Jurgen Klopp has let slip what transfer business he wants from Liverpool in January

With little over a month until the January transfer window opens, there has inevitably been increased speculation in recent weeks as club football took a back seat so the 2022 World Cup could take centre stage.

Liverpool have found themselves increasingly linked with the likes of Jude Bellingham, Enzo Fernandez, Mohammed Kudus, Cody Gakpo and Nico Williams off the back of encouraging displays for their countries in Qatar.

Yet it remains to be seen what the Reds plan to do come January, with the uncertainty behind the scenes regarding FSG looking to sell the club, and confirmation that sporting director Julian Ward and director of research Ian Graham will both leave at the end of the season, not aiding matters. The club’s American owners might have insisted it’s business as usual but, at the very least, Liverpool's short-term future is up in the air.

Earlier this month Jurgen Klopp confirmed that talks regarding the Reds’ January transfer business had been held behind the scenes. However, he also admitted that nothing had been decided, adding a fresh cloud of uncertainty considering Liverpool have traditionally been a club that pride themselves on planning their business months in advance.

"It is not about money, you have to plan," Klopp told reporters before his side’s meeting with Southampton. "It is definitely going on, it’s clear. I am very positive about the whole thing because either way it will be fine.

"I have a really close relationship with the owners and I always knew what we can do and what we can’t do. When we were discussing, it’s not that I ask something, they say no and I stop asking.

"It is just before we speak to you there are plenty of discussions. Now we have to see what we do. Nothing is decided, what we will do in the winter. We really have to see, we have time before then and we follow the market all the time, every day.

“There is no player in the world who scores a goal and we don’t know it. That’s how it is. If somebody makes a save, we know it. That’s the situation, that’s what will go on. It’s clear…

“I have no idea what will happen, but I am positive about it. In the end if it is not positive, I can start worrying but I just think everything will be fine.”

Meanwhile, after beating the Saints, Klopp would confirm the door is open for potential business in January, but stopped short of nailing his colours to the mast and declaring the Reds would be strengthening their squad.

“We are always open to these kinds of things but we don’t have to open this discussion now,” he said. “If there is something possible, we will do it. If a door opens, we are open as well.

“It is not about wanting or whatever. Of course, we want to improve the team all the time, we just believe in the training ground as well and that we can do it there. We will see what happens.”

Granted, Klopp was never going divulge the exact contents of transfer discussions that have been held behind closed doors with Anfield bosses, with the World Cup complicating matters further. But Liverpool’s January intentions remain unclear after those open-ended answers, with the German carefully side-stepping such direct questioning, aware he would likely not face such interrogation again until after Christmas, to remain on the fence.

Yet Klopp has also already hinted that he would like Liverpool to act in January, having admitted back in the summer he would, at times, like the Reds to take more risks in the transfer market.

“Let me say it like this, from time to time I would be ready to risk a bit more but like I say, I don't decide that,” he said in August. “And that is then fine because I am like this, we try everything until someone tells us 'Here's now the deadline, we can't do anything anymore'.”

Given all these previous admissions, it’s rather clear that, along with holding transfer discussions behind the scenes at Anfield, Liverpool are very much keeping a watchful eye on the World Cup as they run the rule over their latest targets.

Whether that results in a January move for a Bellingham, Fernandez or Kudus, only time will tell. But: “There is no player in the world who scores a goal and (they) don’t know it.”

Beyond an openness to strengthen, what business could the Reds look to complete when the window re-opens? Well, despite currently boasting 10 senior midfielders, revamping their midfield is perhaps a clear priority, with it very much on the agenda for 2023 after the club overhauled their attack over the past year.

Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Fabio Carvalho have all been brought in, while Sadio Mane, Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino all departed, as club bosses initiated the first stage of the soft launch of Klopp’s 'next’ Liverpool side in the face of ageing stars, expiring contracts and injury-prone players.

Now it seems they will conclude such business again, this time on midfield, with James Milner, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Juventus loanee Arthur Melo all not currently contracted with the Reds beyond the end of the season. Ever the transfer opportunists, as the premature arrival of Diaz proved last winter, they will be poised to act in January as a result.

And various soundbites from Klopp over the past 18 months have hinted at the exact profile of midfielder he will be looking to buy when the time comes.

“The reflex is we lose a midfielder and we don’t bring anyone in, now we count our midfielders,” he said in August 2021 after the departure of Gini Wijnaldum. “If there is an area on the pitch when we really have all the different skill-sets. Dynamic, creativity, defensive oriented, offensive oriented.

“There is no gap. It is not we have to bring in another one. We have players here with great skills. If the one player who is really the one who could improve all the things we have spoken out, we would go for him, I promise. If we would see him.”

Meanwhile, when facing such midfield questioning again 12 months later, Klopp said: “We can go through it. Where do you want to start? So, Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago, Milner, Keita, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, Oxlade-Chamberlain.

“Now you tell me what kind of player are we missing? One who is offensive, 1.95m and arrives into the box to head balls in? Okay, apart from that!”

And a need for such a player was even alluded to by Klopp when addressing a controversial treble substitution in Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over West Ham United in October, when Fabinho (suffering a loss of form), Jones (making his first appearance after injury) and Elliott were introduced before the hour-mark in place of the lively trio of Thiago Alcantara, Carvalho and Nunez, who was admittedly carrying a knock.

“He felt a little bit of muscle at half-time but it's all fine,” Klopp told reporters when explaining his decision to replace would-be match-winner Nunez. “After five minutes, I was just too concerned about the long sprints for him when he stretched his leg.

“I thought, ‘come on, we cannot take that risk’. That’s why we changed. I think we caught him in the right moment. But then we immediately feel it because West Ham are a set-piece team as well. We needed to make sure we had enough players to withstand that so that’s why the other two changes came as well. Early changes, that’s fine.”

It might seem simplistic to suggest that Klopp wants taller players off the back of such a basic explanation, but when juxtaposed alongside his hyperbolic search for a desired player who ‘improves all the skill-sets’ and is ‘1.95m’.

Yet he has favoured signing such man-mountains before, when you look at the arrivals of the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Nunez. Football is a simple game when you have players that are stronger, bigger and faster than the opposition.

Now it would seem Liverpool are actively searching for such a player, with it easy to paint Bellingham as such a target, given the Reds’ interest in him is well-documented and he is believed to be Klopp’s first-choice midfield target.

“He’s not on the market, so that’s the first problem with that player,” the German conceded back in the summer. “Well, the only problem with that player!”

Whether that leads to a January bid for the England international or the Reds are forced to wait until the summer, we will see when the transfer window opens. But what is clear is they won’t be the only side chasing the Borussia Dortmund star, with Real Madrid and Man City also hot on his tail, as doubts about whether Liverpool will be priced out of such a transfer continue.

But regardless of whether the Reds are successful in their long pursuit of Bellingham, Klopp has repeatedly made it clear what he wants to add to his Liverpool squad. Now it’s up to FSG, for as long as they remain club custodians, and Ward, for as long as he remains sporting director, to deliver it.

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