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Jürgen Klopp Adamant That No Plan B Was Needed After Failing to Sign Virgil van Dijk

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The saga surrounding Virgil van Dijk's proposed transfer to Liverpool dampened what would have been an outstanding window for the Reds. 

Despite signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (£34.2m), Mohamed Salah (£37.8m), Dominic Solanke (free transfer) and Andrew Robertson (£8.1m), as well as confirming that RB Leipzig star Naby Keita would be a Liverpool player next season, there is still talk about Jürgen Klopp's inability to sign a centre-back.

The likes of Benedikt Höwedes and Kalidou Koulibaly had been talked about within circles of the Liverpool fanbase, however, Klopp is adamant that his current crop of players are as good as any other defenders on the market.

"No. We watched all of them 500 million times, and to cool the people down what if the new player doesn’t hit the first ball and he makes exactly the same mistake?" Klopp said, responding to a question about of alternatives to van Dijk had been overlooked, according to the Mirror.

"A mistake they all made in their life - but it is like, ‘he is a £65m signing, he will improve’. Why do you think the other one cannot improve? I don’t understand that.

"For me, it’s really difficult always to come to your planet, visit you and say ‘yeah you’re right, there were five good options out there and we missed them because, I don’t know, we wanted to spend the money anywhere else’.

"It is not that we ignore it - I said if there would have been a solution out there we would have done it. I had to make a decision and the decision was our boys are not worse than them," he added. 

"It is concentration. It is not a quality thing. But if there’s no-one, no solution out there, and no real quality issue then you have to work on it and that is what we will do."