Klopp insists Liverpool are working hard to land top targets

Jurgen Klopp remains confident Liverpool will bring in their transfer targets this summer – and insists lots of hard work is going on behind the scenes.

The Reds have so far added Mohamed Salah in a club record deal from Roma, but efforts to land the likes of Naby Keita and Virgil van Dijk have so far proved fruitless.

Some Liverpool supporters have watched in dismay at a number of their rivals – including neighbours Everton, who have embarked on a near £100million outlay on six players – have invested heavily.

But Klopp is keeping his cool and insists there’s no reason to panic.

“Yes, it will be a difficult one, maybe it’s getting more and more difficult, especially in England,” he told liverpoolfc.com when asked about the transfer window.

“But we have made a lot of good things so far. If you cannot see it so far, you can imagine we have done a lot of things behind the scenes.

“Sometimes you need to be patient and that’s what we are in at the moment – to wait for the right moment and then we will see what happens.”

 

Klopp on pre-season return

A large group of players – including the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Jordan Henderson, Roberto Firmino and James Milner – returned to the Reds’ Melwood training complex on Wednesday for pre-season training.

And while the quest for signings continues, with the centre and left of defence also in need of strengthening, the German knows he has to get the majority of his players up to speed quickly with a crucial two-legged Champions League play-off – as a result of their fourth-placed finish – to face soon after the Premier League season kicks off.

“We all know in a few weeks we have these qualifiers and there will be pressure on the game,” he added.

“But now we have the time to prepare for this and we have to use the basis we created last year – it was not too bad.

“We all know it could have been maybe a little bit better but it could have been much worse.

“We are now one of the top four teams in England so now we want to keep this situation and work with it and improve.

“The squad will be stronger this year than it was last year. That’s a real reason for real optimism.”