Jurgen Klopp hopes Liverpool's Premier League defeat will provide a jolt to his players.
It's reasonable to say that Liverpool have not been sparkling since the winter break at the beginning of February. Narrow victories over relegation candidates Norwich (A) and West Ham (H) were either side of defeat away at Atletico Madrid.
Against the third relegation facing side in two weeks the reds eventually succumbed - comprehensively outplayed and outclassed by Watford at Vicarage Road.
Liverpool's huge Premier League points lead was always going to present some problems. At this stage of the season Liverpool are simply facing teams who need the points a lot more than the reds - the entire playing staff of Watford for instance need any points they can get if they want to continue to be Premier League players next season.
The Liverpool boss was asked if the defeat would prove a kick in the backside for his team?
“Yeah, why not? But none of us has just lost for the first time in our lives. We know how it feels. Still, you don’t want to have it. The reaction, you can hope for. We shall see in the next games.
“Sometimes a little knock is important. So I don’t see anything negative in it.
"From time to time if you are not good enough, you need to see [the] effect. Not good enough – what happens then? So restart. Maybe the longer the [undefeated] run goes maybe it becomes more important. But I didn’t see that today.
Now [the unbeaten run] it is over. We can start again with whatever we did before, and we will.”
Liverpool welcome Bournemouth to Anfield next weekend in the early Saturday kick off, in which supporters will be hoping for a quick return to winning ways.
Before that the club must navigate a difficult FA Cup tie away at Chelsea. Klopp is expected to once again deploy his youth team while Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is likely to select some more senior players as the Londoners are desperate to bring back the feel good factor from Lampards opening couple of months.
