Jurgen Klopp appeared to dig out Virgil van Dijk in the wake of Liverpool 's shock 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
The Reds were stunned at the City ground after their former striker, Taiwo Awoniyi, bagged the only goal of the tightly-contested game to end Liverpool's resurgent run of form. The flat performance from Klopp's side left supporters frustrated, but Van Dijk still had three separate chances to salvage a point late in the game from set pieces.
Instead, the Dutch defender fluffed his lines each time and came in for criticism from Klopp post-match alongside teammate Roberto Firmino, who squandered less opportunities. "The performance I can explain, the result not to be honest," the Reds boss admitted to BT Sport. "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 first-half, Virgil 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 made sure praise Forest's performance, saying: "It's Premier League and they're all good, all fight, but giving teams six clear chances, I'm not sure where I should put praise on. They're a great team, Steve [Cooper]'s a fantastic manager, for us, we have to win here - done - but we didn't. Credit to Nottingham, it was us against the goalkeeper, us against ourselves and not us against Nottingham Forest, nobody defended Bobby, Virg, we didn't use it."
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Liverpool had won their last three games to look back to old selves, including a thrilling 1-0 win against Manchester City last Sunday. But now Klopp must help his men recover from their third league defeat of the season in just 11 games. The Reds face Ajax in the Champions League on Wednesday looking to reach the knockout stages.
"That's nearly a holiday because we play Wednesday which means Sunday, Monday, Tuesday to recover. We prepare them for Amsterdam, I hope three players will come back then we make changes again - that's the situation," the German tactician went on to say.
"We have six days really with a limited squad, playing three high intense games. City; super intense, then you have to go full distance midweek then Saturday. That's how it is, you have to fight through. Result-wise we should've showed consistency, result-wise we could’ve had by just taking chances."
