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Virgil van Dijk says there should be no cause for concern at Liverpool after the Reds lost in disappointing fashion against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
And after a game in which he admitted the Reds deserved no points, the Dutchman insisted his side must now bounce back quickly with games against Galatasaray (Tuesday) and Chelsea (Saturday) coming up before the October international break.
Liverpool came from behind with another late goal at Selhurst Park courtesy of Federico Chiesa. But Eddie Nketiah netted even later to give Oliver Glasner’s side a deserved three points in a blow to the Reds' chances of piling the pressure on Arsenal ahead of its game with Newcastle United at St James' Park today.
"Disappointed in our performance. Disappointed in the loss, but especially the way we went about it," Van Dijk told reporters.
"I think if we got a draw here then we took already one point too much. That is the feeling that we have right now.
"I don't think there is any reason to worry, but we have to improve pretty quickly because obviously we play in Turkey on Tuesday. We have a very difficult game there as well so we have to be ready."
In a poor first half, several Liverpool stars looked well off their usual level. Arne Slot left Cody Gakpo out and tried Florian Wirtz in a new role, but he reverted back at the interval.
"It was the basics that we didn't do well," Van Dijk said. "Sometimes you can have these days. Hopefully this is the only day this season that we do that.
"There is a reason they were 17, now 18, games unbeaten. They are very difficult to break down, very disciplined, they defend deep and they don't mind that, and they have the quality on the break to hurt you.
"But it started all with ourselves. We were sloppy in possession, didn't win our second ball fight, and we created momentum for them. They could have been three or four up by half-time.
"We are lucky that we have, in my opinion, the best goalkeeper in the world to save us. If we had a draw, we had one point too much.”
Chiesa and ultimately Nketiah continued the pattern of late goals in Liverpool games but Van Dijk says that isn’t a bad thing.
"The issue is our performance,” he explained. "Especially first half, it was far below par. That is something we have to improve.
"It doesn't really matter if we score late because sometimes teams are difficult to break down and you have to find a way to win games.
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"Towards the end, teams are getting tired and the spaces will get bigger. So that's not the issue. It is more looking at our performance, it was definitely not good today. Not good at all. Palace deserved the win that they eventually got as well.
"If you look at the first half, everybody has to improve. Obviously Ali saved us so I don't think he could have done more.
"But second half, we went back to what we are used to doing throughout the season. First half, Flo had a bit of a free role and we tried to make it difficult for their defenders to push up and find space in behind.
"But they didn't mind sitting deep and using their strength and that is obviously the counter-attack and the set-pieces because they scored two set-pieces as well.
"If you win games, it doesn't mean there are not challenges. There are loads of challenges throughout the whole season. Everyone has to deal with it in their own way, but obviously as a team we have to deal with it as well.
"The biggest challenge now is to stay calm. I mentioned it many times: never get too high or too low. Just work and don't listen to the outside world too much. You know when you can do better and today everyone knew that."
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