Jurgen Klopp claims transfer calls at Liverpool are “not my decisions”, with the Reds yet to show their hand in the January window despite an injury crisis.
Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcantara, Diogo Jota, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, James Milner and Xherdan Shaqiri have all spent time out of action.
The biggest concern for Klopp has come in defence, with his options in that area of the field being decimated by untimely knocks.
It was expected that efforts would be made to land another proven centre-half once the market opened for business. Various targets have been mooted, but none have been approached and Klopp says he is not the man to drive recruitment on Merseyside.
He told reporters after seeing Liverpool’s winless run in the Premier League stretched to five games by a 1-0 defeat at home to Burnley: “These decisions are not my decisions. If somebody thinks we should do something, I cannot decide if we do something in the transfer market or not. That must be clear.”
Next Match
For now, Klopp is focused on freeing his out-of-sorts Liverpool side from a slump that has them sweating on the defence of the Premier League title that they claimed in record-breaking style last season.
He said after seeing his side remain in fourth spot and looking over their shoulder: “Look, how silly would that be if I sit here now, losing against Burnley, didn't score for the last three or four games – I don't know exactly – and now I talk about the title race? How silly would that be?
“It's just we have to win football games – it was always like this. For this we have to score goals, there is no doubt about it. That's what we have to change and have to do better.
“If things don't work, you have to work harder, do the right things more often, longer and more consistent, all these kind of things - but not talking like it is an easy situation, it's not. It shows a lot of things.
“It's incredible how consistent the boys were but that was never something that anybody should have taken for granted because now we see they are all human beings, that's how it is, and now I have to make clear about what we have to do in the right moments and then we will score goals again.”
Liverpool have drawn a blank in their last four Premier League outings but will get a chance to rediscover their spark when attention switches to FA Cup matters on Sunday and a heavyweight fourth-round clash with Manchester United.