Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool have been held back by "slapstick" errors in the failed attempt to defend their Premier League title.
The Reds are a mammoth 25 points adrift of leaders Manchester City having suffered a campaign hampered by relentless injuries and loss of form.
Having had the top-flight's best defensive record in the last two seasons, only Everton have conceded more goals than Liverpool of those teams in the top half of the table.
Klopp's side have however kept three clean sheets in their last five games, helped by the return of Fabinho to defensive midfield and the centre-back partnership of Nat Phillips and Ozan Kabak.
They combined in the Champions League win over RB Leipzig last week that earned progress to the quarter-finals for the third time in four years under Klopp.
And the Reds boss said: “Getting through was important for the whole club, but especially for us as a team.
"The game reflected the way we went through the season a bit: We are still not a bad team, we just often don’t finish our actions successfully. That is what makes the maximum difference in football.
“The opponent usually doesn’t need a lot of chances against us because we make big mistakes, insane ones that can almost be described as slapstick."
As well as their defensive issues, Liverpool have also struggled for goals compared to recent seasons, having netted 18 fewer at this stage of the campaign compared to last year.
The Reds, though, stand behind only leaders City using the expected goals metric, although it is only three goals fewer than the 48 they have actually scored.
And speaking via SportsWitness in a wide-ranging interview in SportBild with Germany and Bayern Munich legend Lothar Matthaus, Klopp added: "We create a lot of chances, in the 'expected goals' we are still second behind Man City in the Premier League, but far from them in the ones we actually scored.
"This problem has been going on throughout the season.”
