Former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson has insisted that one Virgil van Dijk won’t solve the Reds’ defensive issues.

Jurgen Klopp stood and watched another shambolic defensive performance from his Liverpool side at Wembley on Sunday afternoon as Tottenham routed them 4-1.




Dejan Lovren was hooked off around the 30-minute mark as the Croatian struggled to keep Tottenham attackers at bay during his short stay on the turf at Wembley.

Klopp has a decision to make regarding Lovren’s place in the starting eleven ahead of next weekend, but Lawrenson has bemoaned that rotation in the backline leads to more uncertainties.
 


He also stressed that none of the Liverpool defenders are good enough and the hypothetical signing of Van Dijk from Southampton would not have done much to solve their defensive issues.  

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Asked if Klopp may go without Lovren next weekend, Lawrenson said on LFC TV: “He has already done it and which is why he has been rotating.

“If you keep rotating the players in that position then you say they are not good enough.

“But once you rotate then it’s difficult to build a relationship with the goalkeeper and everybody else.

"You have got to be pessimist when you are defender – you expect your partner to miss everything, your goalkeeper to drop everything and your left-back is rubbish.

“It’s the just way it is but if you keep rotating then it’s difficult to understand the strengths and weaknesses.

“Virtually every player we have got [at the back] isn't quite good enough and that’s a real difficult thing as you are not going to replace all of them.

“I get this Virgil van Dijk all day long, but we need four of them.”

Liverpool have already conceded 16 goals this season in the Premier League, their highest tally after nine games since the 1964/65 campaign, when they shipped 20.