Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool's defence needs to urgently improve

The Reds' pre-season has been marred by a concerning number of goals conceded, with the four goals let in against Bayern adding up to a total of 12 goals conceded in their last four friendlies.

Liverpool faced defensive issues throughout the previous season, conceding 47 goals in 38 league games. Klopp emphasised that the team cannot afford to let this trend persist.

However, the defensive level that Klopp hoped to see was not evident in the recent match against the Bundesliga champions.

Bayern took advantage of several sloppy decisions made by Liverpool's defence, making them the second team to score four goals against Liverpool this summer.

"I've tried to make really clear our defending has to be at a completely different level to last season. We had better do that or we will have real problems."

"The first goal we concede, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] and Joel [Matip] have to react better. This pass, I don't think it is [able] to avoid, to be 100% honest.

"We cannot always be there and block all balls, sometimes balls will fly towards our last line. It was just a little doubt in between, but both stand on both feet - I am not sure exactly when it was, 30 minutes when they scored the first goal? - so we felt the intensity properly then, like humans are.

"I think it was a similar time [in the] second half, between Joey [Gomez] and Ibou [Konate]. It's nothing about speed or whatever, it is just about awareness - check the situation. In football there are no breaks. When you are really tired, that's the thing you hate the most: there are no breaks.

"Apart from that, how I said, I saw a lot of good individual performances, I think really encouraging, really positive, and we can work with that, that's it."

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