Life as a Liverpool defender demands the wearing of a tin hat as much as shin pads.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are often defined as the epitome of carelessness; the flamboyant attackers undermined by its feeble back four. Only once in the Premier League era has a Liverpool side conceded more after six league games.

But for those on the receiving end of criticism, directing blame solely at the defenders is unjust.

“It’s a team issue,” says left back Alberto Moreno.

“Eleven players have to attack together and defend together. It would be a pretty tough job if you only relied on the four guys named in defence and the goalkeeper. So to attach blame only to the defenders is always going to be a little unfair. It’s about working together as a team and as a block, and that’s a job you do with 11 players.

Jurgen Klopp's side have been criticised for their attacking approach

“We can’t deny the fact that irrespective of whether we’re getting criticism or not, we know we have to improve defensively - and that we’ve been conceding too many goals. So it’s something that we are working on - to try to concede less as a team.”

Until the unfavourable statistics are reversed, the questions will persist: does an attacking philosophy make defensive vulnerability inevitable?

A trip to Newcastle, a fixture once famously dubbed an exhibition of ‘kamikaze football’ during the Kevin Keegan and Roy Evans era of the mid-90s, is a reminder some modern problems are rooted in tradition.

Klopp, like Evans and Brendan Rodgers (for the record Liverpool conceded more at the start at 2012/13 campaign), favours creativity over caution. As under those predecessors, it prompts the lament Liverpool are a dominant centre-back or defensive midfielder away from a balanced side.

Liverpool travel to Newcastle on Sunday

“You do get some teams where the wide men tuck in, drop back and make it a lot easier,” said Moreno.

“The team as a whole defends deeper and you are getting help from midfielders. Yes that make it easier for a defender.”

But the Spaniard is adamant the broad problem is not one of style, but individual attentiveness.

“Lack of concentration,” he says.

“You would put it down to that more than anything else. It's just at particular moments, maybe from a quick throw or the second ball dropping from a corner, we've not managed to clear. We've really got to focus on not losing that concentration and to be strong for 90 or 95 minutes, however long the game lasts.

“The manager has always remained pretty faithful to his thoughts and the way he wants to play the game. His approach has always been to defend well, but at the same time when we attack, attack in numbers. We’re trying to remain faithful to that ethos.

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“That is his most fundamental idea: as soon as we lose possession do everything we can to surround the ball and get it back as quickly as possible, so it’s ours again.”

A less familiar issue has confronted Klopp in recent games. While few chances are required to score against Liverpool, his side’s conversion rate has dropped.

I have just seen a stat flying around that in the last six games we have had over 121 shots, which is a massively high number, but for one reason or another, whether it is down to luck, the ball not falling our way, it’s not going into the net,” said Moreno.

“I pray to him upstairs that if we do get a chance, they start to go in a little bit more frequently. If you look at the majority of those recent games, you could argue we deserved to win a lot. Something is working well. Maybe it is just the rub of the green.”