Liverpool transfer policy makes them the anti-Chelsea, and that comes with its own dangers

Though they have spent a lot of money, Liverpool have been the anti-Chelsea when it comes to the number of players they have signed. It’s a point of pride for them, in fact. But their complete lack of incomings in this summer’s transfer window, despite a change of manager, will test the wisdom of that.

Since signing Virgil van Dijk in January 2018, Liverpool made just 24 new permanent signings, three of whom have been back-up goalkeepers and four of whom have been youngsters signed for their future potential more than to make an impact on the first team. Also, one of them was Ben Davies from Preston, signed on the cheap as an emergency contingency amid a a defensive injury crisis.

That leaves 16 players signed permanent to go straight into the first team, and the results have been…less profound than their first few years of post-Klopp shopping.

Part of that is because the baseline has been set so much higher, of course. A player who comes in and does just fine for an already-good side will not be felt as immediately and refreshingly as those who arrive to solve specific long-term problem positions. One part replaces another and the machine keeps running.

• 2023/24: Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Endo, Gravenberch
• 2022/23: Nunez, Ramsay, Carvalho, Gakpo
• 2021/22: Konate, Diaz
• 2020/21: Tsimikas, Thiago, Jota, Pitaluga, Davies
• 2019/20: van den Berg, Elliott, Adrian, Lonergan, Minamino
• 2018/19: Keita, Fabinho, Shaqiri, Alisson

This is arguably how transfer business should be done: carefully, thoughtfully, with money spent where it can best be spent rather than arbitrarily splashed around in hopes that some of it might pay off somewhere down the line, and those who don’t work out can be sold. Of those first-team 16 signed in the past six and a half years, only five have since left the club: Takumi Minamino, Naby Keita, Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri, and Thiago Alcantara, who has now retired.

That little list in 2019/20 makes for particularly interesting reading. Although it was Liverpool’s busiest summer of recent years, none were signed to go straight into the first team. Minamino arrived mid-season as something of an impulse purchase, having impressed against Klopp’s side for Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League. Yet Liverpool absolutely romped to the title that season after winning all but one of their first 27 games.

The difference is that Liverpool had just won the Champions League and finished with 97 points in the Premier League the previous season; they didn’t need those new additions.

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Look at it one way, Liverpool are not in need of loads of new bodies in the door now, either. Until their late-season collapse last season, there was fairly legitimate talk of a potential quadruple, albeit one including the Europa League than the Champions League.

But consider the other side, and the words ‘late-season collapse’ and ‘Europa League’ there become circled in red pen. As we have written before, there are enough inconsistent and injury-prone players in that squad that if everything lines up in just precisely the wrong way, their drop-off in performances can be remarkable .

This year, their quiet summer is clearly not by design. Martin Zubimendi was pursued, but unsurprisingly decided to stay at Real Sociedad in the end – a predictable ending to the tale, given the midfielder’s track record for resisting advances from supposedly bigger clubs. For him, it seems, none is bigger than Real Sociedad. Got to respect that, haven’t you? (Watch him go to Real Madrid now we’ve said that.)

Liverpool will be hoping Arne Slot can do his part to reinvigorating last year’s nearly-men into something more consistently reliable. Getting Jurgen Klopp’s successor right was always going to be far more important to the Reds than what they did with the squad, and you imagine there will be one or two players he has inherited who will look and feel more at home under the Dutchman having underwhelmed under Klopp. That’s not a dig at Klopp, to be clear; it’s just what happens at most clubs after a managerial change, just like others may find themselves suddenly struggling to get into the side.

Their transfer successes have become more and more qualified, though. Liverpool signed four midfielders last summer, yet have found themselves casting around for another this summer. Their luck with centre-back injuries last season was rotten, but the precedent of having had to sign Davies a few years before should have been a warning that it might be idea to bolster that department; Ibrahima Konate has been the only new centre-back signing since then.

Last summer, despite their midfield shopping spree, they again failed to address a glaring issue, namely that none of their options the previous season had been anywhere near their prime: Fabinho, Thiago, James Milner and Jordan Henderson were all on the downward trajectory, while Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho and Stefan Bajcetic were all youngsters. Keita meanwhile flattered to deceive throughout his Liverpool spell, and poor Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was just always injured.

You can’t argue with 25-year-old established Premier League signing Alexis Mac Allister, but adding to him with 22-year-old Dominik Szoboszlai, 31-year-old Wataru Endo and 21-year-old Ryan Gravenberch unsurprisingly failed to go all the way towards solving Liverpool’s problems.

Recruitment is not an exact science, and Liverpool have been better than most. But it’s hard not to feel they’re trying to be just a little too clever-clever at times. In searching for perfection, they can occasionally end up missing the wood among the trees as a result.

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