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What a difference a week makes.

The momentum Liverpool built up prior to the international break has stalled. The doom and gloom merchants are having a field day.

If last Saturday’s 5-0 humiliation at the hands of Manchester City cut deep, the midweek 2-2 draw with Sevilla in the Champions League failed to sufficiently sooth those wounds.

Where Liverpool fell apart alarmingly after Sadio Mane’s dismissal at the Etihad, the frustration at Anfield on Wednesday night stemmed from the fact that Jurgen Klopp’s side had been unable to make their dominance count.

It was a contest they should have won at a canter but having failed to kill off the La Liga outfit they were punished for a collective lapse in concentration. It was a draw which felt like a defeat.

Cue a torrent of negativity on the phone-ins and on social media. Dejan Lovren wasn’t the only one in the firing line with Klopp finding both his tactics and his transfer record under the spotlight.

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The defensive frailties which ultimately defined Brendan Rodgers’ reign continue to rear their ugly head. For fans baffled by Klopp’s decision not to sign a centre-half this summer the sight of painfully familiar woes is tough to take.

The two goals against Sevilla didn’t stem from Klopp’s bold attacking style, Liverpool weren’t over-run having committed numbers forward. Instead it was just rank bad defending.

TV pundits have been putting the boot in. “Win the league or the Champions League? Liverpool? Oh, forget about it,” said Roy Keane.

Former Reds midfielder Didi Hamann remarked: “I don’t think this team is going anywhere.”

Yet a sense of perspective is required.

Liverpool were bang in that game against Man City before Mane saw red. They then marked their return to Europe’s elite by comprehensively outclassing an accomplished Sevilla side.

If Emre Can had provided the finish to that breathtaking counter-attack, the game would have been won and a debate would have raged about its place in Anfield’s pantheon of great European goals.

What damage has been done by those two results? The Reds sit three points off the top of the Premier League and aren’t playing catch up on anyone in their Champions League group.

Just look at where Liverpool are now compared to when Klopp arrived. In the club’s last Champions League campaign they were out of their depth and were embarrassed. Now they boast one of the most potent attacks in Europe.

For all the talk of being a shambles defensively, if Liverpool keep a clean sheet against Burnley at Anfield on Saturday they will equal a club record of five successive home league shut-outs in the Premier League era. They last achieved that under Rafa Benitez in 2007.

Yes, they have a habit of leaking cheap goals but it needs to be kept in context.

The defeat to Man City was only the Reds’ second in 16 Premier League matches dating back to February. They are hardly stuck in a rut.

Mane’s absence hurt Liverpool last term but this time around as he prepares to serve his ban there’s good reason to believe things will be different with Mo Salah flying, Daniel Sturridge fully fit and Philippe Coutinho ready to put his summer antics behind him.

Liverpool had a bad week but that’s all. The wheels haven’t come off. This is no time to be defeatist. Players and supporters alike must dust themselves off and go again.