Manager Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on September 27, 2021 in Kirkby, England.
Jurgen Klopp insists he has no concerns about Liverpool's defensive reliability, despite their chaotic 3-3 Premier League draw with Brentford at the weekend.
Liverpool take on Porto in a Champions League Group B match on Tuesday having defeated AC Milan 3-2 at Anfield in their opening game.
And they also sit top of the Premier League - one point ahead of Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton - despite the uncharacteristically sloppy performance against Brentford where they twice threw away the lead.
Before that game in London, Liverpool had conceded just a single league goal in their first five games. “It's not that much of a concern,” Klopp said on Monday. “I don't think you should make these things bigger than they are but we have to show a reaction, that's for sure.
“I think it's really tricky to win a football game when you are not defending on your highest level and that's what we didn't do.
“Porto is a different team and will play a different style but we will go direct as well and go for second balls so, we yeah we have to improve in that department for sure.”
Liverpool have won their past two away matches against the Portuguese side by an aggregate score of 9-1, in 2018 and 2019, but Klopp said those results were meaningless in the context of Tuesday's contest.
“Porto always change a little bit, they've had players going out and coming in, still the same manager,” he said.
“But we don't think about the last two games, we think about this game They have different opportunities to set up line-up-wise and system-wise and we have to be prepared for that.
“The last time we came here we didn't think about the previous game when we won 5-1 because it makes no sense.
“They are a top side, no doubt about that. They qualify year in, year out for the Champions League, they are always first or second in the Portuguese league — that's a top team — and that is what we are preparing for, not for a team we beat in the past.”
