Liverpool's week from hell leaves Jurgen Klopp facing a flaccid Anfield finale

After Liverpool had needlessly dropped two points at Manchester United on April 7 - just three weeks after being knocked out of the FA Cup at Old Trafford - Klopp tried to play down the significance of two rotten results against Erik ten Hag's terrible team.

He had admitted that during extra-time in the quarter-final loss he had seen his side struggling physically for the first time this season, but, on Sunday, he acknowledged that twice failing to beat their biggest rivals in quick succession may have also taken a psychological toll on his players.

"I am not 100 percent sure that how we dealt with the [Manchester] United games particularly helped," he told reporters at Anfield. "I mean, we lost the game in the cup and it was like a catastrophe because we were that good and lost it anyway. Then we drew there [in the league], were really good for a long spell and just drew it."

Worse was to follow. Much worse.

Four days after the immensely frustrating 2-2 draw in Manchester, Liverpool were taken apart by Atalanta at Anfield, prompting former Red Steve McMananman to claim on TNT Sports that "the wheels have fallen off" Klopp's winning machine.

The manager had certainly got his line-up all wrong, making six changes to the team he had fielded at Old Trafford, and Gian Piero Gasperini's slick side took full advantage, slicing through the Liverpool midfield at will during a dominant first-half display.

Klopp tried to salvage the situation by bringing on the likes of Mohamed Salah at the break, but the hosts ended up scoring twice more to record a historic 3-0 win that effectively killed the tie ahead of Thursday's return clash in Bergamo.

Some accused Klopp of underestimating Atalanta, claiming that he should have fielded his best XI - and it's an understandable argument. However, as the past few weeks have underlined, the manager is stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment in the sense that so many of his regulars are showing signs of fatigue, while fringe players have failed to step up to the mark when selected.

Consequently, Klopp has ended up leaning more heavily on the likes of Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo than he would have liked. Hardly surprising, then, that both midfielders looked off the pace against Palace.

"Did Wataru and Macca now play a little bit too much in the last few weeks? Maybe, they were the two most-used [players], especially Macca," Klopp said before also pointing out that the loss of so many players to injury over the past few months has hardly helped Liverpool.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alisson Becker were playing their first games in a couple of months on Sunday, Dominik Szoboszlai hasn't looked the same player in the second half of the season after a number of niggles, while Mohamed Salah is still struggling to get back up to his brilliant best following his lengthy lay-off.

As a result, ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher called for Klopp to "play a full second-string" team in the second leg against Atalanta and "go all-in for the league".

"We're in a better position in the league than we are now in the Europa League, so for me I just think the league is too important," he told The Liverpool Echo. "Fulham is much more important than Atalanta and even getting through...

"I still think Man City will do it, actually, but you know we've got a great opportunity, so there is no need to get too downhearted after what happened Thursday."

However, Carragher was speaking before the disaster that was Sunday, when Liverpool lost their 28-match unbeaten home record in the league to a team that hadn't won an away game since November.

The Reds were obviously punished for failing to take the umpteen clear-cut chances they created against Palace - at one point Klopp even cracked a rueful smile, so laughable were some of the misses - but it was the first-half performance that was particularly concerning.

Once again, Liverpool started inexplicably slowly, and once again they were punished, falling behind for the fourth time in their last five outings at Anfield. Klopp clearly can be held accountable for the profligacy of his forwards but questions are understandably being asked over his team's sluggishness and lack of organisation. As he admitted himself, there were "too many moments where we were running in the wrong direction".

"In more than 20 years when you watch my teams," Klopp added, "the press and counter-press is pretty good, some days it is outstanding. In the first half, it was nothing."

Basically, Liverpool played like a team that has played 51 games already this season. They looked lethargic and disturbingly vulnerable to counter-attacks.

And the problem is that things are only going to get tougher for them. Thursday's trip to Bergamo is the first of four successive away games, with Liverpool also set to travel to Fulham, Everton and West Ham in the league.

On current form, you wouldn't back them to win any of those games, and given they can't really afford to drop any more points between now and the end of the campaign, the Reds' season could be over by the end of next week, which would just be a dreadfully underwhelming end to Klopp's magnificent reign.

All is not lost, of course. Robertson says that he and his team-mates will keep fighting right until the end - and Liverpool do still have time to turn things around. But they must improve in every area. It really is that simple for Klopp. And that difficult.