Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has suggested Cody Gakpo might be their only major signing of the January window, saying the club “cannot play like Monopoly” in the transfer market and that he has “faith and trust” in the players at his disposal.
With forwards Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota both sidelined due to injury, Liverpool brought in Gakpo, who scored three goals for Netherlands at the World Cup, from PSV Eindhoven for a reported initial fee of £37 million.
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“I don’t want to disappoint anybody but we signed an outstanding player like Cody Gakpo and the next thing you can read is, ‘Who next?'” Klopp said.
“We cannot play like Monopoly. We never did … It is a big part of my philosophy, working full of faith and trust with the players we have and not constantly questioning them by telling them that we need another player in their position.”
After a poor start to the season Liverpool are 15 points behind leaders Arsenal but have won their last four league games to move up to sixth ahead of Monday’s trip to Brentford.
Meanwhile, Virgil van Dijk said he is using the pain of Netherlands’ World Cup penalty shootout defeat to eventual champions Argentina as fuel to get Liverpool’s season back on track.
Van Dijk was one of two Dutch players to miss in the shootout after an ill-tempered quarterfinal ended 2-2. He said his focus now is on guiding sixth-placed Liverpool back into the Premier League top four, though a title challenge looks unlikely as they sit 15 points behind leaders Arsenal.
“It has … motivated me here [at Liverpool]. We are quite some points behind Arsenal but the season could be a very crazy one, a very strange one,” he said. “We have to be realistic and we’re not thinking about the title at the moment. We have to focus on the game ahead of us, win games, and then we’ll see.”