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Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool critics acting 'like we have nil points'

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Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool need to improve on their widely criticised set-piece defending, but says he would prefer good attacking play to perfect defending

Jurgen Klopp says over-the-top criticism of Liverpool is making them sound like "the worst side in the league".

Liverpool have gone four games without a win and this Saturday return to Leicester, where they were knocked out of the League Cup in midweek.

Klopp has been frank about the defensive difficulties his players are encountering, but speaking at his weekly press conference the Reds boss said those problems would be solved on the training ground - and not in the press room.

"I know already these problems, or 'not problems'," he said. "I made my decisions already how to work with it, and if I talk a lot about it it just creates headlines. They don't help us.

"For me it's important what we do, how we work. We talk about it, we work on it. This is the long part of a three-game week - Tuesday to Saturday, It gives us one more session, hopefully we can use it, but we have to prove it on Saturday."

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Alan McInally says Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp must feel 'utterly deflated' after his side dominated Leicester but still lost 2-0

Klopp maintained he would rather manage an attacking side with defensive frailties rather than the other way round and bristled at suggestions the recent concession of 'soft goals' might be down to a lack of character, saying: "We've proved it already hundreds of times.

"It sounds like we have nil points and are completely the worst team in the league. That's a little bit how you talk.

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"Yes, we obviously have problems and that's why we have 'only' eight points and not 15 - that's the situation, but you can make it more serious than it is or you can take it like it is.

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Jurgen Klopp said he was sick of the goals Liverpool were conceding recently including the goals in their 2-0 defeat to Leicester

"Yes, we have still work to do. If we had 15 points it would still be the same, it would only feel different. We have the right characters, sometimes we react really well and sometimes not perfectly, that's how it always is."

And there was a withering response some of the more scathing social media assessments of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's full debut were put to the German.

"That's the world of football," he said. "I'm not aware [of the criticism] but I can imagine.

"Ox had a few really good situations and a few unlucky situations. He did really well in moments when you could see him try to adapt to the style of play.

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Highlights of the Carabao Cup third-round match between Leicester and Liverpool

"He had a little problem with his calf - not an injury, but we all need to get used to it and manage it a little better. He didn't make the best game in his life, so people ask 'where's the impact?' but I'm not in doubt."

Klopp was without first-choice defenders Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip on Tuesday night, and neither has yet proved his fitness to return this weekend.

"Hopefully they'll be back in training today or tomorrow, but that's not true at the moment so I have to wait," he said.

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