• Manager riled after focus again on weakness at set pieces • ‘Against West Brom it was so difficult but we have no defensive problem’

Jürgen Klopp claims he has lost respect for critics of Liverpool’s defending and insisted there were no problems with the team’s resilience.

Liverpool went joint top of the Premier League on Saturday with a Philippe Coutinho-inspired victory against West Bromwich Albion, their third win in four home matches. Klopp’s team, in keeping with recent performances, restricted the visitors to few opportunities from open play but were again vulnerable at set pieces and Gareth McAuley’s late goal arrived via a Chris Brunt corner.

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Roberto Firmino, Dejan Lovren, Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum went close to extending Liverpool’s advantage and providing the two-goal winning margin required to replace Arsenal at the summit on Saturday night. McAuley’s volley assumed significance only because of its impact on the Premier League table and did not detract from another dominant Liverpool display, though renewed focus on his team’s achilles heel aggravated their manager.

Klopp said: “I’ve heard this a few times and I lose respect when people say this. It’s not important because I don’t have to respect everybody and you can say what you want but I cannot say more. I am not interested. I’m the first who knows about it and we work on it. I’m the coach of this team. I’m pretty close to them. I see all the games from a quite good perspective. I understand all of this and we will see at the end.

“If people say we have some issues with set pieces, how can I say they are wrong? I think 70-80% of the goals we have conceded are from set pieces. But they are all different and we are still working on it and we defended against Manchester United brilliantly. Against West Brom it was so difficult but we have no defensive problem.”

The Liverpool manager insists there has been a major improvement in the team’s overall defending since last season and described Albion as set-piece specialists who are liable to punish any opponent.

“It’s good that people can talk about some things,” he said. “Do you believe that we work on it? There was another team out there and did you see who was in it? It was like they were all my size going in, and they brought on the set-piece specialist who was injured for a long time [Brunt]. It is really lucky that it is against us he can come on the pitch in the second half. They are brilliant at set pieces.

“It is not the same problem we had last year. I like it more than if they created chances whenever they want because we defend like crazy. I’m fine with this for the moment but only for the moment. For now I don’t care how we conceded as we won and it was well-deserved.”

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Jordan Henderson picked up a booking in stoppage time for dissent, his fifth yellow card of the season, meaning the Liverpool captain will be suspended for the EFL Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday.

Tony Pulis, the Albion manager, claimed Liverpool have a “free run” at the Premier League title this season because of the absence of European football, drawing comparisons to the club’s last title challenge in 2013-14 when Brendan Rodgers’ team had no continental distractions.

“I played in Europe before and actually it never stopped us doing what we had to do,” Klopp said. “Playing good football is a big advantage, having good players is a big advantage, don’t play in the week can be a big advantage when you get injuries.

“You need the time we have plus for training. Where it will lead us to I’ve no idea. In December, January a few other teams will not have Europe and they will start again. I’m not sure if it was meant to be nice or a compliment or to make pressure on us. I’ve no idea but thank you – I’ll tell the players.”