Having won his first three matches in charge of Liverpool without seeing his side concede a goal, Arne Slot suffered his first defeat as Reds boss this weekend losing 1-0 to Nottingham Forest.
Heading into Sunday's matches, Liverpool remains second in the Premier League table because only Manchester City has a 100 per cent record at this stage of the campaign. But Arsenal could overtake the Reds if it beats Tottenham later today.
"We only have to look at ourselves; we have to be better," Slot said at the final whistle. "Far too many times, we lost the ball around the area. It was not good enough. We have to be better with the ball."
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"Our decisions and execution wasn't good enough," Slot continued. "In general, we defended quite well, but the two fast players [Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga] came on and made it difficult. We took a lot of risks and in the end it was a very good goal."
The Reds could bounce back from the disappointing loss when they face AC Milan in the Champions League this weekend. Bournemouth then comes to Anfield next Saturday in the Premier League.
Previous manager Jurgen Klopp went six games without a defeat at the start of his tenure at Anfield. Liverpool drew three times in a row under his management before winning three and then losing at home to Crystal Palace thanks to goals from Yannick Bolasie and Scott Dann.
Following that result, Klopp said he felt "alone" inside the stadium because some Liverpool fans decided to leave early. It was one of the defining moments in his route to glory with the Reds as the bold comments paid off and encouraged more people to remain put and keep fighting until the end in the future.
"It is not a problem to lose a game. It happens in football but we have to learn," Klopp said after his first defeat. He didn't hold back with his criticism of the Anfield support on that occasion.
"If we learn, we decide how strong we are, how good we are, how awake we are, and how tired we are," he said. "Nobody else. We played on Thursday [at Rubin Kazan in the Europa League ] but I decide if I am tired, nobody else. Today we needed a few minutes to come into the game. It was not enough. If everyone thinks we gave everything, then it is wrong.
"After the goal on 82 minutes, with 12 minutes to go, I saw many people leaving the stadium. I felt pretty alone at this moment. We decide when it is over. Between 82 and 94 [minutes] you can make eight goals if you like. Big decisions are made in moments when you are tired. Tonight it feels so bad because it was absolutely not necessary."
Liverpool.com says: Klopp was right to say what he said about the crowd and there were echoes of something similar yesterday as people filed out of Anfield early. It was a bold move for a new manager but it paid off in the long term with the buy-in between the fans and the players paying dividends during later matches against the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona.
Slot didn't need to come out with something similar. He has said previously that it is the job of the team to ignite the crowd and the players did very little in the way of anything exciting on Saturday. Everyone (both on the pitch and in the stands) was very flat.
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