Jordan Henderson insists Liverpool's defeat to Swansea City at the weekend doesn't affect the quality of Jürgen Klopp's team and called upon his teammates to produce a reaction to their shock defeat.

The Reds' hopes of challenging for the title sustained a heavy blow on Saturday as the Swans, under new boss Paul Clement, handed them just a third Premier League loss of the campaign.

Roberto Firmino's second-half brace put Liverpool on level terms after Fernando Llorente had scored twice to put the visitors ahead at Anfield and appeared though it would give Klopp's charges the momentum to find a third.

But parity lasted just five minutes as Gylfi Sigurdsson put Swansea ahead again and Liverpool failed to produce another response in the final quarter of an hour, allowing the Welsh club to lift themselves off of the bottom of the league table.

Asked if it was a fatal blow for their hopes of a title tilt, Henderson insisted that "no-one knows that" and that they will only "find out at the end of the season."

He declared that it is "how you react after defeats" where you "can show character, show your spirit and show how good you are as a team in the game after."

The Liverpool captain vowed that the next game is "very important" - facing Southampton in the second-leg of their EFL Cup semi final clash, trailing 1-0 from the first-eg - and said that they "need to react in the right way."

We're still very confident as a team, insists Henderson

The defeat was the club's first in over a year on home soil and after Chelsea's win over Hull on Sunday, means they trail the league leaders by as many as 10 points ahead of next Tuesday's L4 showdown.

But with Klopp having dismissed the word 'damaging' as too harsh to describe his side's defeat, Henderson too declared that the squad won't allow the reverse to have a lasting effect on their confidence and spirit.

"One defeat doesn't make you a bad team, we've still got a lot of confidence in the squad," continued the England international.

He felt that outsiders "could see" that Liverpool "still felt as though we could get back in it" at 2-0 down, but admitted that "maybe we were pushing that bit much for the third" and "needed to be a bit more patient" but "got done on the counter."

Henderson said that they are "very disappointed" but called for Liverpool to "be ready for the next one" because "the games come thick and fast", adding: "We still feel very confident as a team. We've got brilliant players and we just need to keep going the way we have."

He added that they must "learn from" the Swansea defeat, highlighting that there were "a lot of mistakes out there" and that they need to "make sure the next game we put in a better performance and get a better result."

The Reds' No.14 also said "at times" they can "defend a lot better" although believed they did defend well in periods of the game.

Henderson vowed that they "need to make sure" that "first and foremost" they defend, "especially when you get back in the game at 2-2" and then "with the quality we've got, you always fancy us to get another goal."