Liverpool midfielder James Milner has called on his team-mates to "fight our way back" after the Premier League champions fell further from the title race this season following a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Burnley on Thursday evening.
The Reds lost their long unbeaten record at Anfield after spurning several chances, before Ashley Barnes tucked away a late penalty to leave Jurgen Klopp's side in fourth place, six points behind Premier League leaders Manchester United with 34 out of 19 games played.
Milner was not involved in the Burnley defeat, but issued a rallying cry to his fellow players not to mope or complain, but to fight back to try and defend the English top-flight crown, having won the domestic title for the first time in 30 years last season.
The veteran midfielder wrote on Twitter: "You’ll Never Walk Alone is more important than ever right now. No good comes from feeling sorry for ourselves and excuses won’t help. It’s on us, all of us, to fight our way back. We’re at our strongest when we are one force - players and supporters, TOGETHER."
The defending Premier League champions surrendered their 68-game unbeaten home record on Thursday, and have now gone four successive league games without scoring for the first time since May 2000.
The Reds looked on course to retain the Premier League trophy after a 7-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace on December 19, but subsequent draws with West Brom, Newcastle and United along with a loss at Southampton allowed the chasing pack to overtake them.
Klopp concedes he is no longer even thinking about winning the title again after their latest setback, saying: "Everything, all the English words, massive, massive punch in the face or whatever, it's my responsibility, that's the easy explanation.
"We had the ball a lot, created some and didn't finish the situations off. That keeps the game open and then they get the penalty - Alisson told me he didn't touch him, but I didn't see it back.
"It's a tough one, not easy to explain, These boys are not the kind of person after a 7-0 to think we'll go like this, they worked tonight hard and it didn't happen, if something doesn't work you have to try harder, more often, longer. It was not easy to lose that game and we did it.
"We can't imagine the title race at the moment."