Liverpool full-back Andrew Robertson insists the Premier League champions are no longer in the title race after Wednesday's shock home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion saw the gap on the leaders widen.
Juergen Klopp's side failed to score for the third successive home league game and managed only one effort on target as they fell seven points behind table-toppers Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Liverpool host Pep Guardiola's men on Sunday and Robertson said his team need to find a way to rediscover their spark ahead of that clash.
"Any game against Manchester City is a big one," Robertson told reporters. "As this moment stands, we're not in the title race. We are seven points behind them and they have a game in hand.
"I'm sure they'd say the same if they were potentially 10 points behind. We need to get back to the Liverpool everyone knows.
"We're still a good team. We don't turn into a bad team overnight."
Liverpool have been hit by injuries to key players such as Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip and have seen a squad competing on multiple fronts stretched at times this season.
Klopp believes the defeat to Brighton was a result of mental fatigue.
"We played against really good opposition, that's clear," Klopp said. "We looked mentally not fresh. They deserved to win.
"We wanted to play better and more convincing. We lost too many balls in promising situations. I know the boys can play pass A to B but today B did not seem reachable.
"We had a really tough week. We were not fresh tonight and that's when you have to find a way."
Considering Klopp's lack of options because of injuries to defenders, that is perhaps understandable, although new defensive signing Ben Davies was left as an unused substitute.
"The only explanation now is that we are a fatigued team, mentally more or less," Klopp said.
"We had our moments but they deserved to win. We had to defend with a lot of running, there is no formation in the world where you are always in the right place.
"The best way to defend against a team like that is to keep the ball yourself but we couldn't do it tonight. It has been a tough week and tonight it was not enough."
As far as looking ahead to the next match against in-form City, Klopp said: "City are flying and we have to find solutions."
