We’ve been here before.

Deadline day is on the horizon and there’s the gnashing of teeth at Liverpool’s ‘inactivity’ in the transfer window.

“Just sign someone, anyone,” was one of the few printable responses to an ECHO article this week about the fact that more incomings are unlikely before 11pm on Wednesday.

Barring a late change of heart, Jurgen Klopp will press on with what he’s got between now and May.

It’s hardly been a quiet month. Liverpool shattered their transfer record to make Virgil van Dijk the most expensive defender in the world and then sanctioned the third biggest deal in football history when they sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.

They tried and failed to bring forward Naby Keita’s summer move to Anfield from RB Leipzig.

Some of the negativity swirling around this week in the wake of that shock defeat to Swansea City has been ridiculous.

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A sense of perspective is important. The wheels haven’t come off. Liverpool have lost once in 19 matches. They are still in the top four of the Premier League and chasing glory in the Champions League and the FA Cup.

It’s less than a fortnight since the Reds outplayed and outfought the champions elect. This is an immensely talented side with a top-class manager at the helm capable of achieving great things.

Yet concern at the prospect of the club waiting until the summer to replace Coutinho is perfectly understandable.

Losing your biggest asset midway through a season is one thing, not having someone else lined up to fill the void is another.

Klopp recently delivered an impassioned defence of the decision to sell Coutinho when he insisted it was the “only option” because there was “no chance” of using him in the second half of the campaign. He felt his commitment and his contribution would have dwindled.

But it was still an almighty gamble with so much to play for and if the Brazilian isn’t replaced this month then the stakes are raised even higher.

Some will blame the owners and question whether sufficient funds have been made available.

Klopp is adamant that’s not the issue. The manager says the money is there and that just as it was his decision to sell Coutinho, it’s his call that the cash hasn’t been quickly re-invested.

If the right deal can’t be done before Wednesday night he’s prepared to wait until the summer.

Shrewd or reckless? Time will tell. What’s clear is that if Liverpool’s January business is complete then they need to be lucky with injuries over the coming months.

They also need Adam Lallana back fit and hitting the heights of last term and they need their back-up strikers to step up and help ease the burden on Roberto Firmino.

Liverpool have already played 34 games this season and they could have a further 26 to come depending on their involvement in the cups.

Klopp on Sturridge future + potential incomings

There are certainly parallels with the end of previous transfer windows under Klopp.

Last summer many questioned the wisdom of not pursuing another centre-back after Southampton refused to part company with Van Dijk. An area of weakness hadn’t been addressed with Klopp not interested in a Plan B

Instead he banked on Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan getting the Reds through until January in the knowledge that a move for Van Dijk would be revived.

Similarly, last January some were fuming at Liverpool’s failure to sign another winger at a time when Sadio Mane was away at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Klopp was enduring the worst run of his Anfield tenure as the Reds’ title hopes were ended and they crashed out of both domestic cups.

Moves for Christian Pulisic and Julian Brandt failed to materialise, while Julian Draxler opted for the riches on offer at PSG instead.

But still there was no panic from Klopp. He battled on with what he had and the doom and gloom merchants were proved wrong.

The slump was halted. Liverpool won eight and drew three of their last 12 league matches en route to securing Champions League qualification.

Klopp also didn’t get involved in the late shopping spree before the end of the summer window in 2016.

There was a clamour to buy a replacement for Alberto Moreno. Instead he turned James Milner into a makeshift left-back.

The previous January he had pulled the plug on Liverpool’s pursuit of Shakhtar Donetsk attacker Alex Teixeira when the cost kept going up. The Brazilian ended up in China with Jiangsu Suning.

Klopp wasn’t swayed then by the noise from outside the club and two years on that remains the case. He will do it his way.

If he doesn’t replace Coutinho in this window he will be throwing the dice once again. However, Klopp could rightly point to similar scenarios during his Anfield reign when his judgement in the face of public opinion has been proved right.

What’s clear is that unless the landscape shifts, deadline day will be quiet at Melwood and Kopites will be asked to take another leap of faith.