It was a result no-one saw coming. Nottingham Forest started the day bottom of the Premier League table. Liverpool had just won three in a row, including a magnificent 1-0 victory over Manchester City.
When referee Paul Tierney blew his final whistle to confirm Forest’s surprise 1-0 win, Liverpool’s winning run was in ruins, with the Reds still without an away win in the league this season.
“It feels as low as possible,” said Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. “Massive, massive blow because I have no idea how we can lose this game to be honest.”
While Klopp was conducting an inquest into his team’s third league defeat of the season, his counterpart Steve Cooper was wondering if this could be a season-changing result.
“It’s a good day’s work,” he said. “That’s it. We need to crack on.”
‘Big blow’
Liverpool, who are 11 points behind leaders Arsenal having played one game more, struggled to create chances from open play as they slumped to a second successive away defeat in the league.
“It’s a big blow for us because we came here and wanted to get three points,” said Klopp. “In normal circumstances we should have won this this.”
Liverpool were not helped by the loss of midfielder Thiago Alcantara, who woke up at 05:15 BST with an ear infection which required hospital treatment.
They were already without Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, Joel Matip, Naby Keita, Ibrahima Konate and Darwin Nunez due to injury.
“We arrived with consistency but we had six games with a limited squad playing three high intense games inside a week,” added Klopp.
“That’s how it is, we cannot change that and we have to fight through. Result-wise we should have showed consistency. We could have had it by finishing situations off.
“Giving a team six clear chances after a set piece I’m not sure where I should put the praise to be honest. Nottingham Forest are a great team and Steve Cooper is a great manager but we have to win here and we didn’t, so credit to Nottingham.”
