Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe has given his public backing to skipper Jamaal Lascelles.
The former Nottingham Forest skipper had been heavily criticised on social media in the aftermath of the 4-0 defeat at Leicester City.
However, the club insist he deleted his social media accounts before the heavy loss in the East Midlands.
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Howe said: "I never give my team away but he certainly remains the captain.
"He has my full support in that role.
"I thought Jamaal was very unlucky with that decision personally, I did not think it was a penalty at the time, and don't now, I still don't understand why the referee did not go to the monitor to review the decision.
"I thought Jamaal contributed to us in a lot of positive aspects of our game.
"Obviously, we conceded four goals but everybody connected with the team, whether the forward line or defence has to shoulder responsibility not just our backline."
Newcastle go into the clash at Anfield with confidence dented after Leicester but Howe does not believe it has to define the mood in the build-up.
On the defence, Howe said: "I think that is a difficult one because you go back only a week and we played Burnley, defending really well.
"The game before that against Norwich with 10 men which is not an easy thing to do but we defended well as a team for the majority of that game.
"We can do it, we're capable.
"Consistency is certainly something we need to focus on.
"Going into this run of games our defence and team structure is going to be tested to the ultimate so we really need to respond and step up.
"We all need to be contributing to that defensive effort."
United held a video session with the players after the game at the King Power Stadium to try to get to the bottom of their defensive woes.
Howe said: "We've reviewed the game, hopefully, in the right way.
"We put the players straight in the sense of how we saw the game and what we need to improve.
"We were very honest in the areas we could have done better - there's no hiding away from that."
Howe has also tried to play down the 4-0 defeat at Leicester and reflected: "Going away to any ground in the Premier League is difficult but I think if you look at the pressure we faced as the away team it was really minimal in the match.
"I think the first goal had a huge bearing on the game and the second goal came out of nothing.
"That probably put the players in a delicate mental state in that moment in that match but I don't see why that should affect us going into what is a different game.
"It's a big challenge but one we can hopefully rise to."
Howe becomes the latest manager to try to pick up three points at Anfield with every manager since Kevin Keegan in 1994 failing to do so in what has been a hard fixture to watch for travelling fans.
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