Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says the club are unlikely to sign a new midfielder before next week's closure of the transfer window.
The Reds have made just one acquisition this summer - the €40million signing of Ibrahima Konaté - but Georginio Wijnaldum has gone seemingly un-replaced.
The Dutch midfielder was allowed leave Liverpool on a free transfer, and subsequently signed a money-spinning deal with Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite occasional press links to Brighton's Yves Bissouma, and sporadic fan disquiet, Klopp is not envisaging a busy last couple of days in the summer sales.
"Do I expect a busy four days for us? Not really to be 100 per cent honest, but you never know," he said ahead of Saturday's game with Chelsea, "That’s how it is.
"The options didn’t get worse for some teams, that’s clear, but in the end, I said it a couple of times before, there are so many different reasons to win a football game and so many different ways to win a football game and it’s not all about bringing in new players and all this kind of stuff.
"Again, it’s a little bit disappointing that I always have to mention that we brought in Ibou Konaté who was not a bargain or whatever, he cost money as well.
"But yes, all these offensive, attacking players other clubs are signing, that’s obviously something they thought they need and they had the resources to do it. That’s the situation. But we will not use that as any kind of excuse in any kind of game.
"We will just go for it with all we have. We have other things we can build on: we are together for a while already, in this specific case now we play at home, which must be an advantage, and these kind of things.
"Look, I have really no time to look at other clubs. Of course I see the news and all that stuff when they sign a player, but I really have no time to think then, ‘How can they line up, what can they do?’ When we play them, we think about that and I think that’s enough."
18-year old Harvey Elliott has won plaudits for how he's started the season in the Liverpool midfield.
The former Fulham player has also been rewarded with a first call-up to Lee Carsley's England U21 squad.
And Klopp is happy to keep faith with the squad at hand, should the FSG chequebook go unmolested in the next few days.
"It is not only on the pitch we miss him [Wijnaldum]," the Klopp said, "We miss in the dressing room really, really, really as well.
"But the reflex is that we lose a midfielder and don’t bring anyone in, then it must be like, ‘Now we can count our midfielders.’
"If there is an area on the pitch where we have all the different skillsets: dynamic, creativity, defensive-orientated, offensive-orientated, all these kind of things, there is no gap.
"Again, we have players here with great skills and last weekend doesn’t mean that Harvey [Elliott] is now the saviour of our midfield ‘problem’, because we don’t have one.
"But if Gini is still here, Harvey probably wouldn’t have played this game.
"So now he played and he played well, great. I knew before there was a good chance that he would play well and he did and we have others as well.
"Curtis Jones is 20 years old, played, I don’t know, 15-20 games last year - he can make and will make and has to make the next step.
"Naby Keita obviously didn’t play a full season so far exactly how he expects that or we could have expected it, but he had always really good games – big games we won where he started.
"Now he’s started this season twice. Would he have played if Gini was still here? I don’t know obviously, but maybe not.
"Then we have Thiago who didn’t start the games, we have Hendo who played only one of the games, we have Oxlade-Chamberlain with the dynamic you cannot buy in the moment if you wanted to buy a midfielder. And probably I forgot one - Fabinho of course.
"So that’s the situation and there is no need just to buy a midfielder because somebody is on the market.
Klopp added, "I cannot help you [the media] unfortunately, because obviously you are very interested, and I can sadly not help the supporters who want us to sign a player just to get somebody in and feel then, for the moment, ‘Now we did our business as well, now we should be ready.’
"However, if you are really with us and really think about it, you will realise there is no real need. And if the player, the one player who is really the one who could improve all the things we spoke now about we would go for it, I promise. If we would see him.
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