Jurgen Klopp is expecting Liverpool to take in a “tricky” transfer window, but the Reds boss is prepared to play a waiting game and believes his squad will be “really good” for 2020-21.
Movement at Anfield has started now that another market is open for business, with Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana having left to link up with Zenit and Brighton respectively.
There could be further departures prior to the next deadline, but additions are now the top priority on Merseyside.
Liverpool swept to a record-breaking Premier League title triumph in 2019-20, but staying on top promises to be as difficult as getting there.
Klopp has been told that greater depth will be required in his ranks in order to remain competitive, but finding squad players is never easy – with there few gaps to fill in a star-studded starting XI.
The Reds boss is aware of the challenge that he faces, but it holds no fear for him as the newly-crowned LMA Manager of the Year told reporters: “Look, the perfect scenario for a football manager is that you have 40 players available and they are all happy with the situation they are in and then you just pick 20 and say that they don’t need to show up for three weeks and then you pick the other 20.
“But it doesn’t work like that. The world is not like this. I did not want to be part of a squad like this to be honest.
“It will be tricky and we have to deal with the circumstances. The situation, as we have said several times, it is really difficult to judge the future. That is always what we have to do. We have to judge the future.
“Usually, we know about the financial funds that we have as much as you can know. At the moment we are qualified for the Champions League and we were qualified pretty early for the Champions League and usually, that is good.
“But a few weeks ago nobody knew if we could play Champions League next season again. Can you count on the money of the Champions League and how much will it be? That is all uncertain and that is what we consider because we are not only responsible for the success of the club, we are responsible for all the people at the club and that means everyone who is working here. That is what we try to do.
“As long as we don’t know exactly about things, we have to wait.
“We have a really good squad, we have to see what we can do, we have to see what we have to do, we need still more time. Time will hopefully bring a bit more clarity about the future and then we will make our decisions."
Klopp continued: "The solution cannot be to have a much bigger squad for the specific moment and then realise you cannot use all the players. These players can only play the football they play because they know they are needed.
“They are all human beings and nobody can be held back for a year and then on the last day of the year be told, ‘Now we need you’.
“In between now and then there must be a lot of training and support and challenges and stuff like this. We cannot keep someone in the backyard and bring them up in the decisive moment. That will not help, we will have solutions for that.
“We have young players. The size of the squad is not that important to me, the quality of the squad is very much so. I think we will have a really good squad for next season.”