Having suffered his first defeat as Liverpool boss last weekend against Crystal Palace, Jurgen Klopp has since claimed he felt “alone” with sections of the Anfield crowd departing after Scott Dann’s 82nd minute winner.
Our Liverpool supporters here in the Football Transfer Tavern are wondering just what it is about facing Crystal Palace who seemingly have the Midas touch over the Reds as their bogey side.
Reds supporters now have the current international break to stew over what went wrong at Anfield on Sunday but some are taking this moment to look forward while wondering just who Jurgen Klopp will target in the January transfer window.
The German boss will surely want to sign some of his own players having inherited the current crop from Brendan Rodgers of course and we saw in the immediate aftermath of his appointment that Liverpool were linked with an entire host of Bundesliga-based players.
However, with Klopp having come out and claimed early that he won’t be raiding former club Borussia Dortmund out of what we imagine to be respect, we wonder who the alternatives will be?
We’ve devised a list of five players who should be on Klopp and Liverpool’s January wishlist today in the tavern.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five players that should be on Jurgen Klopp’s January wishlist.
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Marc-Ander ter Stegen
According to yesterday’s Daily Star, Liverpool are chasing Barcelona’s Marc-Ander ter Stegen for January with the promise of first team football awaiting him at Anfield.
It will of course take a huge amount to prise the German international away from the Camp Nou but as everybody knows, ter Stegen is firmly the second choice stopper under Luis Enrique who favours Claudio Bravo in La Liga.
With ter Stegen only being utilised in the cup competitions, perhaps he wants to step up to that next level in his career but Liverpool won’t be paying his £56.8 million release clause, that’s for sure.
Barcelona would probably sell him for far less than that but the Reds would have to attack this one aggressively if they have real designs on upgrading on the inconsistent Simon Mignolet.
Ruben Neves
The rumours circulating around FC Porto’s Ruben Neves have died down of late with the last we heard being that the Portuguese Under-21 international isn’t for sale but the Portuguese giants have proved to be a selling club in the past.
Neves became the youngest ever captain to appear in the Champions League recently and the 18-year-old has talent.
A midfielder in the Mateo Kovacic mould, Neves is a box-to-box player by nature and would add a greater level of dynamism to the Reds’ midfield with Lucas Leiva not getting any younger.
Like Marc-Ander ter Stegen, Ruben Neves is an ambitious transfer target but Jurgen Klopp and the Liverpool hierarchy simply must be setting the bar high this time around with many of Brendan Rodgers’ signings not being good enough.
Leroy Sane
As mentioned at the outset, in the immediate aftermath of Jurgen Klopp’s appointment, a lot of the tabloids jumped on the fact that the new Reds boss could well be targeting Bundesliga-based players and Schalke’s Leroy Sane is certainly one of them.
One of the great young hopes in German football, Sane has just received his first senior call-up to Joachim Low’s Germany squad for the forthcoming international friendlies and with Julian Draxler now having departed the Gelsenkirchen-based, it is Sane and Meyer who are the new top prospects on the block.
Signing Sane won’t be easy however with Arsenal also reportedly in for his signature according to yesterday’s Metro.
Having scored five goals this term from the wide areas, Sane’s price is rocketing by the gameweek but perhaps Liverpool will boast the edge in this particular transfer battle given Klopp’s recent appointment as a German national.
Ayoze Perez
At the start of the week, The Mirror proceeded to report that Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham are all interested in possibly acquiring Newcastle United’s Ayoze Perez in the January transfer window.
Scoring the goal that earned the Magpies a much-needed three points against AFC Bournemouth last weekend, Ayoze has been a bright light in an otherwise dim 18 or so months for the Tynesiders who have looked devoid of ideas on many occasions under both John Carver and Steve McClaren.
Ayoze is certainly an underrated player who could potentially make a good go of life at a bigger club than Newcastle and the fact that he can play on either the wing or up top will appeal to Liverpool who have gone for versatile players in recent times.
Timo Horn
While the aforementioned four players are ambitious Reds targets for the January transfer window, one man who could prove far easier to acquire is FC Koln stopper Timo Horn who has been linked by The Express lately.
Despite being Cologne’s number one for around three years now, the German’s release clause only stands at around £6 million which is relatively cheap for an established stopper.
For some time now, our Reds fans in the tavern have believed that the club can upgrade on Simon Mignolet with Adam Bogdan surely going to remain a second choice for his Anfield career.
Thus, a move for the likes of Horn who Klopp will know better than most seems to make sense and especially if Liverpool get nowhere in their pursuit for Barcelona’s ter Stegen.
