Wolverhampton Wanderers' Welsh midfielder David Edwards (2R) celebrates following the English FA Cup fourth round football match between Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on January 28, 2017. Wolverhampton w
LONDON: Liverpool was embarrassed in the FA Cup by Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, with a week of misery for Juergen Klopp completed by losing 2-1 to the second-tier side.
Liverpool was shocked 4-3 by Swansea in the Premier League last Saturday and was denied a place in the League Cup final by Southampton on Wednesday.
Losing to Wolves in the FA Cup fourth round leaves Klopp with only the Premier League to contend for and Liverpool is 10 points behind Chelsea heading into Tuesday's game against the leaders.
Klopp was angered by his team's collapse against Wolves but accepted responsibility.
"A very bad performance," Klopp told BT Sport television. "It started bad and didn't get really better. There is not a lot of good things to say about this game. It is difficult, difficult to explain."
The status of the FA Cup has diminished as even League Championship teams like Wolves use the competition to rest players.
So while Liverpool only retained two players from the semifinal loss to Southampton, Wolves also made seven changes from its last league fixture.
Richard Stearman headed Wolves in front in the first minute at Anfield and Andreas Weimann doubled the visitors' lead four minutes before halftime. Divock Origi pulled one back in the 86th minute but Liverpool couldn't force a replay against a team which is 18th in the 24-team League Championship.
"I'm responsible for it," Klopp said. "You learn a lot about players in situations like this. I am responsible for this performance, 100 percent."
Wolves were once a leading team in English soccer, winning three top-flight titles in the 1950s before collecting the FA Cup for a fourth and final time in 1960. The central England team, which was bought last year by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, has been out of the Premier League since 2012.
Liverpool was Wolves' second Premier League victim this season, having knocked out Stoke in the third round.
"We knew Liverpool were on a little bit of a bad run so it was up to us to take the game to them. We did that," said Wolves midfielder Conor Coady, a graduate of Liverpool's academy. "We've got nothing to lose now. We will enjoy today and really kick on."
