Jurgen Klopp wants competition for places in his side as it will help Liverpool take “the next step” this season.
The Anfield club has brought in Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Dominic Solanke so far this summer — the former arriving for a club-record £34.3 million. The ex-Roma man has shone this preseason, so much that star winger Sadio Mane has said he’s ready to switch positions to accommodate the Egypt international.
Klopp has remained sure that, despite repeated links to Barcelona, star playmaker Philippe Coutinho will stay with the club this summer to help achieve their big aims this season.
“Everybody thought ‘he’s going, he’s going, he’s going’ but so far nobody is going,” Klopp, whose side will learn their Champions League playoff round opponent on Friday, told outlets in the UK.
“If we stay together like this there will be a few hard decisions because they can’t start all together. Then we have to see how this works.
“Be angry at me, no problem, stay confident, that is important, then three days [later] there is another game so let’s be there again. There are a lot of challenges.
“The plan is that they all make the next step. Of course we want to build on the base of last year.
“I said we always want to develop this team and there are two things to do — signings and training so we did both.
“The signings are nice, either they play or they push another player. Now it’s more difficult to play all the time.”
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