JURGEN STILL SEEKING A NEW PHIL
The Liverpool manager, preparing his Champions League finalists for today’s clash at Chelsea with a top four place still to be locked down, said: “Hopefully Naby will have a big effect on the team immediately because of his quality. “This was a difficult season for Naby in Germany and for Leipzig in general but he still had some outstanding performances. “Maybe not the same number as last year but the whole Leipzig team didn’t do exactly the same as last year either.but one thing for Naby and us is that he doesn’t play in the World Cup in Russia this summer so he will have a full pre-season which will help him a lot to prepare for the season with us.” A criticism of Liverpool’s earlyseason performances in the Premier League was that – for all their attacking flair – Klopp’s side were too nice and lacked the devilment of a player who could mix it physically. Keita will be a welcome onlooker in Kiev for the Champions League JURGEN KLOPP is hunting for even MORE firepower next season – with a creative playmaker on his summer agenda.
Although Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane have more than made up for Philippe
“Its not my first problem but I will think about it. I have not been thinking about things like this, but if Naby is Coutinho’s £142million move to Barcelona in January, Klopp has hinted he needs to plug the gap left by the Brazilian star, having been hampered by injuries to Adam Lallana and Emre Can.
Naby Keita is on his way reading this and he wants to come with us to the final, he is invited!”
Despite reaching the Champions League final after an epic 7-6 two-leg semi-final with Roma, Klopp steered away from claiming his project at Liverpool is ahead of schedule.
He said: “No. I see things a little bit differently.
“I am not interested in finals, I am interested in winning finals. People but Liverpool have also been linked with Monaco’s Thomas Lemar, Borussia Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic and Napoli’s Jorginho – and Klopp isn’t ruling anything out.
“We will probably sign a couple more players because that’s how it is,” he said.
“To bring in players who are 200 per cent better than the ones we already have will be quite difficult but we still need to do a few things to have more depth in the squad.”