Back in the January transfer window of 2016, Liverpool signed central defender Steven Caulker on loan from Queens Park Rangers after the London club terminated his initial loan with Southampton to allow the deal to happen.
Struck by an array of injuries at the back, Jurgen Klopp identified Caulker as the perfect short-term option to solve the dilemma he found himself in, though not too many Liverpool supporters saw it that way.
https://twitter.com/AzzurriLFC/status/686896987703148544
https://twitter.com/KopiteLuke1892/status/686895555843330048
Notice how they didn’t say they are ‘delighted’ like they usually do @LFC
— (@SaIahFlair) January 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/AzzurriLFC/status/686896148661968896
@LFC i feel physically sick to my stomack Klopp is just Brendan with a German accent. Bin him. NOW.
— BiblicalShart (@BiblicalShart) January 12, 2016
@LFC this isn’t Gotze
— BBB (@poohzingis) January 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/maulallana/status/686992578139394048
@LFC preparing for life in the championship #idiots
— Emmett Fearon (@EmmettFearon) January 12, 2016
Nevertheless, it was still a deal that the Liverpool boss felt was essential at the time. “We want to press the opponent and so they have to play long balls,” Klopp was quoted saying by BBC Sport after Caulker’s move.
“If they play long balls, you need people in the last line who can help you with headers and we’ve found it with Steven Caulker.”
In the end, despite Klopp’s desperate need for a defender of Caulker’s profile, the 26-year-old would go on to play less than five Premier League games for the Reds with personal problems off the pitch having made his time at Anfield an extremely difficult one.
Two years on, and Caulker is now playing his football in Scotland with Dundee as he looks to rebuild his career.
As for Liverpool, their defence is quite clearly different compared to the days where Caulker was lining up for them with a central defender of Virgil van Dijk’s calibre now marshalling the Reds’ back four — much to the delight of supporters.
