The lack of investment in Liverpool’s squad is only a small part of Jurgen Klopp’s and FSG’s problems

As Liverpool’s struggles on the pitch went from bad to worse, leaving their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League hanging by a thread, it became increasingly clear that they were a team stuck in transition.

A little over six months ago, they were on the verge of an unprecedented quadruple. After missing out on the Premier League title to Manchester City by one point on the last day of the season, before suffering a narrow loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League final, their fortunes have plummeted somewhat.

While Jurgen Klopp’s squad may be filled with Premier League and Champions League winners, it is also filled with aging and injury-prone players. And while they may boast a number of high-ranking youngsters, such young stars are still raw and haven’t been able to fully bridge the gap with the declining mental monsters that preceded them.

The Reds’ season hit a new low on Saturday as they lost 3-0 to Brighton & Hove Albion. With their six Premier League defeats already three times as many as they suffered last season, they have fallen to a ‘new low’ all too often during their 2022/23 campaign and we are not even halfway there yet.

As Liverpool collapsed on the South Coast, the majority of Premier League results elsewhere went against them. As a result, they have now dropped to ninth in the table, 10 points off the top four, while a loss to Chelsea in their next Premier League game will see them fall even further.

Injuries admittedly have not helped the Reds’ cause, but it is clear that Klopp’s squad needs an overhaul. A midfield overhaul in particular is planned for 2023 but has yet to be carried out, with many believing failure to start such a process sooner is a major contributor to Liverpool’s current woes. They’re pretty pathetic in the engine room this year.

Maybe it’s not because you want to try. The Reds did indeed target Aurelien Tchouameni, only to be told he was only targeting Real Madrid. With longtime target Jude Bellingham not yet on the market, they have opted to wait for the right player rather than fill the void with any at the moment.

But Liverpool’s struggles screamed they couldn’t wait any longer. If they do not strengthen their squad further this month, they look unlikely to qualify for the Champions League and in turn risk missing out on their potential targets.

Klopp needs help to save the Reds’ season and while it may seem simple, the transfer-hungry mob’s view that lots of new signings will fix things is certainly not going to make matters worse.

Unfortunately, the cavalry are unlikely to come to Liverpool’s rescue any time soon, with the German admitting last week that he is not looking forward to signing again in January.

“I don’t think so. It’s just the situation,” Klopp told reporters when asked if Liverpool would sign anyone else this month. “It’s like that. My job is to use the players we have. That’s it. I have absolutely no problems. I like the team we put together.

“But then when we started to change you realized at the start we didn’t have three, four or five options. If we had options they were very young soon. That’s okay but that’s the situation.

“You can’t solve all the problems in the transfer window. I know in dreamland you would just buy players now and bring them in but I didn’t see that coming.”

Klopp would also lashed out at one reporter when he was asked what the reason was for the Reds not being able to strengthen further, making it abundantly clear the funds were not there.

But after admitting in the summer that he wanted FSG to take more risks in the transfer market, again the question many will be asking is: ‘Why?’ sign Tchouameni, and will return next summer for Bellingham. While the right quality of players may not be available now, and certainly not for the right price, apparently, the club owners’ tight grip on the wallet appears to be continuing.

FSG’s limited and controlled investment in the Liverpool squad over the years has been the subject of even further scrutiny in recent weeks, not aided by Chelsea’s £89m signing of Mykhailo Mudryk, which has taken their spending to nearly half a billion pounds (£468m) since owner Todd Bohely took over at Stamford Bridge six months ago. For the record, their scattergun transfer approach sees them level on points with the struggling Reds, but sitting below them in 10th due to an inferior goal difference. Evidently, money doesn’t fix everything if spent wildly and rashly.

Yet surely there must be a happy middle ground? This Liverpool squad is bleeding out for reinforcements and Klopp needs some further level of financial support from FSG in January, having already brought in Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven for an initial £37m, to prevent their Champions League hopes from flat-lining.

But behind such on-field woes, the Reds are not just in transition on the pitch. Rather, the club is in such a state from top to bottom, with a cloud of uncertainty hovering over Anfield.

Partly a result of their realisation that they cannot compete financially with the Man Citys, Newcastle Uniteds, and Paris Saint-Germains of this world, FSG are actively searching for new investors at Liverpool. Meanwhile, they are believed to be open to a full takeover at Anfield. While either scenario should deliver fresh investment in Klopp’s squad, they are very much currently caught taking the biggest of steps back in hope of a future two steps forward.

“FSG remains fully committed to the success of Liverpool, both on and off the pitch,” the club’s owners insisted when confirming their search for new investment back in an official statement back in November. Yet as the Reds, at best, tread water, the evidence suggests otherwise with the group having not spoken publicly since from their base in Boston, with Klopp instead the lone frontman facing the flak.

And that is another issue that currently engorges Liverpool. In recent months, a number of key men behind the scenes have stepped away, or announced their intention to do so, leaving Klopp as this isolated presence at the top of the tree.