The German delivered a lengthy message to his side to stop switching off from dead-ball situations and told them to make sure they start games at a higher tempo
Jurgen Klopp is hoping an intensive talk with his Liverpool squad over their defensive frailties at set-pieces will be the last discussion he needs to have on the subject.
The Reds have conceded a league-high eight goals from corners and were punished after giving away needless free kicks in the absorbing 5-4 victory over Norwich on Saturday afternoon.
The manager described his side’s defending as “really rubbish” in the immediate aftermath of the encounter at Carrow Road, and admitted on Monday that lengthy dialogue was held at Melwood over the switching off at set-plays.
"Of course, we know about this problem. I’m sorry to say it’s not a problem we can ignore and try to sort it that way. It’s obvious we’ve not done too well, but we are a football team and always working on our weaknesses, as we are in this short period between [games]," Klopp said at the club’s training complex.
"It’s not too easy because yesterday was recovery, today is extended recovery and then tomorrow is a little session then we have to play in the evening. It’s maybe not the best time, but we spoke about it really intensively, we had good talk together – not the first one, but hopefully the last one!
"In the end it is clear – it’s not about the formation because we changed that, it’s not always about the quality of the set-plays, it is more often about what we are doing in the situations.
"At Norwich, it was different in the sense we defended the first ball well, but then struggled with the second or third. That’s a normal reaction after you’ve spoken about it, changed something and are fully concentrated on defending in the situation, but then you close the book too early and you don’t push up.
"The goal of [Dieumerci] Mbokani, where there was still a full box and we could have pushed up a little bit earlier, and then whoever was left in our box would have been offside. That would have been a clever idea.
"It’s not too late to learn, but now it is time to learn and show that we have. It’s not allowed that at a set-piece it is 30 seconds of [holding our breath] and waiting to see what happens.
"We have to get cool again and most of our time in our lives we’ve known how it works; now we have a bad moment in defending set-plays but we can change it now. Between Stoke and West Ham it will be one day more, which is important for training, and then maybe we can do something on the pitch."
While Klopp was annoyed at the problems in Liverpool’s box against Norwich, he was proud of their response at the other end of the pitch. The German does, however, want Liverpool to start at a superior tempo instead of having to rescue games late on.
"We spoke about the set-plays and I didn’t like how we defended them, but in the end it was only because we conceded the goals that we could react like this," he said.
"The really positive thing was the reaction to the result in the game, but I didn’t like our start in the game. Our first 15 minutes in the game…I don’t have the words for this.
"We’ve had this situation two or three times this season; Newcastle was similar and West Ham was similar. Starting the game, playing a little bit of football but it wasn’t a real fight and usually you concede an early goal.
"The striking back mentality is much better than we had when I came, but now we need to find a way to start at our highest level in each game, not only in some."
- Goal