Coutinho has left a hole at Liverpool, where is his replacement.

As you all know Philippe Coutinho has left Liverpool to join FC Barcelona for a British record fee of £142m. An astronomical amount, but for a team who sold Neymar for £200m and bought Ousmane Dembele for £135m it is only a splash in the ocean with the amount in modern football. 

Now everyone is on the race to name Liverpool's new man, as players like Thomas Lemar from Monaco, Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City, Gelson Martins from Sporting CP and even bringing in the future red Naby Keita early.

But what if Liverpool didn't sign anyone this winter window. What if, like in the summer, we waited to get our main target of Lemar. We have now see Virgil van Dijk join Liverpool who currently sit 4th in the Premier League table, into the fourth round of the FA Cup and have a winnable tie against Porto in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

Yet in the summer all Liverpool fans were panicking that we were going into the season with only Ragnar Klavan, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovern as our centre backs. This is the time to remind everyone Liverpool currently have conceded the least amount of home goals in the Premier League with only 3. This was also achieved without our new Dutchman. 

What if Jurgen Klopp knows that we have Adam Lallana coming back into full fitness and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain hitting his stride in Merseyside so we may not need to replace the Brazilian. There is also talk the proposed loan move for young Ben Woodburn to Sunderland may not happen as the Welshman has shown he can play the 'Coutinho' role. 

From various sources, including Liverpool's statement they sent out regarding the sale of the midfielder, it had shown that Klopp was willing to let him go because he was not focused solely on Liverpool. This is what the German wants, he looks for a player with specific sets of skills. He wants winners and people who want to play at Liverpool, Coutinho didn't want to be at Liverpool anymore so Klopp willingly let him go. 

Klopp has shown before that if he cannot get his target then and there he is happy to wait until he can get his man. The only problem with the summer window is most sides will want transfers done before the World Cup begins on the 14th June. This summer the window shuts early due to the vote of the 20 Premier League teams who approved it to shut before the opening weekend. So the window slams shut on the 9th August. 

During Klopp's time in Germany he had overseen key players leave Borussia Dortmund. Nuri Sahin joined Real Madrid in the 2011/12 season. Shinji Kagawa then moved to Manchester United the season after winning the league. Mario Gotze then followed the tradition in 2013/14 moving to rivals Bayern Munich. Gotze under Klopp had been named young player of the season once and in the team of the season twice. The following season Robert Lewandowski also joined Bayern Munich after finishing top scorer for Dortmund. 

Every time Klopp lost one of his key players he continued to progress with his squad adding players such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. 

Not all hope is lost, Liverpool still have a team who is improving season by season with a hungry manager and hungry players all wanting to do better. The reds have a forward in Mo Salah who is currently second to Harry Kane in the scoring charts. This team is improving and moving forward, so it will not be the end of the world without a Coutinho replacement. The reds had a very good start to the season without buying their main target over the summer and the same can be replicated again. 

Liverpool will cope with out the Brazilian magicain even though he was having one of his best seasons in a red shirt, but as football shows teams find a way to continue and adapt without their top players. 

Calum Anderson