Jurgen Klopp has delivered a robust defence of his underfire Liverpool centre-backs as he insisted that other top clubs would want to sign them.

The Anfield boss also dismissed suggestions that the Reds had erred by failing to strengthen that area of the squad during the summer transfer window.

Liverpool missed out on top target Virgil van Dijk after Southampton refused to sell, but Klopp insists an array of alternatives were considered before he opted to keep faith with what he already had in Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan and Joe Gomez.

That decision has been the subject of increased scrutiny this week after a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City was followed by the Reds throwing away a lead in their 2-2 Champions League draw with Sevilla.

“With all the history before I came in and since I’ve been here with how people talk about these players, you really should try one time to go out there and ask other clubs what they think about these defenders and whether they would like to pick them. You would be really surprised,” Klopp said.

Virgil Van Dijk shows off aerial prowess in training

Pressed on why Liverpool didn’t pursue a Plan B after failing to land Van Dijk, Klopp said: “I said if there would have been a solution out there we would have done it. There was no solution.

“I cannot speak in this country about any players I tried to get. Give me other centre-halves?”

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When it was put to him that either Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly or Ajax’s Davinson Sanchez, who ended up joining Tottenham, would have been among the other suitable options to bolster his backline, Klopp said: “No. We watched all of them 500 million times.

“Just to cool the people down, what if the new player doesn’t hit the first ball (like Lovren against Sevilla) and he makes exactly the same mistake? A mistake they all made in their life – but it is like ‘He is a £65million signing, he will improve’.

“Why do you think the other one cannot improve? I don’t understand that. We want to make the right decisions. A big part of football and life is really putting faith in the people you work with – trust them – because they all can improve.

“They all can. They are all good out there but they are not that good that you say yes they could help immediately. I had to make a decision and the decision was our boys are not worse than them.

“What I see from all the questions, you start too early coming back to these things. For me it’s really difficult always to come completely on your planet, visit you and say ‘Yeah you’re right, there were five good options out there and we missed them because, I don’t know, we wanted to spend the money anywhere else’.”

'I believe in trust'

One accusation levelled at Klopp by some fans and pundits is that he’s too trusting in the current crop.

“People say that? That’s the risk when you get a manager, so we are like we are,” he said.

“I believe in trust. I trust people until they give me an opportunity or a possibility not to trust them anymore. That’s how I understand life.

(Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

“My job is really to get the best out of these boys, not to sign them and tell them ‘Deliver, come on.’ That’s a clear deal. You perform really well boys, credit. We perform bad, my credit. It’s my job to make sure we can perform as good as possible.”

Lovren was a lightning rod for criticism after his blunder put the opener on a plate for Wissam Ben Yedder against Sevilla. But Klopp says the Croatian centre-back has been unfairly singled out.

“At the time I thought it had gone through his legs but then I watched it back. Things like this happen and it’s all about reacting to it,” he said.

“I’d give them all the advice: don’t read anything. But with the world of social media that’s quite difficult for the boys. They all know what people think and say in this moment.

“Two people say you’re good and you think ‘okay’, five people say you are bad and it feels like a stitch or whatever. Dejan is not 18 any more. He’s a man, he’s a father of two kids. He can deal with it. I’ve seen much bigger mistakes in my life.

“Around their second goal, I should have asked five players - and in fact I did - why they reacted like they did in that situation? That’s the most interesting question. We’ve worked on the quick throw-ins seven million times in training and it still happened. That’s more my problem than the individual mistakes.

“When a ball comes across and you miss it, it’s about one millisecond. You can’t train for this. The first goal was also a collective failure. At the end it’s a cross but in football you need to avoid crosses coming in.

“We should have that the ball back before that. Emre Can was in a situation where he usually gets the ball but he misjudged it. Do we talk about him? No. Not that I want people to talk about Emre, but I don’t understand the focus just on Dejan.

“My criticism always need to help. Others just need to make criticism. My job is a bit different.”

Klopp was irked that talk of defensive frailties rather than Liverpool’s scintillating attacking play has dominated the build up to Saturday’s Premier League clash with Burnley.

But fans’ frustration stems from the fact that it’s been an area of weakness for the Reds for so long. It pre-dates his two-year reign.

“I know that but that doesn’t make it any more right,” Klopp added.

“Hypothetical, but let’s say when I came here we started new and now we have this team. When I came in we were ninth and now ‘ooofff’. We are really on a good way.

“Is it allowed to see it like this? Yes. Sometimes we make mistakes because we are offensively that strong. If we lose the ball in the wrong moment, it is the most difficult thing to do to defend these situations.

“It is not that we don’t see it, it is not that we don’t want to fix it, it is not that we ignore it. Yes, sometimes there are goals I am angry about.

“But after the game again we talk about this and not enough about all the positive things. Two goals conceded, that was not good. But the rest was real Champions League football against a real strong side.

“My job is really to make the best out of this season and it’s easy for me in a lot of moments to believe in this team.”