Jurgen Klopp dismissed talk about the Premier League title race after Liverpool's surprise 1-0 loss to Burnley.
Liverpool's 68-game unbeaten home league run came to an end after Ashley Barnes netted a late penalty.
Reigning champions Liverpool have gone four league games without scoring and are winless in five, leaving them six points adrift of leaders Manchester United.
Klopp said it would be ridiculous to discuss the title race given his side's form.
"Look, how silly would that be if I sit here now, losing against Burnley, didn't score for the last three or four games – I don't know exactly – and now I talk about the title race? How silly would that be?" the Liverpool manager told a news conference.
"It's just we have to win football games – it was always like this. For this we have to score goals, there is no doubt about it. That's what we have to change and have to do better. If things don't work, you have to work harder, do the right things more often, longer and more consistent, all these kinds of things.
"But not talking like it is an easy situation, it's not. It shows a lot of things. It's incredible how consistent the boys were but that was never something that anybody should have taken for granted because now we see they are all human beings, that's how it is. And now I have to make clear about what we have to do in the right moments and then we will score goals again."
Liverpool had 27 shots without scoring against Burnley, the most they have had in a single league match without finding the back of the net since April 2013.
Klopp said his players were lacking some confidence amid their poor run of form.
"We can do more with this group, we can play much better football, that is my concern. That is what I am thinking about," he said.
"The confidence is not on the highest level, I think that is so obvious that I don't have to mention it – you can see it in specific moments. It is like 90 per cent of all what the boys did all of the time is still there, but the decisive 10 per cent in the moment is missing.
"So, now we have to work on this decisive 10 per cent. That's how it is – we always work on them, but now we have to dig a little bit deeper to get them back."
Liverpool face Manchester United in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday before visiting Tottenham four days later.
Referees have to help themselves – Forest’s Steve Cooper frustrated by decisions
Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper felt it was another bad day for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited after some controversial decisions in his side’s 1-1 draw with Brentford.
The PGMOL were forced to stand intended fourth official Darren England down at the City Ground after his mistake on Saturday night when, as VAR in Tottenham’s game against Liverpool, he failed to act properly in overturning the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside.
And both managers were left complaining after the draw as Nicolas Dominguez’s header cancelled out Christian Norgaard’s opener, which came immediately after Moussa Niakhate was sent off.
That is the decision that irked Cooper the most, the boss insisting that his defender’s tackle, where he raked his studs down Yoane Wissa’s calf, was accidental.
Cooper said: “Honestly, if he doesn’t give him a second yellow, nobody mentions it. All of your colleagues on TV and radio have said the same.
“With it being the only Premier League game of the day, the PGMOL needed a real clean day and unfortunately they have got the opposite. We want to help referees, we will moan and complain as much as anyone else, it is just the nature of it.
“We’ll try and do it respectfully, but sometimes it’s hard. They have got to help themselves. I’m annoyed with the first yellow, he shouldn’t have lunged in. The second yellow would not even have been mentioned…of course it was accidental.
“You need football understanding to see that. It’s a contact game.
“Some have gone for us, so I’m not sitting here saying we’re hard done by. We all want refereeing to be at the right level and we all want to help them and they have to help themselves. The last thing they needed today was talking points about decision-making, but that’s what they’ve got.
“Come on, let’s work together and we will help. Some things have gone in our favour, not as much as have gone against us. This league is amazing and every part of it needs to be at that level.”
Brentford boss Thomas Frank says he is “tired” of talking about VAR after he thought his side were denied a clear penalty.
Frank believes Wissa was fouled by Matt Turner early in the second half when he closed down the Forest goalkeeper and was caught by Turner’s follow through, while Brentford also had two penalty appeals turned down.
Referee Paul Tierney did not give anything and the incident was not even checked by VAR Michael Oliver.
“I am tired of talking about it, I understand you guys need to ask the question,” he said.
“I just want to talk about performances.
“I think the two handball situations, some managers would claim them as penalty, I won’t. I think I would really hate that if they were given against my team.
“But the Wissa one is a clear penalty, you can’t go through the man, that is an unfortunate mistake from VAR, especially when that is clear and obvious.
“Unfortunately our players are too honest, we need to be a little bit more nasty, I would never say that to the players, I like honest players.”
Liverpool beat Arsenal in front of record WSL crowd as Man Utd grab late winner
Liverpool pulled off a shock 1-0 win at Arsenal in front of a record Women’s Super League crowd.
There were 54,115 fans at the Emirates Stadium for the season opener, which was settled by a goal from Miri Taylor early in the second half.
