Jurgen Klopp has held “intensive” talks with his Liverpool players over their set-piece failings and demanded an immediate response against Stoke City in the Capital One Cup semi-final on Tuesday.

While delighted at Liverpool’s remarkable 5-4 win at Norwich City on Saturday, and in need of replaced spectacles having broken his favourite pair celebrating Adam Lallana’s late winner, Klopp was again frustrated by his team’s weaknesses when defending set pieces. Norwich’s opening goal was the eighth time Liverpool have conceded from a corner this season and they have conceded from 13 set pieces in total.

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The defending at Carrow Road, Klopp revealed on Monday, has prompted another inquest at Melwood and the manager admits improvement is essential against Mark Hughes’s team in the semi-final second leg at Anfield.

“We know about this problem, I am sorry to say it is not a problem we can ignore,” Klopp said. “It is obvious we didn’t handle it too well. We are a football team and we always work on our weaknesses. It is not too easy in this short period in between [matches] but we spoke about it really intensively. We had good talks together – it’s not the first one but hopefully the last one.

“It is not about the formation because we changed the formation, it is not always about the quality of the set plays it is about what we are doing. We defended the first ball well but then struggled with the second or third so that’s a normal reaction. We were fully concentrated in defending the situation but then we closed the book too early.

“The goal of [Dieumerci] Mbokani there was still a full box so we could have pushed up a little bit earlier and whoever was left would have been offside so that would be a clever idea. There are a few movements we have to do and if we are doing them we are quite quick and stronger in defending this. It is not too late to learn but now it is time to learn and show we have learned. But then once we have spoken about it then we have to ignore it. We have to ignore the problem because after 30 seconds we have to get cool again.

Between Stoke and West Ham we have one day more [training] and we can do something on the pitch.”

Liverpool lead 1-0 from the first leg and will have Dejan Lovren available following his recovery from a hamstring injury although Nathaniel Clyne is doubtful with a knee problem.

Klopp said: “Dejan is back after three weeks, he trained yesterday and had a complete session with the team. If nothing happens in the next 24 hours it should be Kolo [Touré] and Mama [Mamadou Sakho] again [in central defence]. Clyne got a knock on the knee. He’s a really tough boy, always available, but we left him out of training and we’ll see how it goes overnight. We only have Flanno [Jon Flannagan] who has been out for a long time. He’s not had 90 minutes which is not ideal but he’s ready.”