Klopp: No better defenders than ours

Jurgen Klopp has admitted he scouted many possible alternatives to Virgil Van Dijk during the summer transfer window but decided his "boys are not worse than them".

The Liverpool manager's failure to add defensive reinforcements after Southampton refused to sell Van Dijk in June has come under the microscope as his side have leaked many goals already this season.

The Merseysiders conceded five in last weekend's thumping by Manchester City while they let in three in an opening day draw at Watford; their return to Champions League football saw them breached twice by Sevilla.

Centre-halves Dejan Lovren and Ragnar Klavan have come in for sustained criticism - along with left-back Alberto Moreno - but Klopp believes those players, as well as the other centre-halves, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, are as good as any alternatives they could have bought in the summer.

“We watched all of them 500 million times, and to cool the people down what if the new player doesn’t hit the first ball and he makes exactly the same mistake?” he said.

“A mistake they all made in their life – but it is like, ‘he is a £65 million signing, he will improve’. Why do you think the other one cannot improve? I don’t understand that.

“For me it’s really difficult always to come to your planet, visit you and say ‘yeah you’re right, there were five good options out there and we missed them because, I don’t know, we wanted to spend the money anywhere else’.


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