Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool cannot just solve their issues by splashing out in the transfer market

Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool do not need to spend big in the summer transfer market to address the problems they have faced in the Premier League this season.

Klopp's side face a challenge if they are even to finish inside the top four this season going into Thursday's re-arranged game against Manchester United at Old Trafford, live on Sky Sports Premier League.

Although Liverpool have two games in hand on fourth-placed Chelsea, last season's Premier League winners are seven points adrift of the Blues and at real risk of missing out on the Champions League.

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Klopp bemoaned Liverpool's long list of injuries this season as a factor behind their underperformance, but insisted the club cannot and will not act aggressively in the transfer market this summer in order to regain their position at the top of the Premier League.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's game, he told Sky Sports: "The situation doesn't really change, the world of football, the world itself, is in a very difficult place. With the structure we have here we do not just solve our problems in the transfer market.

"We do not say 'let's swap five or 10 players', it is not that it is just not needed but we could not do it (either).

"If we did not have the injury problems we did this year the season could have looked different, could we have been champions? I don't know, but it would have looked different.

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"Qualifying for the Champions League is incredibly difficult but we would have had a better chance than we do now, without the problems we had.

"Next year we do not look for excuses but winning the league in a league where teams have the financial resources and the football knowledge like Manchester City and Chelsea is just tricky. United will try to strengthen as well.

"Qualifying for the Champions League is already a big job in this country."

'No one will be forced to stay'

Klopp is also confident that none of his star players will be looking for a transfer away from the club despite the prospect of missing out on Champions League football.

But the German does admit that if one of his players were to request to leave, he would not consider forcing them to stay.

"I don't expect difficult conversations. At the moment no player has come to me and said anything about that. We will finish the season in the best possible way and have a break.

"Some of us have Euros and Copa America this summer. We pray they will come back healthy and then have a proper pre-season. We'll then see who will be with us or not.

"No one will be forced to stay. My understanding is that the boys want to stay. We want to prove we are better than this year."

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