Forest stuns Liverpool to move off the bottom

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

The Reds’ mini-revival, following its win over Manchester City on October 16, came to a crashing halt at the hands of lowly Forest, which secured just its 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.

“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.

“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 was without the firepower of the injured Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz and it showed as it 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 it 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, it did not have enough in reserve even to see off a side without a win since August.

Forest has 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 champion is slowly beginning to see some return on that investment after also withstanding a bombardment from Brighton to draw 0-0 at the Amex midweek.

Ten minutes into the second period it was Forest which 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.

RESULTS: Nottingham Forest 1 (Awoniyi 55) bt Liverpool 0; Everton 3 (Calvert-Lewin 11, Gordon 63, McNeil 84) bt Crystal Palace 0; Manchester City 3 (Haaland 22, 43-pen; de Bruyne 75) bt Brighton & Hove Albion 1 (Trossard 53)