Jürgen Klopp refuses to underestimate Exeter City ahead of Liverpool's FA Cup third round tie against the League Two outfit on Friday night and insists they will not be starting an inexperienced side out of disrespect for their opponents.

Though overwhelming favourites, the Reds face a tough task at St James Park - with the boss likely to be forced into fielding a second-string side with as many as 13 senior players currently out injured.

In addition, Exeter will be desperate to claim a famous scalp in order to reach the fourth round of the world's oldest cup competition - and Klopp is aware that a lower-league opponent will pose certain dangers.

Liverpool's "big" respect for FA Cup means they will go out to win

Speaking to the press and at his pre-match address on Thursday afternoon, he said that Liverpool are aware that Exeter "are a good team" and acknowledged their "respectable result" against Sunderland when they lost 6-3 in the League Cup earlier this season.

Klopp explained that it's "not too easy" to score three goals against a Premier League side and insisted that "the quality of their players is in no doubt" and they are "professional" and "play football."

The clash represents the German's first real taste of the illustrious competition, and his first trip to experience of coming up against lower-league opponents. Ahead of it, he added that he's heard "the dressing room should be very small" and "the pitch is not in the best shape" after recent rain.

Liverpool reached the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions last season and are just 90 minutes from a place in the Capital One Cup final this year after beating Stoke City 1-0 in the first-leg of their two-legged affair on Tuesday night.

Now, the Reds are equally as eager to be successful in the FA Cup but Klopp insists they must take each game one at a team before dreaming about another trip to Wembley.

He explained that it is a "big, big tournament" for his team and insisted that they have "big respect" for the competition, explaining that his players will show the same desire to progress as they did in the other cup by saying: "I spoke to the players before the semi-final against Stoke and asked them if it's important for you, this cup, then you have to show it."

He assessed that they demonstrated that they were "really interested" in winning silverware with their performance, saying it is "the same thing with the FA Cup" but warned they "can't think about this in our first round" because they can only "go through the whole tournament to the final" if they "win each game" and they still need to "find a solution for the common situation" against Exeter.

Youthful Reds side will be keen to avoid huge upset, says boss

And Klopp also acknowledged that though he has serious injury issues which have depleted his squad in a hectic January schedule, the game will not be remembered for the players involved, rather the names of the clubs, if they suffer an upset. 

He declared that "nobody is interested if you go back to these shock results and ask why it happens" and highlighted Leeds United's win at Manchester United in 2010, insisting that "nobody is interested in why they played with the team they played, if they played with the first team or not" because they only cared about "the two names of the clubs."

Klopp said that is "what you have to live with in football" because "everybody wants to see the sensation" in the early rounds of cup competitions, but vowed that his team he selects "will want to win this 100 per cent."

He did however tell reporters that the team will be one that "didn't play too often together" and said that if this is a chance for Exeter, "they have to take it" though his team "go there to win the game and get into the next round."

Expanding more on the side that he'll choose for the trip to Devon, saying it will be "very young" and none of the players that featured in "the last five or six games in a row" will play against Exeter because it is "not possible."

He said it is "not easy" for him to form a team out of the remaining players with "the situation" he has, but said he "will try and find one" out of his "big respect for the FA Cup." 

The Reds box expanded that "the situation" is that Philippe Coutinho cannot play "for three-and-a-half weeks" and told the press that, "if someone wants to write a headline, it is not the truth because we respect the FA Cup. That is one reason for the team we will play at Exeter."

Klopp to turn to makeshift defence in light of recent injuries

The growing injury crisis could even force Klopp into choosing Jose Enrique at centre-back, despite the fact that the natural full-back has not played a first-team game for the Reds since last January.

He acknowledged it as "an idea" because they have no fit senior centre-backs after Kolo Touré was ruled out through injury, referring to Enrique playing the full 90 minutes in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Morecambe earlier in the week and suggesting they "could need his experience." 

And his centre-back partner could be a player who has yet to make his first-team debut since a £7 million switch from Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2013, with Tiago Ilori having been recalled for Aston Villa and "should be available" after returning from injury and playing for Villa's reserves a few times.