Jurgen Klopp has used his Crystal Palace pre-match press conference to discuss Joel Matip, after the central defender saw his season cruely ended, due to an unfortunate ACL injury last week.

After the injury was confirmed on Wednesday, fans and pundits alike were quick to discuss Matip's future, with the defenders current contract expiring in the summer, before he will have returned to full fitness.  That led many, including us here at LFC - Back On Our Perch, to suggest that the club may not offer the defender a new contract.  Firstly, he will be 33, and the club is reluctant to offer new contracts to players over 30.  Secondly, he will be unable to prove that he has sufficiently recovered from the injury, before a new contract would need to be sorted out.

However, Klopp has now gone on record to say that the club will show its class (as we would expect), and support Matip in both the short and long term.

Speaking at the press conference, Klopp said,

"I'm pretty sure the club will show their class, just as they should.  I'm pretty sure they have told Joel already whatever happens, as long as he's injured everything's fine, and now we have to make a decision with Joel how it looks after that."

"That's a normal thing to do but he deserves all the support from us, and he will get it. I would say so [that he deserves a new deal], but it's not my decision. I cannot sign the papers."

Klopp pours cold water on January signings

With Matip missing the rest of the season, Klopp now only has three options at centre-back, with Van Dijk, Konate and Quansah.  Joe Gomez is a natural centre-back, but he is already covering the full back positions.  That had led to suggestions that Klopp will be forced into the transfer market in January, but again Klopp has moved to rubbish such suggestions.

When asked directly about the January transfer window, Klopp replied,

"In eight years, I just never understand people always talking about transfers like they are the easiest things in the world. Bring in a player, find the money for it, like we have endless money," he said.

"I really don't understand it. Everybody, fans, talks about it. It has to be the right player and tell me a club who wants to sell a top, top, top centre-back. Not just a centre-half, a top centre-half - they have to play for Liverpool.

"We know that Joel will be out for a long, long time. That's really bad for us. But there's still four centre-backs here, that's absolutely alright. If we would have had a fifth in already beforehand, that's a completely different team dynamic with one not involved.

"It was perfect how it was. Is it still perfect? As long as we can go with those four, yes. If not, it's going to be a bit more tricky with the number of games coming up.

"As long as other clubs don't put world-class centre-backs under the Christmas tree for us and tell us to take it as long as we need it, I haven't really thought about it yet but I don't think so, to be honest."

Whilst we would not expect Klopp to give away too much, with regards to his transfer plans, we would be very surprised if the Reds are not looking for January re-inforcements, especially if the right player becomes available.

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