Though signing fresh talent can never guarantee success, stagnation through inaction is hardly desirable for sides hoping to prolong their success.
Former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler noted that such a failure to add ‘elite players’ when at the top of the pile could lead to a club ‘going backwards’, a thought that would very much appear to apply to his old side this term.
“If you’re resting on your laurels, if you like, then someone can come in and take your place in the team and do that job to make it hard for you to get back into the team,” the 47-year-old told the Liverpool Echo.
“And I think all clubs who have aspirations should be doing that and it is about signing elite players.
“Certainly when you’re on top of your game, I don’t mean this in a disrespectful manner, but if you’re not signing players, I think you are going backwards.
“Other teams around you are signing players, so you’re not even staying still, you’re dropping down a peg or two because they are trying to up maybe two steps. So I think it’s imperative and massively important that Liverpool bring players in.”
The Reds are, admittedly, missing a handful of key players across the park of the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota – all three of which could improve their current fortunes on the pitch.
None, however, address the one department we were in desperate need of addressing.
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Such is the dire nature of the situation that Jurgen Klopp has turned to the historically unreliable Naby Keita and highly-rated (but inexperienced) youngster Stefan Bajcetic – both of whom were brought in for a combined £53m – in a bid to get us out of the mid-table.
With Champions League football more or less secured, that would have still represented a grave risk without the mitigating factor of a new midfield signing.
Sitting 10 points outside of the top four spots, albeit with a game in hand to play, Liverpool have one hell of a mountain to climb without any safety equipment.
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