It is not often in recent years that Liverpool supporters have had reason to envy their Manchester United counterparts but Monday may have provided a couple. Erik ten Hag had two new midfielders on the pitch – Casemiro suited, Christian Eriksen booted and influential in the 2-1 win over Jurgen Klopp’s team. And if Casemiro’s £60m fee and huge four-year contract makes him precisely the sort of signing Klopp would not make, if Eriksen’s age suggested that he, too, would not have been on an Anfield shortlist, the more febrile part of the fanbase would welcome any addition in the centre of the park.
Liverpool do not operate like that. Klopp rarely compromises, preferring to wait for his first-choice targets, as he did for Alisson and Virgil van Dijk, even if that can create problems in the short term. He does not disguise his admiration for Jude Bellingham, who may be available in 2023. But he also tends to have belief in the players at his disposal and that has underpinned his reluctance to return to the transfer market.
