Jurgen Klopp has defended Liverpool's world record £67 million move for Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson, telling ESPN FC that a move for Atletico Madrid's Jan Oblak would have cost even more.
Alisson, who played in all of Brazil's games during their run to the World Cup quarterfinals earlier this summer, is set to link up with the Liverpool squad when they return from their preseason tour of the United States next week.
Having insisted throughout last season that he was happy with Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet as his goalkeeping options, Klopp has faced criticism for sanctioning the big-money move for Roma stopper Alisson.
But he insists that signing Alisson was too good an opportunity to miss, especially with other keepers priced even higher.
"Everybody thinks it's a lot of money. It is a lot of money," Klopp said. "But he could've left for crazy money.
"The clause for Oblak for example is €100m, so nice! And that's it in this year where obviously a few things happen on the goalkeeper position.
"That's part of the job, to try to bring the best players you can get.
"The goalkeeper market is different because it's not each year that there is anybody available and stuff like that.
"We didn't know exactly if Alisson is available or not, but from a specific moment we realized obviously he is available and that's what the moment when we decided we want to go for him."
However, the move for Alisson has placed huge doubts over the Anfield futures of Mignolet and Karius, but Klopp insists that he still has total faith in both goalkeepers.
"We are really fine with our goalkeepers," he said. "So there's no doubts Simon Mignolet -- big quality, absolutely Premier League highest-level quality, Loris Karius as well.
"Yes, we all know what happened in the [Champions League] final, but we know as well why it's not about that.
"It's not the reason. We really wanted to bring in a player which we didn't have before to be honest and that's what happened with Alisson."