Jürgen Klopp says he will likely entrust Liverpool's youngsters in their FA Cup third round replay with Exeter City after an inexperienced side drew 2-2 with the Grecians in Devon on Friday night.

The German made 11 changes to the team that beat Stoke City in the other domestic cup competition three days earlier, with his squad having been ravaged by injuries across a taxing few weeks, handing out debuts to Ryan Kent, Kevin Stewart and Tiago Ilori who were all recalled from loan spells over the past week. 

Jerome Sinclair, making his first senior start, scored his first goal for the club to level the scores after 12 minutes, with Tom Nichols having poked in from a cross to open the scoring three minutes' earlier at St James' Park.

But the League Two outfit regained the lead on the stroke of half-time after Lee Holmes' corner inexplicably sailed over Adam Bogdan and straight into the back of the net.

And it looked as if Exeter were on course to be the first team three tiers below Liverpool to knock them out of the competition since 1959 until Brad Smith finished smartly after Jordan Moore-Taylor could only direct the ball into the left-back's path with a hashed clearance.

Neither side could find a winner despite Klopp introducing more debutants in the form of Sheyi Ojo and Joe Maguire, setting them up with a second clash to be played at Anfield later this month, which Klopp insists he's likely to hand similar players another opportunity in with his first-team stretched.

Reds boss considering second opportunity for youthful XI 

He explained that it is "difficult" to "have another game" but insisted they cannot focus their attentions on the replay yet, because they have "two other games before it."

The manager told reporters inside a cramped media room that "if the [injury] situation doesn't change" they "will play the same team or [one] a little bit different with other young players", but said they will first "see what happens in the next games" before making a decision.

Asked whether he was frustrated about the Reds' recent injury woes, Klopp replied that it's "only the situation" that annoys him because he "knew about the schedule before." He added that his side "are playing more games than some other teams" because they are still in both the Capital One Cup, at the semi-final stage, and the Europa League in the Last 32.

He also said that their "main problems" are a lack of centre-halves, saying: "We had five, now we have none" though they should welcome back Kolo Touré within a few days as he revealed that "next week it could be different" and they will "see what we can do" then.

Klopp willing to take blame for mistakes made

A youthful Liverpool side twice responded well to setbacks to earn a hard-fought draw and though the futures of several players is in doubt, Klopp sought to defend his line-up and take the flak for any of the negative aspects of their performance.

The Reds boss exclaimed: "If you want to criticise somebody then do it with me and leave the players alone" as he explained that the team "tried what they could" and that, "if they made mistakes" it was his "responsibility" and "not the players' - adding that if they made mistakes in a one-on-one situation, that was "the responsibility of all the coaching staff" because they "picked them to help us [the team] in this moment" which he said "they did."

Klopp explained further that he and his backroom staff "tried to create a line-up under the time pressure" as he said that they "trained together yesterday and this morning for around 40 minutes" in an attempt to "create an idea."

He said the display was "not too good" nor "too bad" and insisted that it showed "it's very important you train together" before adding that their situation with first-team absentees must be respected because they were still there at Exeter "to win through to the next round." Despite admitting "it didn't work 100 per cent" the boss took solace from the fact "it did 50 per cent" though he joked: "I can't believe we have another game!"

German admits he enjoyed "good" first FA Cup experience

Asked to sum up his thoughts on an end-to-end game in front of a sell-out crowd, Klopp said that the pitch made it "difficult for both teams" and suggested it was unlucky that the Reds conceded from Exeter's "first attack."

But he hinted that he was impressed with the reaction of his team as he described that it "wasn't too easy" for Liverpool's "young boys" especially after they conceded a second goal which Klopp summed up as "something of a miracle."

Again, however, Klopp was keen to take the positives by saying that "in an atmosphere like this with legs getting tired, we were able to strike back" and vowed that they "deserved a replay" and were "good enough for a draw" despite not playing "as well as we can."

He praised Exeter too, saying they "did well" in what was a "good atmosphere" and he concluded that it was "a good first experience of the FA Cup" despite laughing that "the dressing room wasn't too big and the press room is much bigger, maybe they could change!"