Jurgen Klopp has issued a frank transfer message admitting it is "unlikely" he will be able to maintain the strongest Liverpool squad of his tenure beyond the end of the season.
The German has made no secret of the fact he views his current crop of players as the greatest he has worked with since he took over at Anfield in October 2015. A star-studded outfit including the likes of Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk - viewed as the world's best in their respective positions - is in the hunt for an unprecedented quadruple this season.
Having bounced back from the injuries which ravaged them last campaign, Liverpool have only grown stronger with the £50million arrival of Luis Diaz from Porto in the January transfer window. The Colombian winger has bolstered an attack which already contains a wealth of talent including Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota.
But Diaz has also shunted Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino down the pecking order, limiting the involvement of the two fringe players. This presents Klopp with a headache as he views Origi as a "special" striker and claims Minamino is in an "incredible moment" having scored nine goals in 22 games this season.
The Liverpool boss confesses it is "really tough" to try and keep so many excellent players happy and suggested there will be departures this summer as a result. "It is crazy because we still have Divock and Taki on top of that," Klopp told Sky Sports. "It is incredibly hard for him and for me as well because it is really tough these kind of things. Taki is in an incredible moment.
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"It is unlikely with the size of the squad that we now stay exactly like this together. For sure, some of the players do not play often enough for their own understanding and we will see what will come in the summer and find solutions for those situations. "But the core of the group has to stay together. There is no doubt about that."
Klopp was also keen to point out Liverpool's strength this season is the product of players returning from injury rather than heavy spending, with the exception of Diaz. He added: "Funnily enough, apart from Luis, it is the same squad that we had when we started the season.
"We had this strong squad, they were just unavailable. Now they are available. That makes it the squad that we always wanted to have."
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