Clyne: Reds will keep pushing to improve
Nathaniel Clyne admitted Liverpool's defeat to Newcastle United on Sunday was particularly hard to take given the high confidence in the squad going into the game and slip-ups from several rivals on Saturday.
The Reds had the chance to move within three points of the top four with a victory at St James' Park at the conclusion of a favourable weekend of results.
However, Martin Skrtel's own goal and Georginio Wijnaldum's late finish secured a win for Steve McClaren's side against the odds, denting the visitors' momentum in the process.
After the match, a rueful Clyne told Liverpoolfc.com: "We wanted to come out here today and look for the win and take [the confidence] from the last games into this game.
"But Newcastle played a good game and made it difficult for us and we found it hard to break them down. At the end we gave away two sloppy goals and lost the game.
"It made this loss an even bigger loss for us, knowing what happened on Saturday with the other teams not getting the points they wanted.
"But this is football. There are still a lot of games to be played and still a lot of points and we'll keep pushing."
Clyne also lamented the decision to rule out an equaliser from Alberto Moreno, who was incorrectly flagged offside after producing a fantastic finish in the second half.
"It would have made it 1-1 and we were pushing, we had the upper hand and if that goal was given we could have gone to score another and hopefully win the game," the defender said.
"But that didn't happen and we've just got to focus for the next game."
A busy period continues for the Reds as they head to Switzerland in midweek for a Europa League group-stage clash with FC Sion.
The club's No.2 wants to see an immediate reaction from his teammates so that no more ground is lost as they work through a packed festive schedule.
"[The manager] was disappointed like the whole team was," he conceded.
"We thought that we had enough to get the win today but we're a group in training and we'll work harder to get the win the next game.
"It's important that we bounce back quickly.
"The December period, there are a lot of games coming up, so we've all got to be fit and raring to go and keep the confidence going into those games to try and get as many as we can."