Virgil van Dijk has admitted Liverpool's defeat to Watford was 'hard to take', saying his Reds team-mates must improve again after the shock loss.
The Reds forfeited a 44-game unbeaten run by falling to the relegation scrappers, quashing their hopes of going a full season unbeaten.
After leaving it late against bottom-side Norwich, losing to Atletico Madrid and being forced to come from behind against West Ham to protect their Anfield record, the result looked to have been coming.
'We have to look at ourselves, we have to improve again but it’s a tough one to take – but that’s football,' van Dijk said.
'If you concede three goals - we didn’t have that for quite a while - then we have to improve as a team in total and we will.
'I think the only positive is that we have an FA Cup game in a couple of days – it is what it is.
'Losing hurts, the record is for people talking about it, we didn’t mention it once. We want to win the next game and strike back. That’s the only way forward.'
Despite conceding more than once in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since December 2016, van Dijk believes Liverpool's defence has not had a dip in form.
'I don’t agree too much (that Liverpool have been poor defensively recently),' the centre-back said.
'In the last game one set piece and one good goal, today it should be better, clear as that.
'If you look at the whole season we have been good defensively, the most clean sheets in the league. We won’t walk away from this – it’s not acceptable that we lose 3-0 in that way.'