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The English Premier League is famously the only ship that has never docked at Liverpool. Once a dominant force in England, Liverpool have been left to battle for a top 4 place at most during the Premier League era. They have finished second only three times.
The league title will likely once again elude the Reds this season with Jurgen Klopp's side already over ten points off the top, sitting 5th.
Klopp was hired to mould Liverpool into title challengers, but the German has so far failed at that. The team has many holes that don't allow them to be at the very top in the league. The squad needs some serious strengthening and here's an overview of five transfers Klopp needs to do in order to turn Liverpool into a Premier League title contender:
#5 Sign a top-class centre-back
The talks of Liverpool needing a top-class centre-back is sounding like a broken record. It seems like everybody, but the man in charge of actually signing one, knows it.
Klopp made a serious push to get Virgil van Dijk from Southampton before the season started, but the South Coast side made their unwillingness to sell very clear, and Liverpool should've moved forward quickly with other targets. But they failed to do so, and to no surprise, defence has been the main worry during an up and down season.
After 11 games, Liverpool have one of the worst defensive records in the league with 17 goals conceded. Four of the five teams that have given up more goals are in the bottom 7.
The likes of Joel Matip, Dejan Lovren, and Ragnar Klavan are all proven international players, but they aren't good enough to make a team a title challenger in the top European leagues.
To be fair, Liverpool have actually done very well defensively at home this season, conceding only once at Anfield, but that makes their overall defensive record even more shocking.
They have given up three more goals away from home than the second-worst teams in the league Crystal Palace and West Ham, who are both in the relegation zone. Just think about that for a moment.
Klopp will probably go after van Dijk again during the winter transfer window, but if the Saints didn't sell their man before the season started, then why should they do it during it? It doesn't make any sense for them.
How about getting another Dutchman instead, who's also a whole lot cheaper? Stefan de Vrij's contract ends in summer 2018, so he might even come as a free transfer if Liverpool have the patience to wait until the end of the season or agree a pre-contract come January.
With the 25-year-old de Vrij at the heart of the defence, Lazio currently own one of Serie A's best defensive records, and are having a superb season with nine wins in 11 games. De Vrij is among the league's leaders in Italy with 2.5 interceptions per game, and unlike current Liverpool defenders, he also offers a goal threat, having recorded two goals in ten games.
#4 Buy a new goalkeeper
Giving up goals left, right and centre aren't, of course, all because of poor defensive work. The goalkeeper also takes the blame. The talks of Liverpool needing a new number 1 in goal, have gone on for even longer than those about the need for a centre-back.
The talks once again intensified a few weeks ago when Liverpool lost 4-1 at Wembley to Tottenham. Lovren had a shocker there, but Simon Mignolet was also directly at fault of a goal and it wasn't his first one since joining the club.
The goalkeeper is the backbone of a team. If you don't have a good one, then it will be very difficult to win games on a consistent basis. Of course, nobody is safe from errors, even the best ones have a nightmare once in a while, but having three more errors than any other goalkeeper in the league over the course of five seasons is a really bad look on Mignolet.
You can't even justify the Belgian's howlers with the lack of experience. He's played in England since 2010 and has nearly 250 Premier League games to his name. Among active goalkeepers, there are currently only four in the league that have more appearances.
Mignolet's saves percentage is at a league-low 51.3% this season. He recorded a club-record 8th penalty save back in September against Leicester, but the 29-year-old clearly costs the club more points than he wins.
Klopp signed Loris Karius back in the summer of 2016 and he's done well this season in the Champions League, but moving forward, there needs to be a new no. 1 at Anfield.
There were reports over the summer about a possible approach for Sevilla's Sergio Rico. The 24-year-old had 12 clean sheets in 35 games last season in Spain. He ranked third in that regard behind only Jan Oblak and Marc-Andre ter Stegen. He has three in eight matches so far this season.
The two-time Europa League champion reportedly has a £26.5 million release clause in his contract, which makes him a relatively cheap option in the current market.
#3 Get a proper holding midfielder
What do the Manchester sides, Chelsea and as a matter of fact, all the top clubs in Europe have in common? A proper defensive midfielder that works as an anchor for the whole team. Meanwhile, Emre Can is probably the best-suited player for that position at Liverpool.
Can has developed very well over the last couple of seasons, but he's more of a box-to-box midfielder. The likes of Fernandino, Nemanja Matic and N'Golo Kante have all averaged at least 1.5 interceptions per game in the Premier League this season. Can has averaged just one. He has won 1.7 tackles per game. Fernandinho and Matic have two and three respectively, Matic 1.8.
