Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has hailed the performance of his defenders against West Brom and is tired of hearing the concerns over his side’s strength at the back.
Liverpool were able to hold on for a 2-1 win at Anfield on Saturday night, despite some late pressure from West Brom.
Klopp has praised his players for seeing out the game and believes the result marked two strong defensive displays in a row.
He told the Liverpool Echo: “I heard it a few times (that Liverpool are suspect defensively) but I lose respect when people say this.”
“That’s not important because I do not have to respect everybody and I don’t need most of the people.”
“We defended well against United, brilliant, and then against West Brom it was so difficult but we have no defensive problem.”
“We needed to be really aggressive to defend their long balls from the first moment without making fouls. That’s quite a challenge but they did brilliantly.”
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Reds defender pleased to overcome unfamiliar period of the game in win against West Brom
Centre-backs Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren can take credit for dealing with two powerful strikers in Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimović and West Brom’s Salomon Rondon, over Liverpool’s last two games.
The pair have stood up well to the physical challenge and, despite failing to keep a clean sheet at the weekend, are beginning to show signs of building a strong partnership at the heart of Liverpool’s back four.
Klopp is fully aware of the need for his side to improve the way they defend set-pieces and we trust he is doing everything he can to achieve this.
The manager rightly hails West Brom’s quality when it comes to both delivering balls into the box and their big men attacking them.
Any team is likely to struggle against this kind of aerial threat at some point during the match, which is why we shouldn’t be too concerned about conceding on Saturday.