Jurgen Klopp likened Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane's mindset to that of basketball legend Kobe Bryant as he assured his players will keep attempting to respond to adversity.
Salah netted against Newcastle United in December as he equalled Jamie Vardy's Premier League record of scoring and assisting in 15 consecutive games, but followed that up with blanks against Tottenham and Leicester City in the league.
Liverpool were held 2-2 by Antonio Conte's side before a 1-0 loss to Leicester, in which Salah missed his first penalty in 16 top-flight attempts and headed the subsequent rebound onto the crossbar with the goal gaping.
In the same game at the King Power Stadium, Mane wastefully blasted over a glorious chance with the scores still level, with that miss coming back to haunt Liverpool when Ademola Lookman struck later.
But Reds manager Klopp insisted that neither Salah, nor Mane, will rest on their laurels and feel sorry for themselves as he pinpointed their persistent attitude as a key to their success.
"We don't have a lot of experience of Mo dealing with crisis or whatever, because he doesn't usually have to," Klopp told reporters.
"Missing a penalty is tough, especially after the rebound going against the crossbar, that was unlucky there's no doubt about that.
"But that's it pretty much, they are top-class players who deal constantly with failure. That's how our lives work, even in some of the best games the boys play many situations don't work out.
"And then you deal with it in the game, and that's what you learn as a footballer pretty quickly. Whoever you are, no matter how good you are, often you will constantly fail in a decisive moment.
"None of us have ever succeeded in all difficult situations. It is what it is, I'm not sure but I think Kobe Bryant is still the one player with the most missed situations in the NBA history.
"He is one of the greatest players ever, you have to try it and you have to come in these situations; if you fail, no problem just go again and everything will be fine – that's pretty much the mindset Mo, and Sadio, is in."
Salah has been in fine form this league campaign, recording 15 goals and nine assists in 19 appearances, but the same cannot be said of his frontline partner Mane.
The Senegal international started the 2021-22 term brightly, netting seven times in his opening 12 top-flight outings, but has since struggled – failing to find the net in each of his last seven games.
He is also the worst-performing Liverpool forward in terms of finishing. Mane has underperformed his expected goals (xG) tally of 8.88, which is perhaps best explained by the fact he has only converted 11.86 per cent of chances - Diogo Jota the second-lowest among the same group with (19.23), followed by Salah (19.74).
However, Klopp highlighted the importance of Mane's all-round influence on his Liverpool side as the most important aspect of the forward's work, despite a lean run of form in front of goal.
"Sadio has no problem with confidence, but of course the momentum is not there finishing wise at the moment," he added.
"He has been playing really well, actually my analyst made a video to show Sadio how much he contributes to our game, how good he is in certain moments and situations.
"Obviously, the intention was to show that he should not be worried about the finishing not being there and that he is still an incredibly important player for us.
"As a striker, pretty much of all of them go through these kinds of things – it's happened to Sadio before and I'm positive that he will have some good chances to score again on Sunday.
"He is too important for us to just think about these kinds of things, you have to take these situations from time to time and then after he will be good again – we work on it football-wise, but there's no point talking about it and making it bigger than it needs to be."
Liverpool sit 12 points behind league leaders Manchester City, who edged past Arsenal 2-1 on Saturday, heading into their visit with fellow title contenders Chelsea on Sunday.
Barcelona 3-0 Rayo Vallecano: Lewandowski and Pedri on target as Blaugrana seal second place
Barcelona beat Rayo Vallecano 3-0 in their final home game of the season on Sunday to secure second place in LaLiga.
An early Robert Lewandowski goal and a quick-fire double from Pedri got the job done for the Blaugrana.
The result moved Barcelona to 82 points, four points above Girona, who won 3-1 away at Valencia.
Champions Real Madrid are 12 points above Barca with one more round of games left.
Barca took the lead in the third minute when Lamine Yamal, on his 50th appearance, cut in from the right wing and chipped the ball to Lewandowski, who expertly controlled the pass with his chest and volleyed home.
