As planet football fixes its gaze on the World Cup for the next few weeks, Liverpool fans are likely looking a little further into the distance, toward January.
The transfer window always grabs the attention but perhaps supporters will be looking a little more intently into the developments at the turn of the year as the Reds attempt to put an indifferent first half of the campaign behind them by surging back into the top four.
To do that, however, some attention towards their squad building might be needed. Jurgen Klopp was asked about plans for January after last week's 3-1 win against Southampton, with the manager unsurprisingly keeping his cards close to his chest, for now.
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“We are always open to these kinds of things, but we don’t have to open this discussion now," Liverpool boss Klopp said when asked about plans for the window. "If there is something possible, we will do it. If a door opens, we are open as well.
“It is not about wanting or whatever. Of course, we want to improve the team all the time, we just believe in the training ground as well and that we can do it there. We will see what happens.”
It will be interesting to see how aggressively Liverpool approach the month of January with regards to transfers. Their plan to have Arthur Melo assist as a high-calibre, stop-gap addition to their midfield ranks has so far proven to be a gamble that has backfired.
The Brazilian was brought into the club on transfer deadline to ease a crippling shortage of midfielders. At the time, Klopp was unable to call upon Curtis Jones, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Thiago Alcantara or Jordan Henderson, and the arrival of Arthur was very much a cheap contingency plan that was hatched after Henderson had pulled up with a hamstring injury in the 2-1 win over Newcastle on August 31.
Arthur played just 13 minutes of first-team action before a thigh injury required surgery. An absence of somewhere between three and four months has left Liverpool counting the cost of their owners' aversion to risk during the summer months.
The speed at which the Reds moved for Arthur should at least hearten those hoping for a midfield addition in the January window. Klopp, along with sporting director Julian Ward and FSG president Mike Gordon, only took the decision to move for the Juventus man on loan after it became clear that Henderson had suffered a hamstring issue against Newcastle United.
Less than 24 hours later, Arthur was a Liverpool player, arriving on Merseyside with his agent, Federico Pastorello. It can, at times, appear as though the search for players is overly exhaustive from the outside, but once the green light is given, the recruitment team work quickly.
Take, for example, Luis Diaz at the start of the year. The Reds only moved for the Porto winger when it became clear Tottenham Hotspur felt they were closing in on him themselves. It took less than a week for Liverpool to wrap up a deal that could potentially reach £50million.
It was a similar situation with Darwin Nunez in the summer. The negotiation period with Benfica was relatively swift given the size of the sums involved, with the striker officially signing for the Reds for an initial £64m on June 14, just days after talks were opened between Ward and his Benfica counterpart, Rui Costa.
The potential sale of the club itself offers an intriguing layer to the discussion around plans for the January transfer window.
”We’re exploring a sale, but there’s no urgency, no time frame for us, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s business as usual,” Liverpool chairman Tom Werner told the Boston Globe this week. “One outcome could be our continued stewardship for quite a while.”
The term "business as usual" does at least indicate that Klopp will be given some backing in the market if Liverpool are keen to add to their midfield and attacking options this winter.
With over six weeks until the window opens, there is no doubt still plenty of assessing to do behind the scenes in both the data and scouting departments, but having proven to be too reactive in the summer window, a more proactive approach should be the order of the day this time around.
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