Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers admits they struggled to find a way past Aston Villa's rearguard for yesterday's shock 1-0 defeat.
An early scrambled goal from Gabby Agbonlahor gave Villa something to defend for the remaining 81 minutes.
"It is disappointing. We started slowly, gave away a poor goal, picked up the tempo after that and the players gave everything but we lacked that bit of quality and the final ball," said the Northern Irishman.
"You have to give Aston Villa credit, they defended well once they got the goal, kept their lines tight in a low block and we couldn't get the final pass so it was really frustrating for us.
"They defended well; the back four and midfield five were in and Agbonlahor on the counter-attack is always a threat.
"We started slowly which is unlike us. We have found a problem with Aston Villa in my time here. We lacked that bit of quality in the final third.
"It was just as a team we didn't have the intensity in our game. Everything was centralised and they were very compact, we needed to get around the sides a bit quicker.
"Second half was much better in terms of the domination but apart from Coutinho's little bit when he hit the post and worked the space well, we never created as much as we would normally do."
