Klopp goes in all guns blazing defending Shaqiri

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has gone in all guns blazing defending cheap summer signing Xherdan Shaqiri.

Shaqiri was picked up from relegated Stoke City for a bargain basement £13 million, but the deal has come with its critics.

By Klopp has taken to the airwaves back in Germany to defend his policies – and to point out the differences between the two football cultures.

The Reds spent big during the summer transfer window to strengthen the squad significantly, and the boss doesn’t believe that Premier League spending would ever take off in his homeland, wrote the Liverpool Echo.

And the fact that Shaqiri was available for such as small fee cast a shadow over the deal and made some fans suspicious of it, Klopp argued, while highlighting the fact that fans of the Bundesliga love nothing more than for their club to pick up a clever free transfer.

"The local press reported that he said. “I don’t think German football culture would tolerate transfers of 150 million Euros. They love nothing more than a free transfer. The view in England is different. If a player costs nothing there is a suspicion he must be useless.“For example, there was a lot of questioning (in England) around our interest in Shaqiri. We paid £13million for him after he got relegated with Stoke. But he’s a fantastic player and now everyone at the club loves him. In comparison to Germany, it’s really different.”"

The attacker is yet to start a game in the Premier League for the Reds, but he was signed as a back-up option and has the unenviable task of competing with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah for a place in the starting XI.

Mane and Salah are arguably the most important attacking weapons that Klopp has at his disposal, and leaving either of them out the line-up will be incredibly hard. They have both combined well in Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the season, and you’d expect that to continue as the campaign progresses.

Brighton are the next team to try and take points off the Reds, and they travel up to Anfield for the late kick off on Saturday. As Liverpool have only had four days to recover from their tough 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, Klopp may be tempted to rotate a few positions.

This would be a good chance to give Shaqiri is full debut and let him begin to start silencing those doubters on the field.