Jurgen Klopp must deliver at Liverpool this season after barren trophy spell

IT is almost two years since Jurgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool and pledged to end their long wait to become League champions. After a so-far frustrating summer transfer window, it is debatable whether the popular German is any closer to that aim.

Jurgen Klopp on lack of transfers: 'I'm NOT worried'

“If we sit here in four years, I think we [will] win one title,” he said at his first press conference as the club’s manager in October 2015. 

Then, with typical Klopp humour, he added: “If not, the next one may be in Switzerland.”

Even if he fails to win a trophy at Anfield, Klopp’s standing as a coach should ensure he avoids exile to the Swiss League. Even so, the season ahead feels as if it will be a defining one for the Liverpool manager, especially given a slow start to his summer transfer business.

Despite admitting this month that he has always had the aim, wherever he has been managing, of making all his summer signings in time for the first day of pre-season, Klopp has thus far managed to bring in just Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson to his immediate first team squad – with the Premier League season barely two weeks away.

Reaching two cup finals in his first season was a very solid achievement considering the lopsided squad he inherited from Brendan Rodgers. Champions League qualification in May should have given the club the standing to attract Europe’s best.

Yet Klopp has not managed to end the drought that has brought Liverpool just one trophy in the last 11 years, and he has yet to go as close to winning the Premier League as Rodgers did.

Jurgen KloppGETTY

Jurgen Klopp faces a testing season to deliver silverware at Anfield

Jurgen Klopp said when he joined Liverpool that he expects to win one title in his first four yearsGETTY

Jurgen Klopp said when he joined Liverpool that he expects to win one title in his first four years

Liverpool have taken a while to recover from that near miss under Rodgers in 2014, with the hangover that followed compounded by significant mis-steps in the transfer market. 

The loss of Luis Suarez to Barcelona that summer was pretty much unavoidable; the failure to sign Alexis Sanchez was regrettable and owed much to his desire to live in London; the decision to spend £16m on Mario Balotelli was downright baffling.

Some of Rodgers’ signings of that period have since come good: Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Dejan Lovren and Divock Origi have all proved valuable to the cause in one way or another. 

However, Lazar Markovic and Alberto Moreno turned out to be duds while the £32m outlay on Christian Benteke 12 months later proved astonishingly poor value.

Under Klopp, the club’s transfer committee has been far more cautious in the market than it was when Rodgers was in charge.

At times, the German has had to defend that cautious approach, most notably last January, when Liverpool failed to make any signings as they were knocked out of two cup competitions and fell away in the league.

“It is not that we don’t want to bring players in,” said Klopp then. “We do. But the thing is, the players we want because we think they help us, the clubs don’t sell.” 

Interest in Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud and Borussia Dortmund winger Christian Pulisic came to nothing but Liverpool nonetheless still secured England’s fourth and final Champions League place.

It was only the second time in eight seasons that Liverpool had finished in the top four, which is perhaps a sign of what Klopp is up against. Never mind the glory days of Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish, Liverpool are struggling to keep pace with the achievements of Rafa Benitez. 

Klopp took the club to fourth last season with a central midfielder, James Milner, playing at left-back, and with a team who were over-reliant on the goals of Sadio Mane and the creativity of Philippe Coutinho.

The club-record signing of Salah from Roma is an attempt to ease the burden on Mane, while the arrival of Robertson from Hull should at least ensure a specialist plays regularly in the left-back position this season. 

Virgil van Dijk may yet still arrive from Southampton, although Liverpool’s clumsy aborted attempt to sign him at the start of the summer did them no favours there and delayed the potential purchase.

What Klopp really wants, though, is an energetic midfielder who can epitomise the “gegenpressing” style that transformed Borussia Dortmund from mid-table also-rans into double Bundesliga champions. 

Jurgen Klopp took Liverpool to the League Cup and Europa League final in his first season GETTY

Jurgen Klopp took Liverpool to the League Cup and Europa League final in his first season

That is why he has been prepared to break Liverpool’s transfer record to attempt to prise Naby Keita away from RB Leipzig. Keita recovered the ball more times than any other Bundesliga player last season, and only Ousmane Dembele, of Dortmund, completed more dribbles. 

A tally of eight goals and seven assists helped Leipzig finish runners-up to Borussia Dortmund; the feeling at Anfield is that he could do for Liverpool what N’Golo Kante has done for Leicester and Chelsea.

But for now, and possibly for the next year, Keita remains a Leipzig player. 

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s neighbours Everton have spent heavily with the aim of a serious top-four push of their own. Salah’s arrival was a major statement of intent on Liverpool’s part, but it is unlikely to be enough without further reinforcements. 

Asked earlier this month about the struggles to sign Keita, Klopp said: “I am not easy to frustrate.”

A calm approach is useful when handling the pressures of the Premier League but it will only get Liverpool’s manager so far if there is no major success over the next 10 months.

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