Football
ESPN staff 7y

Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp: We need to work on our defence '100 percent'

Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool need to improve on their defensive work if they are to have a successful 2017-18 season.

Klopp's side beat Leicester 2-1 on Saturday to win the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong, having previously defeated Crystal Palace in last week's semifinal.

The Liverpool boss told Sky Sports he was pleased with the result, but conceded some of his team's defending against Leicester had been poor, particularly in allowing Islam Slimani to open the scoring.

"Two games, two wins so that's of course the best thing," he said. "You can see it was difficult again and it was not 100 percent of our physical ability. Players like Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, they cause you problems so we're a little bit too late in the mind because the legs are tired.

"I thought we could have defended the first goal seven times already, but in the end it is a cross and a free header so it's not nice but it's what happens. We came back and even before the good goal, we were already the dominant side and playing good football so it was all OK.

"I liked everything I saw but that [defensive work] is something we need to fix 100 percent. I know it is preseason and we can change it but it is something I don't like already so we need to work on it."

Liverpool's next preseason stop is Germany, where they are set to play two games in the Audi Cup, starting with a match against Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.

"The second phase is now starting in Germany," Klopp said. "We need to be ready for the start [of the Premier League] because it is not possible to go through a preseason like this and everything feels easy, then a hot August in England is coming.

"That's what we have to prepare for but everything can be improved, although what we have done so far is completely OK."

^ Back to Top ^