Boss: How Reds can nullify West Brom threat

The Reds will hope to bounce back from a 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United in their last Barclays Premier League outing when they face Tony Pulis' team at Anfield.

But they can expect a tough contest against a Baggies outfit that have beaten Arsenal and held both Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United to draws over the course of their last three games.

In the post-match press conference that followed Thursday's 0-0 Europa League draw with FC Sion, Klopp revealed that his focus the next day would be firmly on analysing West Brom's strengths and weakness.

And, speaking ahead of the weekend's game, the manager evidenced his new-found familiarity with the Reds' next opponents, saying: "They are a physically strong team, a lot of tall players, they like set plays, they like fighting for second balls.

"They don't too much build-up play, so it's intensive. They defend pretty deep, pretty hard. 

"They want set plays in offence, not just corners but free-kicks, they want all this stuff to bring their quality through and that's what I think everybody knew before I came here. 

"It's how Tony Pulis teams like to play and it's quite successful, so why should he change? That's hard work for us."

West Brom boast a team of physically imposing players and never is that more evident than when they win a set-piece that allows them to deliver the ball into the opposition box.

Klopp acknowledged that his players will need to be 'very, very concentrated' to negate the visitors' aerial advantage, and do all they can to avoid offering up such opportunities in the first place.

"We should sit on [each other's] shoulders, try to get a little bit taller, things like this," he joked.

"It was not the biggest issue in the last games but of course most of the goals we [conceded] in the last few weeks were set plays, that's true. 

"We have to be concentrated. How we defend set plays is okay, it could always be better, but we have to be very, very concentrated in these situations. 

"The best thing would be to avoid most of them. Of course you can't avoid all of them, but we don't have to make silly fouls wherever on the pitch because I think they take each one [as an attacking] set play with a lot of bodies in the box and so on. It's a challenge."

Sunday's fixture is likely to see the hosts' ability to unlock a packed defence tested yet again - a tactic they have somewhat struggled to overcome of late.

But Klopp expects his players to solve such problems more regularly as they learn with each passing game.

"We always work on that in the short time we have but of course we cannot have everything on the same level in the first moment so we have to carry on," he added.

"For all teams in the world it's the biggest challenge against deep opponents. 

"I would say against Crystal Palace it's not the best example because of the result but we created a lot, we created our moments, created our chances, so I think it's a similar style of play. 

"We know the way we have to go but it needs patience, it needs ideas, it needs creativity, it needs movement, it needs flexibility - everything. 

"And then you need to be aware of their counter-attacks and you have to protect your own defence. 

"That's football, there's no second game which is like the other one but you have all these examples and we know what to do. We have to do it, that's the thing."