Taylor slotted in a cross from Missy Bo Kearns in the 48th minute to stun the Gunners home support.
The Reds held off plenty of Arsenal pressure but Jonas Eidevall’s side, who were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers last month, could not find a way back into the match.
Manchester United came from behind to beat Aston Villa 2-1 with a stoppage-time goal from substitute Rachel Williams at Villa Park, where the hosts saw Kirsty Hanson sent off.
Scotland winger Hanson was shown a straight red card in the 74th minute for her high tackle on United midfielder Hayley Ladd.
Villa, though, soon took the lead through England international Rachel Daly, only for Lucia Garcia to quickly have United back on level terms.
Just when it seemed both teams would have to settle for a point, Williams headed in Nikita Parris’ deflected cross to secure United a dramatic victory.
Leicester came from behind to beat newly-promoted Bristol City 4-2 at Ashton Gate.
The Robins, back in the top flight after an absence of two seasons, went ahead through a fine strike from Carrie Jones in the 33rd minute.
New Leicester signing Aimee Palmer, playing against her former club, fired the visitors level in added time at the end of the first half.
View this post on InstagramLeicester took control after the break, as Shannon O’Brien put them in front and German striker Lena Petermann, making her debut, headed a third in the 52nd minute.
Fellow debutant Jutta Rantala increased Leicester’s lead with seven minutes left before Amalie Thestrup scored her first Robins goal from the penalty spot.
Elisabeth Terland scored twice in the first half as Brighton opened their WSL campaign with a 2-0 win at Everton.
Norway forward Terland headed in after the ball came back off the crossbar to give the visitors a third-minute lead and soon added a second after being played in by Katie Robinson.
Everton captain Megan Finnigan reduced the deficit just after the hour, but the home side were unable to conjure an equaliser.
Manchester City won 2-0 at West Ham as Jill Roord scored on her debut.
Lauren Hemp broke the deadlock early in the second half with a curling effort before Chloe Kelly then saw her penalty saved.
Netherlands international Roord, a club-record summer signing from Wolfsburg, slotted in to open her City account in the 55th minute.
City finished a player down after Leila Ouahabi was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Emma Harries, but the Hammers could not get themselves back into the game.
Wataru Endo hails Liverpool spirit despite ‘difficult decisions’
Wataru Endo was disappointed but proud of the way nine-man Liverpool fought in the face of “difficult decisions” during the last-gasp defeat at Tottenham.
Jurgen Klopp’s men saw their unbeaten start to the Premier League season end in north London as Joel Matip’s own goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time gave Spurs a 2-1 win.
Liverpool had gone so close to a point after seeing Curtis Jones’ booking upgraded to red midway through the first half after his challenge was reviewed by VAR.
Son Heung-min soon broke the deadlock only for the Reds to equalise through Cody Gakpo, whose half-time replacement Diogo Jota was sent off in the 69th minute for two yellows.
But the main talking point was how Luis Diaz’s opener was wrongly ruled out for offside due to what the Professional Game Match Officials Limited called a “significant human error” by VAR Darren England.
Summer signing Endo, who came on with Liverpool reduced to nine men, said: “At the end, a very tough game but there were 50-50 decisions in the game and yeah, it’s very difficult to play with nine players.
“But I wanted to get one point so I am very disappointed about it.
“I am just so proud of this team. I am just disappointed.
“We have to learn from this result and of course we showed our spirit, even though we faced difficult decisions we fought until the end.
“That’s Liverpool and always we have to try to win the game. We can learn from this game but we just keep going.”
Liverpool will look to bounce back from their first Premier League defeat of the season at Brighton next Sunday before attention turns to international matches.
Matip will be particularly desperate to win after his late own goal in the capital, but Endo says nobody in the dressing room is blaming the defender.
“Actually, he played an amazing game today so no-one can say something to him,” he told the club website.
“I am so proud of what he did today and I am so proud of what my team-mates did today.”
Liverpool have a Europa League group match against Union Saint-Gilloise before heading to Brighton, but there are no continental distractions for Spurs this year.
Tottenham missed out on European qualification in a poor 2022-23 campaign but have been reborn under Ange Postecoglou, with his new-look side second in the standings.
“It was an important moment,” goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario said.
“We were level, then we scored. We deserved this win all together.
“We have to enjoy this moment, to rest then keep going because we have another challenge next week (at Luton) and then the international break.
“We have to be focused and to prepare the best game by game.
“This has to be our goal throughout the season – keep going, keep working.”
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