Jurgen Klopp admits he's unsure why Liverpool "lost the plot" in their humiliating 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa.
Liverpool entered the game with a perfect record in the league, but they quickly found themselves in trouble as new signing Ollie Watkins scored his first of three after just four minutes.
Mohamed Salah gave the Reds a lifeline as he cut the deficit to 2-1, but Villa continued to exploit the high defensive line of Liverpool and, in the end, it could have been more than seven.
Perhaps Liverpool's most impressive strength through their recent period of domination has been their sheer level of consistency, a quality that simply wasn't there against Villa, not aided by the fact Alisson Becker, Sadio Mane and Thiago Alcantara were all unavailable.
Nevertheless, Klopp was unable to find a reason behind the result, telling Sky Sports: "Explain I'm not sure, but I can tell you what I saw.
"For different reasons, Aston Villa did really well, forced all the mistakes that we made. The game had a specific direction - the first goal had an impact but it shouldn't.
"We conceded goals like that in the past, but the reaction wasn't good, and we lost the plot.
"All the things you should not do in a football game, we did tonight," he added. "But all the credit to Aston Villa, they forced us to do it."
Pressed as to just why Liverpool lost the plot, Klopp insisted he couldn't pinpoint the moment, and admits the international break will now hinder his side's preparations ahead of a mouth-watering clash against league leaders Everton on October 17.
"It was unexpected but it happened tonight," he said. "For me it wasn't a specific moment, we put all our rubbish things and mistakes in one game and hopefully we can start again.
"Tonight wasn't sloppy, it was just bad, I have to admit that but I can't change it.
"I would love to have a training session tomorrow and Tuesday and to talk about it but the boys go back off to international duty.
"Hopefully they come back healthy and we use the two days to prepare for Everton."
