Liverpool face a pivotal few days in their season with captain Jordan Henderson insisting nothing should be read into one bad result.

The Reds’ only win in 2017 has come against League Two side Plymouth in an FA Cup replay and Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at home to struggling Swansea City showed a squad apparently struggling to cope with physical and mental fatigue.

Juergen Klopp’s side have already played six matches in January with another three to come in the form of a League Cup semi-final second leg against Southampton, whom they trail 1-0, a tricky FA Cup tie at home to Wolves before the visit of Premier League leaders Chelsea.

With their proud year-long unbeaten home Premier League record having now been ruined by a Swansea side registering the club’s first league win at Anfield, Liverpool’s next three matches – all in front of their own fans – will be a test of their true mettle.

“One defeat doesn’t make you a bad team, we’ve still got a lot of confidence,” Henderson said .

“No-one knows that (what effect losing to Swansea has done to their title aspirations). But it’s how you react after defeats, that’s how you can show character and show how good you are as a team.

“The next game is very important for us, and we need to react in the right way. We still feel very confident as a team, we’ve got brilliant players and we just need to keep going the way we have.

“We need to learn because there were a lot of mistakes out there, and make sure the next game we put in a better performance and get a better result.”

Klopp accepts his side are having a tough time of late but believes he has seen enough positives in their performances to give him hope that their fortunes can change at any moment.

However, it was only after going behind to two Fernando Llorente goals that Liverpool reached anything near the standard the Reds boss demands.

“It was not like we are in this situation and I think everything is going well,” Klopp said.

“We are really fighting in this moment.”