Jurgen Klopp publicly backed Dejan Lovren over reported Liverpool target Kalidou Koulibaly in 2017

Add as preferred source on Google

Liverpool are being linked with a move for Kalidou Koulibaly. As reported by TuttoMercatoWeb, the Reds are joining the growing list of clubs clamouring to sign the £70 million rated Napoli star. 

Indeed, Liverpool fans will know just how impressive Koulibaly can be. He has shone in Champions League games at Anfield and would form an imposing centre-back partnership with Virgil van Dijk. 

The idea, it appears, is that Koulibaly would replace the injury-prone Joel Matip or linked away Croatian defender Dejan Lovren, with Joe Gomez losing his current starting place.

But Liverpool boss Klopp has been asked about signing Coulibaly in the past and was fairly dismissive. 

Because the German insisted that he trusted the aforementioned Liverpool defenders when quizzed on Koulibaly in 2017. 

It came after a summer where Liverpool had failed to bring in a new defender, after their initial approach for Virgil van Dijk had failed. 

As reported by ESPN, it was suggested to Klopp that Liverpool should have then moved on to another defender, instead of signing nobody. The names of Koulibaly and Tottenham Hotspur’s recent signing Davinson Sanchez were put forward as examples. Klopp dismissed it, suggesting he would instead try and improve the players he currently has. 

“No. We watched all of them 500 million times.

“Just to cool the people down, what if the new player doesn’t hit the first ball and he makes exactly the same mistake? A mistake they all made in their life — but it is like ‘He is a £65 million signing, he will improve.’

“Why do you think the other one cannot improve? I don’t understand that. We want to make the right decisions. A big part of football and life is really putting faith in the people you work with — trust them — because they all can improve.

“They all can. They are all good out there but they are not that good that you say ‘yes they could help immediately.’ I had to make a decision and the decision was our boys are not worse than them.”

There is no doubt that Liverpool’s German boss did just that. Matip, in particular, has surprised many with his improvements whilst Lovren is not as error-prone as he was three years ago. Van Dijk was clearly the only man he wanted and the Dutchman was captured in the following winter transfer window. 

Of course, in the three years since, Koulibaly has also improved and many would suggest he and Van Dijk are now the two best central defenders in the world. 

So the idea of pairing them together might just appeal to Klopp.