Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted his side was poor after they suffered a 3-0 Europa League first leg quarter-final defeat against Atalanta at Anfield on Thursday.

The Reds were floored by two goals from Gianluca Scamacca and a late Mario Pasalic finish, leaving them with a significant deficit to overturn in next week’s return fixture at Stadio di Bergamo.

“We can make the shortest press conference of all time, it just was a really bad game, oh my God. So we started well, really well, and then didn’t continue. I think even before they scored but we just lost the plot a little bit, like we were everywhere and nowhere,” said Klopp.

“[The] midfield was spread like that, right midfielder left side, left midfielder, striker… I didn’t recognise that, that was really strange. In football terms that’s tactical discipline. But anyhow we had a big chance I think from Darwin [Nunez] and then unlucky with Harvey [Elliott]. Then they scored the goal and then we kept playing into their hands, to be honest.

“A really good example [of] how it could have looked is the goal we scored because that’s [the] striker wide, full-back underlap in a massive space, arrives, has all the time in the world, passes the ball and Mo [Salah] scores the goal. It was then offside but that’s one thing. We should have had these situations more often.”