Klopp unfazed by defensive opponents

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told his team not to worry about opposition sides opting for a defensive approach against them, after being held by Southampton.

Klopp’s men had their chances but failed to convert, drawing 0-0 at St Mary’s on Saturday to slip to second in the Premier League.

But the German had no complaints about the hosts’ defensive approach against his free-scoring team, who have scored 30 league goals in 12 games.

“There is nothing to moan about,” Klopp told UK newspapers.

“You can’t ask them, ‘come on, give us a little more space or something?’

“Before the season we had to work on this, and that is what I meant when I say we are happy with the performance against Southampton, because again we did well.

“It isn’t a game where you have 20 chances, we had four or five. That is more than enough, especially how big those chances were.”

Liverpool’s clean sheet, however, was just their second of the league campaign, following on from their 0-0 draw with Manchester United in October.

Klopp is tired of the questions over his side’s defending, insisting they are better than people give them credit for.

“I don’t care about what people say about it because when you only look at the numbers and you see 14 goals conceded then that is obviously too much for a team like this,” he said.

“But look how we conceded those goals. It was a thing we spoke about with set-pieces because three goals we conceded are from set-pieces – well, in my analysis afterwards they were offside but nobody spoke about it, just that we have a problem with set-pieces.

“We always need to be cool with it, we have to work, improve, we know this. But we are able to defend. We are not weak in defending. If somebody wants to say that then do it, but I know we aren’t.”