Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said he will give the players he inherited the rest of the campaign to prove that they should be part of his plans.
Klopp does not intend to be busy during the January transfer window, believing that the players assembled by his predecessor Brendan Rodgers deserve a full season to gel, the Liverpool Echo quoted him as saying.
As he prepared his side to take on Arsenal at Anfield on Wednesday, the German said he was taking rumours about the club's supposed transfer targets with a pinch of salt.
"I always say with players I don't sign contracts, but it's a contract for one year," Klopp said.
"A very good season and the player can leave, a very bad one and the club might let the player leave, so anything can happen.
"I don't like to think too much in a season what can we do [in the transfer market]. It's an agreement. Bad performances can happen even with new players. You can't say: 'Sell him, get a new one.'
"I'm a normal football fan. If I hear about our [transfer] rumours I know it's all s---. If I hear about another team I think: 'Oh, it's possible.' It's unbelievable.
"I'm not the smartest but not the most silly in the world. I like all the stories around, but only about other teams."
Klopp felt his side were ready to express themselves more at Anfield after some nervy home performances were followed by beating then-leaders Leicester 1-0 on Boxing Day.
"I'm not sure what came first, whether it was playing better at home or feeling less pressure," Klopp said. "But what I try to do is create an atmosphere in the team where we don't think too much about expectations from outside.
"So many people have expectations of us. It's not possible to fulfil all of those. But we must reach our own expectations. That should be possible.
"We have to take the first steps so that nobody is in any doubt about our style of play. We need to show that we are always well prepared and in the best possible shape.
"We feel in this moment confident enough to think we can be a real challenger for Arsenal."