Jurgen Klopp's side take on Fulham in the knowledge anything but victory would deal a major blow
Recent results have changed the mood around Anfield and the fanbase, not least a first home Premier League defeat since October 2022
All three title contenders, though, this week suffered quarter-final elimination from European competition
City and Arsenal dumped out of the Champions League by Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively while Liverpool failed to recover a 3-0 first-leg deficit in their Europa League
While the Reds could at least claim a 1-0 win in Bergamo, it did little to quell the downbeat mood within the squad afterwards.
Van Dijk
"We have all the reasons to be disappointed,"
“But it’s our own fault. We were very disappointed last week and we made it a big hurdle to overcome.
“We tried everything - worked, fought - but it wasn’t good enough and wasn’t enough. It’s now about switching it back on and going again
"What went wrong? It’s not one factor, it’s multiple. We’re all human beings, we all want to do well, keep clean sheets and score goals. But we are where we are and the situation is what it is.
“There are six games remaining, we have to give it everything and we will give it everything."
Van Dijk adds:
“It's a big six games! Anything is still possible. We have to focus on each game as they come. Thursday was a big task we tried to overcome but like I said, disappointed we couldn’t turn it around.
"The two results before Thursday were disappointing. Don’t forget that we want to do well.
“When the games don’t go well and we’re on the other side - obviously didn’t happen many times this season - we all have to switch it back on.
“There were a lot of good things in Italy but not good enough. Time to recover now and be ready for Sunday.
“We have to focus on ourselves like we always have been doing and that never changes."
Back in January, Liverpool held off a late Fulham fightback to earn a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage and secure a place in the League Cup final
Liverpool's struggle to overcome the Cottagers and book a Wembley date mirrored events at Anfield the previous month in the Premier League, when they scored twice in the closing minutes to earn a 4-3 win over Marco Silva's side.
Salah missed a good chance to double Liverpool's advantage before half-time on Thursday, continuing a recent theme of the Reds being unable to turn domination into goals.
Klopp, though, believes it is a collective issue rather than one to be blamed on their top scorer.
Klopp
"We always had that in the past, was it Sadio, was it Bobby, was it Mo, one of them always had these spells, but then the other guys stepped in and nobody spoke about it really,"
“That's a little bit the problem at the moment - nobody is scoring.
“What is the problem if Mo Salah has two or three weeks after coming from injury where he is not exactly (at his best)? If he had never been in these moments then he would have scored 40 goals each season.
"That's not the problem. But getting through this as a team or as a player is not that big of an issue as long as you win games, but we didn't do that last week and that is really bad for us.
“Usually you share these kind of things, but all of the boys missed their chances. That brought us the results we had."
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