Jurgen Klopp reveals what he told Liverpool dressing room after Wolves draw

Jurgen Klopp rued the lack of challenges Liverpool won as they scraped a draw against Wolves in the FA Cup third round.

The Reds - who are holders of the competition - were held to a 2-2 stalemate against their Premier League rivals at Anfield, with the tie now heading for a replay at Molineux.

It was another unconvincing performance from Liverpool and they needed two controversial moments to earn a draw.

Mo Salah’s goal that put the Reds 2-1 ahead in the 52nd minute stood despite the Egyptian being in an offside position when Cody Gakpo played a lofted pass. Wolves defender Toti Gomes tried to clear the ball with his head, which deemed Salah onside.

Toti then had a winning goal chalked off with 10 minutes for offside that bewildered the visitors.

Liverpool’s performance left a lot to be desired, with their Premier League form continuing to stutter after a 3-1 loss at Brentford earlier this week.

Klopp believes the Reds are not winning enough of their battles - and must improve drastically ahead of a trip to ‘proper’ team Brighton next weekend.

When asked if he’s concerned about team’s defending in general, the Anfield boss said: “Not in general, but in moments, it’s not concerning. Look, you watch a game and then you see the things that happen. Whatever you play, high-line, deeper-line, ball-orientated, man-orientated – you have to win challenges. There is no alternative to [that]. So, yeah, I mentioned already now in the dressing room and I will mention it again and the next team we face is Brighton, who are meanwhile famous for playing proper football. If you don’t defend properly there, then why should we go there?

“I can understand, it looks open in moments, but it is just open because we think we win the challenge and then we don’t win it and that’s then really tricky to deal with in the end. It’s not that they had now chance after chance, what it causes us is a lot of effort to put it right in the end and if you are already there, so you could win it where you are, then you don’t have to run back and try to solve the problems there.”