Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp believes his team is finally hitting its stride again, following a 3-1 win against West Ham. This news was accompanied with the club reportedly set to sign a centre-back.
Liverpool has been without four of its defenders this season as Klopp aims to defend the coveted Premier League crown.
A £2m fee has been agreed with Preston to bring 25-year-old defender Ben Davies to Merseyside, with academy prospect Sepp van den Berg going the other way on a loan deal.
Jordan Henderson was partnered with Nat Phillips at centre back and this deal is sure to ease some of the pressure mounting on Liverpool in recent weeks. Davies was reportedly in talks with Celtic over a pre-contract agreement, but when Liverpool came calling, it was barely a tough choice.
Following the win against Spurs on Thursday, this was Liverpool’s second consecutive victory. There had been some “difficult conversations” in the dressing room over the past few weeks, centred around the team making it “uncomfortable” for its opponents.
“We spoke a lot in the last few weeks, as you can imagine,” Klopp said.
“These boys are a really good group. They are not happy with not being successful. They always have the right attitude. But they need the right information as well. Now we have a found a way again to be uncomfortable for other teams.”
Klopp remained tight-lipped on the Davies deal, refusing to make a comment until the deal was set in stone. “On transfer things, we don’t say anything until something is done. I’ve said it all the time: in our situation, it makes sense [to sign a centre-half]. Our eyes are always open and we try to fix our situation if we can do it. If not, we play like we did tonight.”
Salah returns to form in style
Mohamed Salah was in fine form and scored a second-half brace that took the game away from the home team. The second goal was a cheeky finish that must have done the confidence of the Egyptian midfielder a world of good.
Klopp said there was no secret as to the task in front of his team if they are to bridge the gap between themselves and Manchester City at the top.
“City were struggling in the beginning, then we were struggling three or four games ago,” he said. “Now we need to keep winning if we want to win the league. It’s been a really big week.”
West Ham boss David Moyes was left unimpressed with his team’s showing but accepted that there were certain sides in the league that he did not expect to get much from and Liverpool features amongst them.
“There are three or four teams in the Premier League who are better than all the rest, and Liverpool are among them. We’ve got a long way to go,” he said.