Arne Slot was "far from pleased" with his Liverpool side even as they continued their winning start to the Champions League season at Girona.
League phase leaders Liverpool have six wins from six matches after defeating Girona 1-0 on Tuesday, although they relied on a second-half Mohamed Salah to take all three points.
And with returning goalkeeper Alisson kept busy in the first half, Slot did not hide his disappointment with the Reds' display.
"If you ask me about all the six games, I'm really pleased with all the results," said the new Liverpool boss.
"I'm really pleased with the [first] five games the way we played; I'm far from pleased about the performance tonight."
Asked to identify exactly what he was unhappy with, Slot replied: "A lot. Especially two things.
"If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football, knows how to bring the ball out from the back, like [Manchester] City or Real Madrid, then you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.
"But if every time you are waiting a few seconds before you press, and if you do press and you are so easily outplayed, then this team can cause you a lot of problems.
"This is what [Girona] have shown during the whole Champions League campaign, except for PSV away, so I almost feel sorry for them because they deserve so much more.
"The other part was every time we lost the ball, we were not aggressive enough, so every time we lost the ball, they could just almost every time go to our goal and have a shot.
"[Liverpool had] hardly any control at all over the game, maybe the second half was a bit better, but I'm trying to be positive."
Defender Andy Robertson accepted he and his team-mates fell below their best levels, although he preferred to focus on the result, which puts Liverpool on the brink of qualification.
"Of course, six wins out of six – you can't ask for much better than that," the left-back said. "It's not easy to do or there would be more teams doing it.
"Our performances have been good, we've won games, but we've played a lot better than tonight, that's for sure; we weren't at our highest level tonight.
"But at this point, it's about winning the games and securing qualification, and I think we've done that."