Jurgen Klopp has no time for those who claim Liverpool are weak in defence.
While our attack has been consistently lauded this term because we’ve outscored every other side in the country, Klopp’s backline has faced criticism – with many suggesting we won’t win the title until it’s ‘sorted’ out.
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But the manager actually sees an improving defence which is playing well and restricting opposition chances and based on our 0-0 draw with Southampton on Saturday, in which they had zero shots on target, he’s probably right.
“We are not weak in defending. If you want to say this, do it – I don’t care. I know we aren’t,” Klopp told the Telegraph.
“Look how we defend, how Dejan (Lovren) and Joel (Matip) defended these counter attacks. I didn’t see much better. There was no counter attack, they were always quick, always there.
“My favourite situation in the game was when Nathan Redmond or whoever was there and there were four players from Liverpool and one player Southampton.
“We got the ball back and I couldn’t see another Southampton player. That’s what we have to do. Take the ball again and try again.”
We’ve conceded 14 goals in the Premier League this term, but only nine in the ten games Joel Matip has started. Now Loris Karius has cemented the spot between the sticks, we’ve got a starting ‘back-5’ with excellent fullbacks Nathaniel Clyne and James Milner either side of a developing partnership between the Cameroonian and Dejan Lovren.
This for us has huge potential and we expect to rack up a number of clean-sheets in the nine fixtures before New Year.
Our failure to bag against Southampton was an anomaly; Roberto Firmino and Clyne missed sitters and we came up against an inspired Virgil van Dijk (who actually should have been sent off).