Andoni Iraola blamed a slow start as Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by defending Premier League champions Arsenal at Anfield, despite a strong second-half reaction.
The Gunners scored the only goal after 16 minutes when they capitalised on a poor pass out from the back by Alisson Becker, with Declan Rice crossing low for Kai Havertz to tap in.
Iraola praises response after early setback
Liverpool responded well but failed to convert their dominance into goals, and Iraola was frustrated by the manner of the defeat.
"Overall, I think we have to blame the start of the game especially," said the Reds head coach. "Until we conceded the goal, I think the start hasn't been at the level of the game."
"But from that 1-0, I think it's 15 or 16 minutes, I've loved the reaction of the team. I've loved even in the first half, I think we reacted really well, and I think we put Arsenal under big pressure."
Missed chances and penalty claim
Iraola felt his team had enough opportunities to score, pointing to a header from Alexis Mac Allister and a penalty appeal when Alexander Isak was dragged back by Jurrien Timber in the first half.
"I think we've done enough to score, but obviously we haven't. But we had, for me, the crossbar, we had the header of (Alexis) Mac Allister that for me is a very clear chance," he said.
"I think we had a clear penalty also for us and I think we've had a lot of situations inside the box, not even around the box, inside the box, that definitely we haven't finished properly."
Late substitutions and defensive resilience
Iraola brought on Rio Ngumoha, Victor Munoz and Dominik Szoboszlai late in the game to try to find a different route to goal.
"I decided to finish (the game) with Rio Ngumoha, with Victor Munoz and put in Dominik Szoboszlai to see if we could maybe from one shot outside the box, to score in different ways," he explained.
"We've had a lot of set-pieces but we haven't been able to score from there and also they've been very good defensively in the second half."
On the penalty claim, Iraola added: "I can say what I think about the situations, but we cannot waste too much time (talking) about the refereeing decisions, I think. We have to say what it is, I think it's a pen, but we have to control the things that we need to improve to be on the right side of these close games."
"It's true that we concede when we mess up a goal kick, but the feeling I had before is their goal was closer than ours. And from that moment, I think the game also has changed to our favour."
