Gerrard: We were not good enough

The Reds arrived in Switzerland seeking to add to an opening day victory over Ludogorets Razgrad at Anfield and secure a second win in Group B of the Champions League.

However, when Marco Streller pounced on a loose ball deep inside the Reds' penalty area to fire into the roof of Simon Mignolet's net, Brendan Rodgers' side faced a tall task in turning the tie around.

They created a handful of late chances, but Paulo Sousa's Basel were resolute as they closed out the victory - and afterwards Gerrard could not hide his disappointment.

"I think we created a good few openings where you would expect us to go and score, but we didn't deserve anything out of this game today," the skipper admitted to Sky Sports.

"I thought we were too soft all over the pitch. I thought they wanted it more, which is very disappointing. Conceding again from a set-piece isn't good enough, so we need to get it right. You're not going to win a football match if you keep conceding from set-pieces.

"I thought we were second best at times tonight. I think they are an okay team, but I wouldn't say we were blown off the park or that they were fantastic tonight. We made it easy for them and we wanted something out of this game - at least a draw. We came for the win, I expected us to win, so it was very disappointing."

Liverpool have no choice now but to dust themselves down and prepare for a return to Barclays Premier League action against West Bromwich Albion, who make the journey to Anfield on Saturday.

Gerrard insists there will be frank discussion between the squad over the coming days as they attempt to dissect the performance against the reigning Swiss champions.

"We will discuss it, we will analyse it like we always do," said the 34-year-old. "There were signs against Everton that we were coming back closer to where we wanted to be.

"We were aggressive with and without the ball against Everton. But we went back to where we have been for most of the season tonight, which is not good enough."