Jurgen Klopp reveals one quality that will be the 'ticket into the team' for Liverpool players

Liverpool Football Club is currently in the middle of the biggest squad rebuild in the Jurgen Klopp era.

Seven first-team players have departed, including the club's captain Jordan Henderson, vice-captain James Milner, and some of the club's oldest servants in Fabinho and Roberto Firmino.

Amongst the chaos, the Reds have so far recruited Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, while the club also remains locked in talks with Romeo Lavia of Southampton and on the hunt for defensive reinforcements as the bare minimum this summer.

With all the talk understandably being on Liverpool's transfer rumours, Liverpool fans will feel safe in the comfort that from an attacking viewpoint, the options are plentiful – in fact, claiming Liverpool have five world-class forwards at the club wouldn't be a particularly outrageous statement.

However, trying to fit Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nuñez, Diogo Jota, and Luis Diaz into a line-up, in addition to fantastic youth talent like Ben Doak breaking through, is yet another headache for Klopp, albeit the god kind.

Now, the Liverpool boss may have just hinted at the quality his forwards need to possess in order to lock down a starting spot.

After the 4-0 battering of Leicester at the weekend (the third time so far this pre-season that Liverpool have scored four goals), Jurgen Klopp told press that the ticket into the team, particularly from an attacking standpoint, will be a player's 'readiness for defence'.

Regarding his attacking players, he said, via Liverpoolfc.com: "They all are a threat, they all are good footballers – the ticket into the team will be the readiness for defence because you never hear about a team being really successful with sloppy defending, it just will not happen."

Klopp's philosophy as Liverpool coach has been evident from day one. He wants to defend from the front, and be the best pressing – and counter-pressing – team in the world.

Having a front three of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, as well as workhorse midfielders, made his job somewhat easy and the Liverpool of old were renowned for their work ethic and running distances during games.

Now with more creative midfielders, and a new-look attacking line, Liverpool's goalscorers need to ensure that they aren't forgetting about their defensive responsibilities if they want a starting spot this season.

Klopp also highlighted Nuñez's pre-season displays in particular. He said: "For Darwin [it's] the same like for all the other strikers as well because I know about the quality they have [but] they need to do both – defend and being influential in all the offensive situations."