LONDON – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has slammed his team’s woeful performance after they suffered a shock 1-0 Premier League defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

The Reds’ mini-revival, following their win over Manchester City on Oct 16, came to a crashing halt at the hands of lowly Forest, who secured just their second Premier League win for 23 years thanks to Taiwo Awoniyi’s goal. Steve Cooper’s men also moved out of the bottom of the standings with their well-earned victory.

“The performance I can kind of explain, the result not. I never saw a game where one team has... I’m not sure, four or five no-brainers from a set-piece,” lamented Klopp on BT Sport.

“We have to finish them off. We should have put the game to bed. The goal we conceded was a big mistake from us (by Joe Gomez). All the chances they had we gave them, because too often we played the wrong pass.

“We had to play three games in six days with a really limited squad. That’s just how it is. Result-wise, we should have showed consistency today with better finishing.

“Forest showed fight. It’s the Premier League, they are all good and they all fight. They are a great team, but we have to win today. And we didn’t, so credit to Nottingham Forest.”

Awoniyi spent six years as a Liverpool player without ever making an appearance as he was farmed out on a series of loan spells, but came back to haunt his former club.

Liverpool were without the firepower of the injured Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz and it showed as they lacked the spark needed to unlock a deep-lying Forest defence.

The Reds have now already lost more league games in the first 11 matches – three – than in the whole of last season when they lost out on the title to City by just a point.

Victory over Pep Guardiola’s men, followed by another 1-0 win against West Ham in midweek had seemingly given Klopp’s side lift-off after a slow start to the campaign.

But with Thiago Alcantara also missing due to illness, they did not have enough in reserve even to see off a side without a win since August.

Forest have stayed patient with Cooper, even handing the former Swansea manager a new contract, as he tries to bed in a record 23 new signings in one transfer window for a Premier League team.

The two-time European champions are slowly beginning to see some return on that investment after also withstanding a bombardment from Brighton to draw 0-0 at the Amex midweek.

Klopp made five changes in all from Liverpool’s win over West Ham on Wednesday and it showed in a disjointed first half performance as they struggled to make over 70 per cent possession tell in terms of chances.

Ten minutes into the second period it was Forest who struck from a set piece as Ryan Yates’ initial effort came back off the post and Awoniyi was perfectly placed to tap into an unguarded net.

“I think I played a good game for my team. We had a plan, to be compact and try to get a goal, and I’m very happy that we won,” said Awoniyi.

Forest held out to the delight of a packed house at the City Ground to move within one point of moving out of the bottom three.

“Obviously it feels great, we really needed a win because we’ve been on a poor run,” said Cooper. “And going forward it is a good reference point for us to show we can compete at this level and create chances.” AFP