Pool have fighting chance for top four

Buying better - not bigger - was a secret of success during Liverpool's halcyon period.

Amid over 15 years of false dawns, that message became lost in translation, but Juergen Klopp is hoping to retrace that path in search of a return to those former glories.

While Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and others at the vanguard of Europe's elite coaches continue to be fixated with aesthetics, the German prefers to take things back to Anfield's old school.

Gone are the days when championship medals were unceremoniously flung across a cramped dressing room at Liverpool players before the start of pre-season training with gruff compliments of "same again next year" thrown in for good measure.

But Klopp's continuation of the practicality over preening approach that stood both he and Borussia Dortmund in good stead has seen a return to the club's previous time-honoured principles at a time of enhanced prosperity for the English Premier League.

An inflated market has seen both the best and worst of Liverpool's transfer policy this summer with, to date, seven players signed to the tune of £61.9 million ($111m).

PHOTO: REUTERS

Warnings not to invest in supposedly proven EPL quality have not been heeded, with the captures of Sadio Mane (above) and Georginio Wijnaldum dominating the current outlay.

The pair, however, are unlikely to fall into the same state of ignominy that befell Christian Benteke in the months after last summer's lucrative signing from Aston Villa.

Compromise has also played its part, with Mane's arrival from Southampton prompted by Mario Goetze shunning a reunion with Klopp in favour of a return to Dortmund.

Supporters yearned for the World Cup winner to become the marquee name that would announce the club's long-awaited return to the EPL's hierarchy this season.

EXCEPTIONS

Henrikh Mkhitaryan's switch to Manchester United, three years after he originally shunned Anfield, invariably added to the heart-rending but he and Goetze constitute exceptions of grandiose rather than staples of Liverpool's current transfer policy.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Plugging gaps in a relatively imbalanced squad has been the key motivation for Klopp, with Loris Karius (above) set to provide genuine and overdue competition to Simon Mignolet's status as the club's first-choice goalkeeper, largely unchallenged since his own arrival.

Voted second only to Manuel Neuer by his Bundesliga peers, Karius' move from the Liverpool manager's former club Mainz will be complemented by a wealth of experience within the ranks provided by ex-Arsenal stopper and EPL winner Alex Manninger.

At 39, the goalkeeper's third-choice status evokes parallels of Kolo Toure's free transfer in 2013 and the campaign that followed, as Brendan Rodgers' side stood a mere two games away from ending their 24-year wait to be crowned champions.

PHOTO: ACTION IMAGES VIA REUTERS

Further additions from the Bundesliga augur well in Liverpool's case for the defence with Joel Matip (above) and Augsburg veteran Ragnar Klavan, the latter Toure's direct replacement, offering a wealth of options to join Dejan Lovren in the central pairing.

Mamadou Sakho's exoneration from a failed Uefa doping test has also, welcomely, restored another option. True to cliche, the France international had appeared like a new signing before fate, or rather European football's governing body, intervened.

A cursory glance at the arms race engulfing English football, however, suggests that Liverpool's penchant for reinforcements that will offer greater purpose rather than sourcing big names for the sake of it will set them aside from their illustrious peers.

Manchester City, United, Chelsea and Tottenham have all stepped up their attempts to usurp Leicester City as the heirs to the EPL throne, but Klopp's paint-by-numbers approach to transfers may hold the key to an all-important top four finish.

On the current evidence, they have a better fighting chance than in previous years.