BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche admitted that his side cannot afford to make the defensive errors that blighted them in Sunday's 4-2 Premier League defeat to Liverpool if they are to beat the drop this season.

But the Turf chief believes the Clarets have enough to ensure another season of top flight football.

Three of the goals Liverpool scored on Sunday were preventable as the Reds recovered from Ashley Westwood putting the visitors in front direct from a corner on six minutes.

Roberto Firmino equalised after Tom Heaton failed to prevent a Mo Salah cross before Sadio Mane profited from some defensive dallying by Jeff Hendrick.

Heaton's poor clearance allowed Firmino a second while Mane rounded off the scoring in the closing stages, moments after Johann Berg Gudmundsson had reduced the arrears for the Clarets.

And Dyche knows his side must defend better.

"Frustrated - quite obviously you can't give away certainly three, if not four, goals," said the Turf boss.

"You can't give away those chances in the Premier League anyway, certainly not when you're playing sides of this quality.

"Strangely, there were a lot of good things other than that, from the performance, particularly the mentality.

"It's tough when you're 1-0 up and go 2-1 down, and you're scratching your head how, to stay resilient to the task, and we give a third away - another error - and we responded to that.

"I thought we did well after that, and we kept probing and trying to ask questions, which is difficult here, you know they're going to have spells of possession, they're a threat on the counter, they've got clever movement.

"But we reacted to that, and I was pleased the subs made a difference, we nick a goal and you wonder if there's a grandstand finish then.

"It wasn't to be, another error unfortunately."

Dyche has been pleased with his side's form in the second half of the season after a slow start to the campaign.

"You have got to be realistic," he added. "There were some big results for other teams (on Saturday) and we have had our own.

"The bigger picture is for us we had one point from five games in the Premier League and we were bottom of the league.

"We had 12 points at 19 games. If you said to me at 19 we would be on 30 points with the run we have had then I would have ripped your hands off.

"We have come a long way and we continue to progress.

"The mentality here is right but we cant make those mistakes."

The defeat leaves Burnley two points clear of Cardiff in 17th place ahead of a home game against Leicester City on Saturday.

But Dyche insists he has seen enough from his side to believe they will be able to secure safety.

He added: "We focus on the next game obviously, we have five of eight at home so are still in good shape.

"We have work to do without a doubt but I think if we keep showing that mentality and that resilience and knock out the errors then we will certainly look after ourselves."