Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ROUT OF AFRICA
Kop boss Klopp admits he can’t replace Salah or Mane when they jet off for January tournament
JURGEN KLOPP has admitted that he will not be able to find a solution to Liverpool’s looming African Cup of Nations nightmare by going into the transfer market.
Klopp was one of a number of Premier League managers who looked certain to be stripped of key players this weekend.
He was preparing to face Leeds without Fabinho, Alisson and Roberto Firmino after the Brazilian trio were banned by FIFA for failing to report for World Cup duty until FIFA’s 11th-hour U-turn.
In the new year, Klopp will have to cope without star strikers Mo Salah and Sadio Mane for up to six weeks when they jet off to play for Egypt and Senegal, respectively, in the AFCON.
Guinea midfielder Naby Keita is also likely to be heading for the tournament in Cameroon after it was rearranged due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But Klopp accepts that it is unrealistic for him to bring in reinforcements in January to soften the blow.
Klopp said: “How we deal with it depends on the situation. At the moment, it’s not ideal. Look, the African Cup of Nations is happening and they have the right to play their cup as well, like the Euros and like in South America.
“That’s completely fine. We knew it, we have to deal with it and we will deal with it. How? We will see in January. People are now saying, ‘You have to sign two strikers of the same quality of Sadio and Mo’.
“That cannot be the solution because we cannot do that. So we need to find another solution for it in January.”
Liverpool were unable to cope defensively last season when they lost centre-backs
Virgil van Dijk,
Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, and were unable to mount a defence of the Premier League title. This time, the German will have to solve a problem at the opposite end of the pitch. Liverpool virtually balanced their books in the summer, signing Ibrahima Konate from RB Leipzig for £36million and raising almost £25m through the sales of Harry Wilson, Taiwo Awoniyi and Xherdan Shaqiri.
Klopp has questioned how clubs like Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea have been able to splash the cash following the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Liverpool have secured the futures of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Alisson, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho with new long-term contracts.
And Klopp insists he is happy about how Liverpool go about their transfer business. He said: “I was surprised – but it’s a personal thing – that Cristiano Ronaldo left Juventus because I didn’t know that would happen.
“Clubs do business and when I talk about it, my problem is obviously with my English because from time to time I annoy some other managers.
“I don’t want to annoy them. I’m not interested in it, why should I? I say something, I think it’s right and then two days later I hear the response from somebody and think, ‘Why is he on his toes’?
“I couldn’t care less what other clubs are doing. In a few weeks, I will have been here six years and I signed up for this way when I arrived. In that time, we were quite successful.
“We thought it made sense that we sign up our squad. That is not as spectacular as all the rest around, but I cannot change that because you cannot do transfer business just to be in a circus.
“Other teams signed players, fine, but now we will play them and see what we can do.”