WOLVERHAMPTON – Jurgen Klopp branded the goals Liverpool conceded in a 3-0 defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers as “horrible”, with the German admitting to being at a loss to explain his side’s disastrous form.

The Reds have taken just one point from their last four English Premier League games to all but end any hope of catching the top four for a place in next season’s Champions League.

Klopp’s men trailed 2-0 inside 12 minutes at Molineux as Joel Matip’s own goal and Craig Dawson’s strike on his debut put Wolves on course to climb out of the relegation zone.

Ruben Neves added a third 19 minutes from time after Liverpool had dominated the early stages of the second half without reward.

“Conceding early goals is not unfamiliar to us but the way we conceded them today was not acceptable,” said Klopp.

“When you see the whole game, throughout the game in moments we played an outstanding game without scoring and a good away game without scoring.

“The third goal I don’t count because it was the first time they passed the halfway line in the second half.

“The other two goals, going into a game with all the things we said during the week and before the game, then this is the start, is horrible.”

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher called his former team’s central defensive pairing of Joel Matip and Joe Gomez “shambolic”, tweeting: “It’s not too difficult to play centre-back next to the leader of the back four, judge CB’s when they have to lead themselves.”

Former England and Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson, agreed, saying on Sky Sports: “Matip and Gomez don’t look the same players without (Virgil) van Dijk next to them. The two fullbacks have lost their way. The midfield is getting overrun...

“You look at the team and it’s a million miles off where they were last year... When you dip that much, I don’t see how you get results in this league. It’s ruthless. Have they lost the fear factor? One hundred per cent.”

Already out of both domestic Cups, Liverpool sit 10th in the Premier League.

The Champions League appears to be their last chance of salvaging their season with a last-16 tie against Real Madrid to come later this month in a repeat of last season’s final.

Klopp’s side came close to winning an unprecedented quadruple of trophies last season.

But he appears incapable of stopping the rot as for the third consecutive away league game, Liverpool conceded three times.

“We better change it. That’s true, 100 per cent. I have no words for it really, I’m sorry,” he added.

“You do yourself no favours in these moments, giving easy balls away.

“We were passive in the (first) two goals, everything we wanted to do was be compact and active but we were compact and passive. I can’t explain it. I think why would you do that? But they did it anyway.” AFP