Loris Karius and Virgil van Dijk could be the key to turning Liverpool’s Keystone Kop defence from deadbeats to deadbolts.Find the more football news from SHINE.

German goalkeeper Karius made crucial saves in Sunday's 2-0 win at Southampton which sends Jurgen Klopp’s men to Portugal in good heart ahead of their Wednesday night Champions League last-16 date with Porto.

And £75million record signing Van Dijk was involved in only his third clean sheet this season – and his first for Liverpool – amid signs that Klopp has finally discovered the formula for keeping the back door locked for the highlights reels on Latch of the Day.Karius is winning the battle with Simon Mignolet to become Klopp’s first-choice keeper after starting six of the last seven games.

And Van Dijk’s blameless partnership with Joel Matip in central defence at St Mary’s, where the Saints fugitive was barracked on his return, was reassuring after the late chaos of the 2-2 draw with Tottenham, where Dejan Lovren was preferred as his sidekick.

Karius has quickly joined the appreciation of VVD’s quality at Anfield, saying: "He’s a great player. Of course he has to adapt, because our style is so different — we defend high — and he needs to get used to Joel and Dejan.But individually, Virgil is a top player. That’s why Liverpool paid the price they did for him. The more he gets used to our style, the more he’s finding his feet.

"It’s good to see and, as a keeper, you feel comfortable having players like that in front of you.

"I feel just as comfortable with Joel and Dejan. It’s good to know that even if you rotate, there’s always high quality.”

Karius followed his penalty save to thwart Spurs' England striker Harry Kane last weekend with an impressive display at Southampton, and the stats are now beginning to stack up in his favour.The man signed as a £4.7m bargain from German side Mainz in summer 2016 has kept seven clean sheets, and has only finished on the losing side once in 15 appearances this season.

He admitted: "In the last few games I’ve had more stuff to do and I’ve been able to make some saves which give you more confidence.

"I feel good, I feel strong and I always try to be there when the team needs me.

"We have some big games coming up against Porto, Manchester United and Chelsea, and we’ve shown this season we can beat the big teams. We need to maintain this momentum.

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