Although Rayo had their chances to level, Barcelona doubled their lead with some magical footwork from Joao Felix who saw his shot saved but Pedri managed to score from the rebound to give the home side a two-goal cushion.
Barely three minutes later, Pedri spotted a gap in Rayo's high defensive line and he was put through on goal with a long ball from centre-back Ronald Araujo, allowing the 21-year-old to fire home and double his goal tally for the season.
Barca will finish their season away at Sevilla next weekend while Rayo, who are 16th, host Athletic Bilbao.
Data Debrief: Lewy hits 25, again
Lewandowski has now scored 25 goals in all competitions this season.
He has netted at least 25 times in all competitions in each of the last 11 seasons, three campaigns more than any other player in top five European leagues over that period.
Villarreal 4-4 Real Madrid: LaLiga's top scorer Sorloth scores four in thrilling comeback
Villarreal forward Alexander Sorloth struck four times in 17 minutes to help his side fight back and snatch a 4-4 home draw against LaLiga champions Real Madrid on Sunday.
Madrid opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Turkey youngster Arda Guler slotted home a low strike off a Brahim Diaz pass before Joselu doubled the lead with a close-range header on the half-hour mark.
Sorloth pulled one back for Villarreal with a towering header in the 39th minute, but Lucas Vazquez restored Madrid's two-goal advantage a minute later, before Guler made it 4-1 in the final seconds of the first half.
But the hosts rallied after the break, with Sorloth scoring three goals in eight minutes, between the 48th and 56th minutes, as he reached 23 league goals this season to take LaLiga's Golden Boot award.
A second-half collapse will frustrate Carlo Ancelotti in the final league game of the season, with a Champions League final to come against Borussia Dortmund on June 1, but Madrid still achieved another record here.
Los Blancos surpassed the best unbeaten run in their entire LaLiga history after making it 31 games undefeated, eclipsing the previous record set between May 1988 and April 1989 with Leo Beenhakker as coach.
Data Debrief: Shot-heavy Sorloth delivers
Sorloth attempted nine shots in this game, the joint-highest total for a player in LaLiga this season, but those efforts paid dividends for his eye-catching four-goal haul.
He had played five games against Madrid and failed to score in all of them before this, against no other opponent has he played more games without scoring in the competition, but delivered emphatically here.
Atletico Madrid 1-4 Osasuna: Hosts certain to finish fourth after heavy defeat
Raul Garcia scored in each half as Osasuna secured their first win at Atletico Madrid since 2009, beating the hosts 4-1 in LaLiga on Sunday and handing them their second home loss of the league campaign.
The visitors scored in the 26th minute when Alejandro Catena headed it down inside the box for Garcia to score.
Osasuna doubled their lead in the 52nd minute with Atletico keeper Jan Oblak's block falling to substitute Aimar Oroz for a close-range finish.
Atletico struck back three minutes later with substitute Alvaro Morata scoring off Angel Correa's cross from the left.
But Garcia restored Osasuna's two-goal cushion in the 64th minute, before Lucas Torro sealed the victory, hammering home with his right foot in the 88th.
Osasuna's first win in seven matches lifted them to 11th place in the league with 44 points from 37 matches. Atletico, who have 73 points, will finish fourth after falling five points behind third-placed Girona.
Data Debrief: Difference in finishing proves decisive
Atletico managed 14 shots on goal, compared to Osasuna's total of 15, the expected goals battle was also close (1.72 v 1.84) and the hosts edged the possession count with 56.7%.
But clinical finishing from Osasuna was the difference, with six of their shots finding the target and four of them beating home goalkeeper Oblak.
Atletico, meanwhile, only had one other attempt on target apart from Morata's goal. Griezmann (four), Samuel Lino, Rodrigo De Paul and Correa (all two) combined for 10 attempts, with only one of those working Sergio Herrera in the Osasuna goal.
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