The impending returns of ‘world-class’ duo Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana are coming at the perfect time as Liverpool prepare for the busiest period of the season, Ragnar Klavan believes.

Coutinho was ruled out of the Reds’ last three games prior to the international break due to an adductor issue, but played nearly 70 minutes of Brazil’s 0-0 friendly draw against England on Tuesday.

Lallana, meanwhile, returned to full training this week having missed the entirety of the season so far with the thigh injury he sustained in early August.

Saturday’s meeting with Southampton at Anfield represents the first of 13 fixtures on Liverpool’s calendar in a timeframe of just 45 days.

That prospect, coupled with the quality of the players in question, means Klavan is delighted that Coutinho and Lallana will soon be available again to Jürgen Klopp.

“It’s really important. They are really good, world-class players [so] to have them back, it’s really nice,” the centre-back told Liverpoolfc.com.

“We need the whole squad to go to this period where we play so many games, and sometimes you maybe need to rotate a little bit to bring fresh legs in.”

Klavan first experienced English football’s hectic winter schedule last year and feels that making the most of the reduced time the team have together at Melwood is crucial if they are to prosper between now and early January.

“There’s not much to prepare, I think it’s more about playing and recovery in this period of time and it’s for everybody to be in the best shape and those few training sessions we have before each game, we have to be there and listen to what the manager is saying,” the Estonia international explained.

“If you need to change something tactically, you have to always be there in training because sometimes you only have one decent session before you have to play again.”

The Reds head into this weekend’s clash with Southampton having scored 10 and conceded just once in their last three matches.

An improved level of defensive solidity has been evident since last month’s 4-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, and Klavan thinks a collective effort is the main reason for that.

“I think we’ve been defending with the whole team. I think everybody is giving their all, their best, to defend and after that when we get the ball we are ready to go forward. I think, at least in my opinion, everybody is doing their defensive work really good,” he said.

Back-to-back 3-0 victories over Huddersfield Town and Maribor saw Liverpool score all six of their goals after half-time, and Klavan thinks patience could again be required against a Saints side he describes as ‘really good’.

“For sure, always you have to be patient even if in the first half you maybe have more ball possession but you’re not scoring, you still need to do the defensive work to keep the zero [clean sheet] behind,” he noted.

“We know we’re going to have at least a couple of chances in every game, so be patient and give it your best.”