Rodgers: We didn't create in usual way
Brendan Rodgers accepted that Liverpool did not create enough opportunities after starting slowly as the Reds were overturned 1-0 by Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday evening.
The hosts were condemned to a second defeat in four Barclays Premier League matches at the outset of the new season by a ninth-minute conversion from Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Despite aggressively seeking an equaliser for the entirety of the time that remained, with Philippe Coutinho coming closest in striking a post, a leveller eluded the home side.
"As a team we probably didn't quite have the intensity in our game and the speed in our game," Rodgers reflected at his press conference after the final whistle.
"When they get a goal and go 1-0 up, you've got to get around the sides and switch the play a bit quicker. We were just unable to do that.
"Everything was centralised when they were very compact centrally. The second half was much better in terms of domination and getting the ball into wide areas.
"But apart from Coutinho hitting the post, we never really created anywhere near what we normally would do. We started slowly and gave away a poor goal. We picked up the tempo after that.
"The players gave everything but we just lacked that bit of quality in the final ball and you've got to give Aston Villa credit.
"They defended well once they got the goal, kept their lines tight and defended with a low block. We just couldn't get the final pass - it was really frustrating for us.
"They defended well; the back four and midfield five were in, and with Agbonlahor on the counter-attack they are always a threat.
"We just started slowly in the game and it's unlike us really because normally we start very quickly. In the two games here, we haven't quite started as fast.
"We have found a problem with Aston Villa in my time here. We have won away from home but again today the bit of quality in the final third let us down."
Rodgers had opted for three changes to the starting XI that so stylishly downed Tottenham Hotspur 13 days ago, with Raheem Sterling one to drop to the substitutes' bench.
Reporters were keen to question the Northern Irishman for the reasoning behind his decision not to use the 19-year-old from kick-off.
He elaborated: "I said at the beginning of the season that I need to trust all the players we have.
"We've got a big couple of months - a really exciting couple of months - coming up. Looking at it, I felt this was a game we could do that. If he didn't have international football, it would have been a different case.
"He came on and was bright. He's going to be, and already is, a big player for us, but we've built a squad here and I trust all of the players.
"As a team and a squad, we just didn't deliver today. He will certainly play on Tuesday night."
Tuesday refers to the beginning of the Reds' Champions League campaign, with Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad the visitors to Anfield.
Any suggestions that a return to elite European football posed a distraction to Premier League duties today were unequivocally rejected by Rodgers when asked, however.
"We're very much about one game at a time and there's been no thought of it at all," he responded.
"There will be now because this game has gone and now we really have to focus on it [the Champions League].
"It's a very honest group of players. They gave everything today - there was no lack of commitment, effort or work rate, we just lacked that bit of quality today.
"We've seen many games here in the couple of years I've been here where we've ended up with 15-20 shots on target, but today we just couldn't find that bit of quality for some reason.
"That happens. We'll go again, we'll work again tomorrow and get ready for Tuesday. We're going into the Champions League again this season, which is where the club wants to be.
"There is nothing better after a disappointing performance and result like today than to get going again on Tuesday night in a competition we love. Hopefully we'll start that competition with three points."