Klopp not too concerned over Liverpool’s defence after draw against Wolves

Alisson Becker gifted Goncalo Guedes the opener before brilliant finishes from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah – his 173rd for the club taking him past Kenny Dalglish on the club’s all-time list – turned the third-round tie around.

But the Reds’ defensive problems returned to haunt them as second-half substitute Hwang Hee-Chan equalised soon after entering the fray and Wolves could have won the tie but for a controversial offside flag ruling out Toti’s late header.

On his side’s leaky defence, Klopp said: ‘I can understand [how] it looks open in moments but it is just open because we think we can win the challenge and then we don’t win it and that’s then really tricky to deal with.

‘It’s not that they had chance after chance; what it causes us is a lot of effort to put it right in the end and if you are already there, so you could win [the ball] where you are, then you don’t have to run back and try to solve the problems there.’

This season Liverpool have conceded the first goal in more than half of their matches and have only eight clean sheets from 27 games.

Asked if this was a concern Klopp said: ‘Not in general, but in moments. Whatever you play – high-line, deeper-line, ball-orientated, man-orientated – you have to win challenges.

‘I mentioned it already now in the dressing room and I will mention it again as the next team we face is Brighton, who are famous for playing proper football. If you don’t defend properly there, then why should we go there?’

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