Jurgen Klopp paid tribute to the performance of Aston Villa after his Liverpool team were hammered 7-2 in the Premier League - and said his team did everything possible wrong on the night.
The reigning champions had won three games from three heading into the encounter on Sunday evening, but got off to a terrible start and never recovered as Dean Smith’s side ran riot at Villa Park.
Klopp pointed to defensive errors, a lack of reaction from his team, bad decision-making and dismal on-the-ball actions as to reasons why Liverpool conceded so many, but credited the home side for “forcing” those moments.
“I can tell you what I saw. It was a game which, for different reasons, Aston Villa did really well tonight and forced all the mistakes we made,” he told Sky Sports at full time.
"We played in their cards with the first two goals, the third massively…and of course then the game has a specific direction.
"Adrian made a mistake and it had an impact, but it shouldn’t. The reaction wasn’t good, we lost the plot, our creating in the last third was really good but when Villa won the ball, each time was a counter-attack - our protection was [below] average.
"Our good moments led to nothing apart from the two goals, theirs led to a big chance or goal [every time].
“They were flying, we were pretty open; all the things you should not do in a football game we did tonight - but credit to Villa because they made us do it.”
Klopp hopes that his team have essentially got all their poor performances out of the way in one abysmal 90-minute showing, as the Reds face the early pace-setters Everton in the Merseyside derby after the international break.
“It looked like we put all our rubbish things in one game. Tonight it was not sloppy, it was bad. I would love to have a training session tomorrow but the boys are going to their national teams…so I have time to find the words for the boys and we’ll use the two days before the derby.”
