Liverpool transfer talks 'very positive' as targets can 'see the progress' already, says Jurgen Klopp

Klopp's side are on course to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in three years

Jurgen Klopp's initial talks with transfer targets have proved 'positive' (Getty)

Jürgen Klopp believes Liverpool’s improvement on the pitch this season is already helping him to secure his summer transfer targets.

Klopp’s side currently sit third in the Premier League table, six points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United, and are on course to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in three years.

Their efforts have arguably been aided by a lack of European football this term. A mediocre league campaign last time out saw them fail to qualify for either of Uefa’s leading competitions.

Klopp insists this did not affect his ability to acquire new additions last year, but still believes a return to the continent will only help the club complete deals this time around. Indeed, the targets Liverpool have already approached can “see the progress”.

“We feel in a good way, and if a player wants to be part of this way, then it’s easier to make this decision this year than last year,” he said ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Crystal Palace at Anfield.

“But actually not a lot of players told me last year: ‘I don’t want to be part of this, but let me see what happens next year and then we can talk again.’

“But the talks we’ve had so far are very positive,” he added. “That doesn’t mean it will all work out, but they are really positive, and they all see the progress. That’s good.”

Klopp will be confident of picking up three points against an in-form but relegation-threatened Palace, especially after back-to-back away victories at Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion.

Liverpool shut both of those sides out after taking the lead and in doing so learned from the mistakes of their last home game a fortnight ago, when they squandered a lead over lowly Bournemouth to draw 2-2.

“Sometimes you have to make real mistakes to learn from that,” Klopp said, reflecting on how his side overcame that disappointment to claim six points on the road.

“That’s how it is. I wouldn’t say that Bournemouth was a real mistake but it felt like that for us after the game. It was so useless for us. There was absolutely no sense in the fact that it happened in this game, in this situation, even when it was after a set-piece.”

“I want, and I think everybody wants to realise that we don’t necessarily start managing a game from the first minute. That’s not how it is,” he added.

“You need to come into a game and when you are in a game, you need to keep it going. At the end, to manage a result in the last five or 10 minutes is an important part of football.”