Arne Slot wasn't happy with his Liverpool side even though they maintained their 100 per cent record in the Champions League following a slim 1-0 victory against Girona.
Mohamed Salah's penalty, awarded after a VAR-reviewed foul on Luis Diaz by Donny van de Beek, secured the win at Estadi Montilivi on Tuesday night.
This marked Liverpool's sixth consecutive win in the opening stage and all but guaranteed a spot in the last 16 with two matches left. However, it was goalkeeper Alisson Becker, back after an 11-game absence due to injury, who shone with several crucial stops.
Slot singled out two specific aspects of the performance that disappointed him. "If you ask me about all the six games, I'm really pleased with all the results," the Reds boss said.
"I'm really pleased with the first five games, but I'm far from pleased about the performance tonight. What wasn't I pleased about? I wasn't pleased with a lot. Especially two things."
"If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football and knows how to bring the ball out from the back like some of the teams we’ve played recently such as Real Madrid and Manchester City, you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.
"But if you are waiting a few seconds to press them, then this team can cause you a lot of problems. They showed that in their games, except PSV, in the Champions League this season. I almost feel sorry for them as they deserve so much more (from the Champions League)."
Alisson produced several fine stops to keep Girona at bay on his first appearance for two months after a hamstring injury.
Slot added: "We have an incredible goalkeeper. But the other thing is every time we lost the ball, we were not aggressive enough and they could go almost all the way to our goal and have a shot.
"We had hardly any control at all over the game. Maybe the second half was a bit better – I'm trying to be positive. Even at the start of the second half for maybe the first five or 10 minutes they went on a counter-attack one or two times still.
"Like so many times this season, if a team plays us they do something different than they do in their other games. That might be a compliment for us and the work we are doing.
"Girona played with a nine, similar to Levekusen. It wasn't always easy for us to press them well but I don't think it had that much to do with tactics.
"In general we were by far not aggressive enough without the ball. It helped that we scored a goal from a penalty."