A crestfallen Jurgen Klopp labelled Liverpool 's woeful second-half display against Manchester City "unacceptable," having been thrashed 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
The Reds initially took the lead thanks to Mohamed Salah 's first-half goal but Julian Alvarez soon responded for City with a slick equaliser. Quick-fire strikes from Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan then gave the hosts a two-goal lead after the break, setting up Jack Grealish to secure the win which moves City within five points of Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
Klopp was left dismayed by Liverpool's change in performance level, telling BBC Sport : "The first half was one we've seen a few times when we've played here. City always have more possession, but we had spells. We played calm, composed and caused them problems.
"We scored a wonderful goal, had another big moment but concede. It was unlucky how the ball went through [Andy] Robertson 's legs and they finish it off but coming out after half time and conceding two quick goals broke everything down. The goals, how we conceded is difficult to accept - we didn't put in a challenge for either.
"That's absolutely not acceptable to be honest. City completely in control after that and we were open and they could do whatever they wanted, we were lucky they were not in a greedy mood. That they only scored one more goal is, well, thank you. It could've been different and that's really bad news for us. In the end, we had moments but in general how we lost everything, unacceptable.
"3-1 down is difficult here but there was nothing more there, four-ish players had an OK game and the rest were somewhere I don't know. Three days and we play again against another strong team. Tomorrow is a big day for us because we have to work with what we saw today because we see it more often now."
Reds forward Cody Gakpo, whose side's hopes of achieving a top-four finish and qualifying for the Champions League, also admitted: "It speaks for itself that we are frustrated. We know what we can do and when we don't do it and lose the game, everybody is frustrated.
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"I think we conceded really quick in the second half, two quick goals and it is difficult to bounce back from that. We have to analyse that and see how we can improve it. City is a strong side but I think we also showed in moments that we are also really strong side but we have to be consistent."
Meanwhile, City manager Pep Guardiola labelled his team's performance one of the best of his seven-year tenure ."Minute one to minute 93 was a perfect performance - even though we concede a goal we played really well," Guardiola beamed to BT Sport. "They [Liverpool] always have threat on transition but we played really good, one of the best performances in my seven years."
