LIVERPOOL needed a defender, they signed Ibrahima Konate, one of the best young centre-backs around. Liverpool needed a wide player, they signed Luis Diaz, one of the best emerging wingers around. Liverpool needed a forward, they signed Darwin Nunez, one of the best young forwards around.

Are they missing the midfield equivalent? Increasingly, the answer seems to be yes.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has good depth in most areas on the pitch. More importantly, he has quality depth, and signings in the last three transfer windows have contributed greatly to that.

For example, at one point Diogo Jota looked like he would emerge as a nailed-on starter in Liverpool’s front three, breaking up the trio of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah. 

But even with Mane sold to Bayern, the introduction of new, quality players in this area, especially Diaz and Nunez, means Jota is once again a rotation option.

Another example is in defence. Joe Gomez once looked like a long-term first-choice option alongside Virgil van Dijk, but partly due to a defensive injury crisis in the 2020/21 season, and the fact someone of Konate’s quality was available in the summer of 2021, Gomez is now part of one of the strongest centre-back depth charts in the league with the aforementioned players plus Joel Matip, and struggles to get a game. If he does it’s usually at right back.

Availability is a key aspect of Liverpool’s approach in the transfer market. They are happy to wait for the right player to become available rather than sign expensive stopgaps. If the player, or type of player, they want is not available, they will show trust in the players they have. 

They might have waited too long to sign a player like Konate, with him arriving after their defensive crisis rather than before it, but who's to say another less suitable player would have made any difference during that crisis?

Klopp’s man management means this trust in his current players’ abilities and their room to improve is always evident. This in turn gives players confidence and makes them feel part of the team, even if they are not often part of the first XI.

There was trust in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ahead of the new campaign despite his role as a fringe player last season, and he was considered one of a number of players who could do a job in midfield.

But a hamstring injury suffered in a friendly against Crystal Palace means Oxlade-Chamberlain is now sidelined for a few months. On top of this another midfielder, Thiago, picked up an injury in the Premier League opener against Fulham and will be out for several weeks.

If Liverpool had a fully fit squad going into the close of the transfer window it would be understandable that they wait for the right midfielder to be available in January or next summer.

Oxlade-Chamberlain is in the last year of his contract, while James Milner will be 37 by the end of this season and is likely to move on. 2023 would make sense as the year of the midfield reinforcements. 

But with injuries already and the transfer window still open, there is a feeling they might need one of those reinforcements early.

Thiago’s injury especially means they are short on quality in midfield, particularly in those positions ahead of defensive midfielder Fabinho, but there is still a case to be made for putting trust in current players and using spaces opening up in the team to provide a pathway for younger players.

Naby Keita is set to return to action for Monday night’s game against Crystal Palace, while 19-year-old Harvey Elliott is fully fit and has just signed a new contract. Elliott impressed in midfield at the start of the 2021/22 campaign before a serious ankle injury disrupted his season.

New signing Fabio Carvalho can also play in the middle. Strangely, if the teenager had cost tens of millions more than the bargain £5m fee Liverpool signed him for, you get the feeling there might be more acceptance of him as a solution. 

As it is, Carvalho is often viewed from the outside as a youth player rather than a bona fide first-teamer, but not to Klopp, who sees all of his players as potential solutions.

“I am happy with the size and quality of my squad,” the German said ahead of Monday’s game against Palace at Anfield.

“Now it’s a question how long will the [injured] players be out for. There are different solutions — there are plenty I would say.

“One of them is the transfer market but the transfer market only makes sense if you can bring in the right player.

“The right player, not a player. We always would have done that from the first day of the transfer window, from the first day of pre-season, but in some cases it’s not possible, and in other cases extremely difficult.

“So that’s why you don’t have to think a lot about it, if something’s not possible why should I then consider it? If we are not [signing players] then we cannot exist? We can.    

“All the other solutions are inside the squad. We definitely have too many injuries at the moment, that’s clear, but Naby will be back for Monday. And Kostas [Tsimikas] will train today for the first time so he might be back as well, and that's the situation.

“If there would be the right solution for us [in the transfer market] we would have done it already. We are not stubborn and say: ‘Now? No way, we don’t bring in anybody.’ It’s just about what is the right thing to do.”

The reality of squad building is about managing the players you have, including the injured ones, maintaining their morale and their sense of worth to the team, and balancing this with improving the team via the transfer market. These are the realities Klopp regularly reinforces, even if indirectly, in his comments on transfers. 

And if you are signing coveted youth players such as Elliott and Carvalho, there needs to be evidence of a pathway to the first team, else future players of this ilk will look elsewhere.

Liverpool are one of the best in the game at recruitment and squad building thanks to the combination of Klopp’s man management skills, their patience in the transfer market, and the alignment of recruitment and coaching.

The midfield question, however, will remain at the front of the transfer window narrative until they sign someone or until the window closes. If no player arrives, it might then be used by some as the reason for any future shortcomings, regardless of whether or not it was the reason.

There’s no doubt Liverpool need to improve the quality of their midfield depth to match the quality in other areas of the squad. But so far their transfer market patience in other areas could, in the main, be said to have paid off. Waiting until 2023 to sign their perfect midfielder is just the latest test of this approach.