Jurgen Klopp has defended Trent Alexander-Arnold's recent dip in form and believes the young defender will "find his top shape rather soon".
The Liverpool star has struggled in recent games to reach the sensational level he has been performing at over the past four years and his showing at Southampton left a lot to be desired.
However, the Reds boss has explained that "there are explanations" for this season including the fact Alexander-Arnold contracted COVID-19 during pre-season and then suffered an injury - meaning he had little time to prepare for the upcoming campaign.
"The criticism is normal," Klopp said.
"After you play football in public and make people used to the level Trent has shown over the last three or four years, that's normal.
"It was obviously not his best game, he knows that and we know that.
"There are explanations for this season, if you want - he has had good games as well and helped us in different moments - but the reason is he was out for a while with early Covid and had an injury that didn't help.
"He had no pre-season really and after, with the quality he has and the situation we were in, he played pretty early for us but he is now getting there, physically he is fine and he will find his top shape rather soon."
Liverpool, as a team, have also been struggling for form recently with just two points taken in the last three games following draws against West Brom and Newcastle plus a 1-0 defeat at Southampton.
The champions' away form throughout this season hasn't really set the world alight overall either - despite them sitting top of the Premier League table - and Klopp has addressed concerns.
He said: "We are not waiting for it and we don't enjoy it but it's not unlikely that these kind of things will happen.
"There are not too many really bad games, we create a lot, shoot a lot and have a lot of possession but decision making in the last third is not that good, that is clear.
"We have only won two of the last six and that's not the standard we expect from ourselves.
"So we don't take it easy, but we see what we can improve.
"The league is too strong, if you struggle a little bit immediately results go the other way because opponents are fighting with all they have."
