Fabinho has warned his Liverpool teammates to rediscover their attacking spark or pay the price in the Premier League title race.
The Reds have failed to win their last two games and looked set to lose top spot in the league as champions Manchester City were in action at Everton last night.
And the Brazilian utility man says they must get back to winning ways when they host Bournemouth on Saturday.
He says: “Beating Bournemouth is important to continue with a three-point gap [City are at home to Chelsea on Sunday].
“Now we only look at the next game and that is against Bournemouth.”
Fabinho, who has been filling in in the backline as injuries hit Jurgen Klopp’s challengers, expects the Cherries to make it difficult for them, with tougher tests at Manchester United and Everton to follow as well as a Champions League clash with Bayern Munich.
He adds: “Teams who play against us sit very deep. We need to do things a little differently and maybe we aren’t doing this – we are unable to find the spaces.
“Often, we want to go through the middle and it is difficult against physically strong and defensive teams.
“We need to find solutions and in these past few games we haven’t.”
Teammate James Milner agrees Liverpool – bidding to end their fans’ 29-year wait to be champions again – are facing a desperate fight to regain for their form with the title race hotting up.
He says: “We’ve probably dropped from our standards the last couple of games, and we need to step up our energy levels the next game.”