Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says they won't be drawn into the theatre of the transfer market, unless they need someone.
The €13million purchase of Olympiakos full-back Kostas Tsimikas has been the Premier League champions' only foray into the market in pre-season.
However, the spectre of Thiago Alcantara continues to hang over Anfield ahead of Saturday's visit of Leeds United in the opening game of the season.
The Bayern Munich midfielder is believed to have agreed terms with Liverpool, but the clubs remain no closer on a valuation for the 29-year old.
Despite the lack of incomings, Klopp remains unruffled, "Since I've been here, there has not been one transfer window where I've thought: 'If we don't get this player, we cannot start the season'. Not once," he told Sky Sports.
"We are in a luxury situation that if we can bring somebody in, it will be a really good player, and if we don't, we have really good players.
"It's a little bit of theatre, this transfer business, but in all the years I'm here it's always the same. That isn't to say we always did things right, we did things as good as we could do.
"It depends on different things; one is finding the player, one is having the money and all of these kind of things."
Klopp says if an "exceptional player" becomes available, then they're more than willing to pounce, "It was always the case. Always the case. This club, since I am here, and before, spends what we earn. That was always the case.
"I don't know why this is so surprising now, it's nothing new. Pretty much everything we earn, we spend, if we have to in the moment. If not, we don't, because it makes no sense to throw money away.
"When I speak about the difficulty of the times we live in at the moment, people might think: 'Really? In football as well?' Yes! Surprisingly enough, in football as well! Uncertainty means uncertainty for all of us.
"It must fit to the group. Influence from outside, which a transfer is, can help, 100 per cent. If we can find the right player, it will probably happen, if not, then it won't."
The Reds manager says they won't be defending the title this season, but attacking it.
"First of all, it was my response when somebody told me we have to defend the title. I don’t understand that; maybe I am not smart enough, but I didn’t understand it," the German told his pre-match press conference.
"If there is a title out there, we obviously have shown that last year we were able to go for it. We did it. The year before as well.
"That doesn’t mean we will this year because we don’t take these things for granted, but the titles out there we attack them. Not only the one, because that’s how I understand it – we are all in the same position, we all start from the same position: nil games, nil points, now let’s go for it.
"That’s how I understand it and how I’ve understood it always. That’s what we did in the last years, so why should we change it now just because we want it?
"We didn’t go out of the Champions League last season because we won it the year before, we went out because we faced a really good opponent and were unlucky in the game.
"It was not about performance, it was not about desire, it was not about these things – it was about football because it can happen, especially against these strong opponents.
"We will go again with all we have, that’s the idea. The other one is only kind of the headline of the idea, but the idea is based on different things."
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