Jurgen Klopp miracle-working may cost him vital January transfer

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Jurgen Klopp performed miracles this season and it could cost him a vital January transfer.

When Virgil van Dijk underwent surgery, things felt grim at Liverpool. How could they cope without their best defender?

Five straight wins.

When Joe Gomez underwent surgery, things felt extra grim at Liverpool. How could they cope without both of their first-choice defenders?

Nine games, five wins, three draws, one defeat, qualification from their Champions League group and top at Christmas.

That’s unbelievably good. Liverpool beat Leicester City 3-0, Wolves 4-0 and Crystal Palace 7-0 in that span – all sensational results.

But was it a fair reflection of where Liverpool are right now? Or did Jurgen Klopp perform miracles that will cost him a January transfer?

Perspective

Liverpool’s form since that Palace game has been atrocious. Seven games where the only win was over Aston Villa’s Under 23 side. No goals in their last four Premier League games.

The worry now is that this is the real Liverpool – or at least, close to it. That the current group are not capable of consistently performing without Van Dijk and Gomez. And Joel Matip, most of the time.

But the consensus seems to be that they won’t sign anyone this month. That’s certainly how the Athletic sees things.

Instead, they want to stick with what they have and make that work. But it increasingly looks as though what they have doesn’t work. That Klopp just somehow got it working to end 2020.

It appears to have created a false perspective on this team. If Liverpool had played throughout November and December as they are now, it feels highly likely that they’d sign someone.

For one thing, they’d be all the way down in and around 7th. That creates the appearance of a broken team that needs help. Liverpool would have gone into this transfer window with that attitude.

Instead, they could be 7th on Thursday. Far too close to the end of the window to do reasonable business.

Klopp suggests that he’d like to do something but doesn’t make the decisions. We think those decisions may well have fallen in his favour if not for that good month of form.

Of course, it’s not like he could have deliberately lose games to prove a point. But it feels like some poor fortune that his good spell came when it did.

It’s created a false perspective and now the decision-makers are willing to risk it all on this poor patch being a blip.

Let’s hope they’re right because if they get it wrong, it could prove enormously costly.