play again until March. Ibrahima Konate has eight starts after missing the first few months of the season with a knee injury, and 20-year-old Fabio Carvalho has also started eight times as he adjusts to the Premier League.
Cody Gakpo has the advantage of having only arrived at the beginning of the month and, like Nunez and Carvalho, is still adjusting to the step up in level. While not expected to be a regular this season, a history of injuries has contributed to Calvin Ramsay making just one start.
Even Arthur Melo, who was brought in on loan during the summer transfer deadline, has only made one brief substitute appearance before succumbing to injury. Furthermore, Diogo Jota, who was signed in September 2020, has only started four games.
In fact, of the top 13 players in terms of minutes played for Liverpool this season, only Nunez, Harvey Elliott, and Thiago were signed in the last four years. Seven of the top 13 are over the age of 30. Is it any surprise that the Reds have frequently appeared leggy in comparison to their opponents? In the treatment room, the older players are being asked to share the workload with the younger squad members.
It’s also worth noting that, of the signings made in the last four years, only Jota has any sort of Premier League experience and didn’t require any adaptation. It’s a stark contrast to earlier in Klopp’s tenure, when Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, and Andy Robertson all arrived with plenty of top-flight experience and quickly became key figures as Liverpool became European, world, and English champions.
“All the problems you have in a transition period, we have an awful lot of injuries, and that complicates life,” Klopp added. “I understand that the majority of the outside world is only concerned with the short term, but we must also be long-term oriented, and that is what we are.”
Liverpool’s long-term reconstruction has been ongoing for some time. However, the perfect storm has left Klopp with few new bricks and mortar. Only time will tell if it is a worthwhile place to live.
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