Football
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Jurgen Klopp rather Liverpool were fluent than perfect at defending

Jurgen Klopp has said he wants his players to continue to be "fluent and creative" as he seeks to end a run of four matches without a win at Leicester on Saturday.

Klopp's side have scored only three goals in that period, having scored 14 in their preceding five, and have let in 10 -- five of those at Manchester City.

And while Liverpool's defence is coming in for criticism, Klopp said he did not want his players to be restricted by that scrutiny.

He said: "We are still fluent and still creative but we don't score, so it's a big problem.

"If you ask me what would you prefer -- do you want your team perfect in defending set pieces but don't know how to play football or would you prefer the other way round? -- I still would take this [second] one.

"What we have at the moment because of the situation is that everybody wants to help where the first ball is.

"We come too close together in the situation where the first ball is going after a throw-in and it means that for the second ball we don't have a good formation.

"We need to get more natural in these things because it's not that difficult, to be honest, but it happens too often.

"Now we have to work and then it will be even more difficult to create something against us."

Klopp's defensive worries have been exacerbated by a back injury to Dejan Lovren, which has kept him out of the last two matches and prevented him training all week, while fellow centre-back Joel Matip is also a doubt with injury.

Otherwise, Klopp will restore his strongest side after the midweek League Cup defeat to Saturday's opponents and said that match would have no bearing on the Premier League clash.

"I think both teams will not think too much about this game because there will be different lineups for sure, on both sides," he said.

"Leicester has a typical style of play: Jamie Vardy is a pretty key player for this kind of play and also [Riyad] Mahrez, and both were not involved [in the cup tie].

"They go for set-pieces: [Christian] Fuchs will be back probably, so that means throw-ins are back in the game and all that stuff."

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