Klopp explains Caulker loan signing

Jürgen Klopp says he’s looking forward to working with new Liverpool loan signing Steven Caulker.

The Liverpool manager desperately needed to strengthen his defensive options with so many first-team players out injured and Caulker fits the bill.

He may only have 1 international cap with England under his belt but the 24-year-old does have Premier League experience and that’s something that Klopp is quick to point out.

Klopp said: “It was very important for us. In our situation, four weeks ago we didn’t know we’d have a problem with centre-halves because they were all in the race. At the start of the season, Joe Gomez was also in the squad, so a fifth centre-half – and then the situation changed completely.

“Now, we’ve had to make a decision whether we wanted to get another player for the position. The situation is Martin Skrtel is not available for around about the next four-and-a-half weeks, five weeks. Then we have the problem with Dejan – it’s only a little muscle injury. I think he’ll be available in one to one-and-a-half weeks. Then you have Mama with a little knee issue – he can play, but it’s not perfect and you cannot bring him three or four times in a row throughout the season. And it’s the same for Kolo and so would mean we are always in this situation, do we have enough or not? So we thought, ‘Yes, good idea’.

“We looked for Premier League experience because in this short time, you need that experience. We looked for a good header because that’s what we need – we want to play good pressing, we want to press the opponent and so they have to play long balls. If they play long balls, you need people in the last line who can help you with headers and we’ve found it with Steven Caulker.

“He was not in the best situation in Southampton, didn’t play too much, but this is January and we want to have the best solution for us and we are absolutely convinced that Steven is the best solution for us.

“I am looking forward to working with him. He will be here today and then we can start working, so everything is good.”

• Liverpool Injuries (updated)