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Jurgen Klopp is confident he is not taking a gamble by trusting his current Liverpool squad to maintain another championship challenge after opting against making any big signings this summer.

And the Reds boss believes “90% of our people” have backed the club's transfer policy while admitting this season will be the ultimate justification of the approach.

Teenage duo Sepp van den Berg and Harvey Elliott and second-choice goalkeeper Adrian were the only new arrivals during the window.

Klopp has instead praised the return to fitness of Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana and Joe Gomez, and expects teenage striker Rhian Brewster to emerge as a first-team contender.

And he has underlined the importance of keeping together a squad that earned a club-record 97 points in the Premier League last season and won Liverpool a sixth European Cup.

“Is it a gamble? No,” said Klopp, whose team kick off the new top-flight season at home to Norwich City on Friday evening.

“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?’

“We have to make our decisions based on our expectations of what we think we can do this year. By the way, the history of Liverpool does not end this season.

“We will judge the season and see what we have to do. Maybe then it will be easier to find improvement.”

Klopp added: “I really think big teams of the past – and I don’t say we are a big team now, that will be decided in a couple of years – they stay together for a number of years.

“They do not need a lot of changes. I am not comparing us with Barcelona of five, six seven years ago, but they stayed together. A new player came in and then struggled and the same players played again.

“Man United had the class of ‘92. How long did they stay together? They changed a couple of strikers after (Eric) Cantona got older and brought in Van the Man (Ruud van Nistelrooy) or whoever. You do not change completely.

“We are a good team together in a very difficult league with a lot of competitors desperate to get the position we are in. it was second but a lot of them will be happier in our position.

“Nobody knows how it will look exactly but Sunday (in the Community Shield against Manchester City) showed we will be fine and the rest is what we make of it, scoring at the right moments, defending with passion as much as organisation, blocking the ball with a long leg.”

(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Liverpool's failure to make any significant new signings has been questioned in some quarters of the fanbase.

Klopp, though, is convinced the majority of supporters understand the approach.

“Around 90% of our people are with us with the transfer policy – 10% maybe not, but they are on social media,” said the Reds boss.

“They are constantly worried people. If you sign a player they ask is it the right player.

“You cannot sign just because people want you to sign someone. This team is a good age with space for improvement.

“If we had found the solution for problems we might have during the season we would have done it. It was not there for a reasonable price. We always do it like that.

“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.”