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Liverpool are facing a potential defensive crisis for Saturday's Premier League clash with Leicester City.

Dejan Lovren, who has missed the past two matches with a back problem, is struggling to be fit for the trip to the King Power Stadium.

Fellow centre-back Joel Matip and midfielder Emre Can have also missed training this week with knocks sustained against Burnley last weekend.

If Lovren and Matip both miss out against the Foxes then Jurgen Klopp will have no option but to partner Ragnar Klavan and Joe Gomez together at the heart of his under-fire backline.

“It's nothing major for Dejan but it's been enough to keep him out of the past two games,” Klopp said.

“He's not in training so he's a doubt for the weekend and that's not too cool.

“It's a completely different situation but Joel Matip and Emre Can also have little bits from the last game so we have to see. Hopefully they will be back in training today or tomorrow but we have to wait.

“We cannot change this. We can't just make a back problem go away.

“There are still two days to go so we will see who is available.”

Klopp declared he was “sick of this” after the Reds' defensive frailties were exposed once again in Tuesday night's Carabao Cup defeat at the hands of Leicester.

Liverpool failed to make their first-half dominance count and then folded when Craig Shakespeare's side started to exert some pressure in the second half.

The Reds have gone four games without a win but Klopp insists hard graft on the training field will ensure they put things right.

“The difficulty of our situation is that we're playing well but we don't score enough so far,” he said.

“We have to create these moments and a lot of things are working really well with our opponents struggling to defend against us.

“But it was too easy for them to then make an impact in the game with one situation. We can all expect that we're better in the situations around the goals.

“Take the first goal, we have to push up in that situation. Joe (Gomez) decided to step up and then stepped back again so there was no offside and then we lost the challenge.

“We need to be more concentrated and at the same time keep our good shape and be more clinical.

"We are still fluent and creative but we don't score and that's the problem. It's important I help the players with staying positive and changing the right things. We are still in a good moment.

"It's about concentration but also readiness. The second ball situation. We have been much better with defending the first ball from set-pieces.

"Everyone wants to help where the first ball is. We come too close together and that means for the second ball we don't have a good formation. We really work on this.

"If you asked me 'what do you prefer? Your team being perfect in defending set-pieces but don't know how to play football or would you prefer it the other way around?' I'd still take this one.

"We are on it to ensure it's more difficult to score against us."