Klopp has been at Liverpool for over two years now with four transfer windows behind him, yet he hasn't brought in a single defensive midfielder to the club. Naby Keita is set to join from Leipzig at the end of the current season, and it will be interesting to see what his role at Liverpool will be.
The Guinea midfielder has done very well defensively in the Bundesliga this season with three successful tackles and 2.5 interceptions per game. He's not an out and out defensive midfielder, but can certainly do the job at that position.
If Klopp doesn't view Keita as a pure defensive midfielder, then he needs to sign one. And he doesn't need to look far to get one.
Everton's Idrissa Gueye won the most tackles in the Premier League last season with 135. A year before, he trailed only Kante. That said, it will be very difficult to lure him away from Goodison Park as transfers between direct rivals rarely happen.
Wilfred Ndidi is another interesting defensive midfielder currently in the Premier League. Leicester City bought him as a direct replacement for Kante. It took some time for him to adapt to a new league, but he does look like a mini version of Kante now. His 46 won tackles are by far the best mark this season in the Premier League.
#2 Find a "Plan B" striker
The numerous transfer windows mentioned on the last point haven't been a complete failure for Klopp. The lack of focus on defence has at least been compensated somewhat by some brilliant attacking signing.
Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, who are both Klopp's signings, have formed a deadly attacking trio with Roberto Firmino. Liverpool ended last season with the 4th best attacking record in the league, only a couple of goals away from top3. This season they are third with 21 goals, behind only Man City and Man United.
If only Mane could stay fit. Once again he's come back from international duty with an injury and he seems to suffer at least one each month.
That said, Mane's health isn't the only worry for Liverpool regarding their attacking play. They have lost very valuable points this season after failing to break down Burnley and Newcastle. Their results in 2017 include draws against the likes of Bournemouth and Sunderland. Teams that should be easily beatable for a side of Liverpool's quality.
The reason for struggling to beat the so-called "lesser sides" is in my eyes the lack of a target man, or at least somebody different from Mane-Salah-Firmino who all pretty much play the same way. A "Plan B" striker if you will.
Late in the game, if everything else has failed, who's going to score that winning header for Liverpool? Olivier Giroud has scored countless late goals for Arsenal that have turned out to be vital in the end result. Alvaro Morata and Romelu Lukaku both have the ability to be a threat upstairs. Liverpool has...Dominic Solanke? He's the only attacking player in the squad, whose height is at least 1.85 meters.
Solanke has just made his England debut and he looks like a talented player, but he's still very young as a 20-year-old and needs more time to develop. He's yet to score in seven Premier League appearances.
Divock Origi offers a different dimension for the team, but for some reason, he was loaned out this season after playing quite regularly in 2016/17. Has Klopp lost faith in him? If that's the case, then he needs to sign a similar type of player that can offer something different from his main group of forwards.
#1 Sign a new number 10
Philippe Coutinho is still a Liverpool player and only last week he pledged his loyalty to the club, but let's face it, if Barcelona wants a player, then they will get him in the end. The talented playmaker likely won't be at Anfield next season anymore and this means that Liverpool will need a new no. 10.
Thomas Lemar was the man Liverpool went after near the end of the summer transfer window when Coutinho's future was up in the air. Monaco’s vice-president Vadim Vasilyev recently admitted that both Arsenal and Liverpool came in with offers for the 22-year-old French international, but it was too late in the window for a deal to be struck.
As a Frenchman, naturally, it looks more likely that Lemar will end up in London. That would leave Klopp to look elsewhere.
Hakim Ziyech has mostly been linked with mid-level Premier League clubs, but he could maybe do the business for a top side as well. The 24-year-old Moroccan had a wonderful season last year with seven goals and 11 assists for Ajax in the Eredivisie. He's a very technical player, who provides quality set pieces.
A couple of Germans will certainly be among the targets. There are even some reports that a deal has already been made for Leon Goretzka and the 22-year-old will join from Schalke in January. He's Schalke's top scorer this season with four league goals. Maybe not a traditional no. 10, but under Klopp's tutelage, he could blossom in that role.
Liverpool might even actually have Coutinho's successor already in the current squad.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was a bit bizarre signing near the end of the summer transfer window. He's said that he likes to play in a central role and that was one of the reasons why he left Arsenal. But Liverpool already has a good selection of central midfielders at the club.
As expected, Oxlade-Chamberlain has struggled to break into the starting XI. It took him until November 4 to finally get the first start in the league. He was actually in the side replacing Coutinho, who was injured. Could this be the sign of things to come?
