After a summer being quizzed on why Liverpool did not reinvest heavily on new recruits, Jurgen Klopp broke it down to simple logic.

“Big teams stay together for a number of years,” he said, explaining why retaining stars was more ­important than buying new ones.

“I really think it makes sense to keep this team together, but we have to prove that. If we had bought new players people might ask, ­‘after you played last season like this you send some of them away?’”

As some rivals spent transfer-deadline day giving the impression of blind panic, Klopp “could not wait for 5pm”.

“Around 90 per cent of our people are with us with the transfer policy,” he said. “Ten per cent maybe not, but they are on social media. They are constantly worried. If you sign a player they ask if it is the right player. Nobody should think we did not look. It is not that we are not negotiating like crazy as well in these times, but finding the right solution is more difficult the better the team gets.”