Liverpool news: Alan Hansen wants Reds to follow Leicester City's model to ease defensive worries

Liverpool legend Alan Hansen has advised Jurgen Klopp to follow Leicester City's model to ease defensive woes in order to climb up the league table. The Foxes have enjoyed a great run in England's top flight club competition as they sit on top of the table with 53 points after 25 games, while the Reds are 18 points behind them in the ninth spot.

Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez have been the star players for Claudio Ranieri's side up front, while the Merseyside club's strikers have struggled to score regularly this season. However, it is the back four which has been a source of trouble for Liverpool as they have conceded 36 goals in the league and scored only 32 goals in the process.

Wes Morgan and Robert Huth have been the two centre-back pair and have started in all the league matches this season, with Huth only missing one game this term. Hansen, who played as a central defender, winning eight league titles and three European cups with Liverpool, believes his former club needs a stable pairing in the heart of the back four to solve defensive worries.

"They are a model for Liverpool – that stable core at the back is what they need – but who is going to forge that [centre-back] partnership? I've not seen any obvious solution yet," Hansen told the Mirror.

"You look at Leicester – top of the Premier League, five points clear and of course their strikers have been exceptional.

"But the combination of Wes Morgan and Robert Huth at the back has been a revelation and that has given them a basis to challenge for the title.

"When I watched Leicester two or three times, about 18 months ago, I wasn't sure about Morgan. And Huth, without being too critical, was always an honest, rugged defender but he couldn't get in the first team at Stoke.

"All of a sudden, they are an established partnership in a side who could win the title, they are rock-solid and they are on the same wavelength as Kasper Schmeichel in goal behind them," the Anfield favourite concluded.