It was us against ourselves, not Nottingham Forest

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted he cannot understand how his side failed to beat Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Fresh off beating Manchester City last weekend and West Ham in midweek, Liverpool took then two steps backwards on Saturday as they fell to a 1-0 defeat to what was the Premier League’s bottom side before kick-off, fluffing countless opportunities from set-pieces to beat Dean Henderson and get something from the game.

Speaking to BT Sport, Klopp conceded Liverpool ‘did not do the right things again’ and were made to pay.

“The performance I can explain, the result…not, to be honest,” he said. “I never saw that game where one team has, not sure, four or five no brainers from a set-piece where we have to finish it off, we were perfectly prepared for that.

“Bobby [Firmino] first-half, Virgil [van Dijk] two times, three times, you have to put the game to bed because the goal from us is a big mistake. Apart from that, all the chances we gave them because we played too often wrong passes in the centre. It happened anyway.

“They closed the centre so much, so the wings was possible. It will not be a free flowing performance, we knew that with the late changes and a lot of changes. It’s a game you have to win by doing the right stuff again and again and we didn’t. That’s why we stood here and haven’t won the game.”

Klopp went on to praise Forest for making life difficult for his side but also argued that the hosts gave away so many clear-cut chances and perhaps don’t merit too much credit.

“It’s the Premier League and [the teams are] all good, all fight. But giving teams six clear chances, I’m not sure where I should put praise on,” he said. “[Forest] are a great team, Steve [Cooper]’s a fantastic manager, but for us, we have to win here – done – but we didn’t.

“Credit to Nottingham, but it was us against the goalkeeper, us against ourselves and not us against Nottingham Forest, nobody defended Bobby, Virg, we didn’t use it.”