Jurgen Klopp did not hold back in his brutal assessment of his own Liverpool's sides shortcomings after their 2-2 draw at Fulham.
Last season's Premier League runners-up still looked some way off their best and can arguably consider themselves fortunate to leave Craven Cottage with a point. Newly-promoted Fulham left everything out on the pitch and came desperately close to opening game victory.
Speaking to BT Sport come full-time, Klopp said: "The best thing about the game is the result, that we get a point from a really bad game from my side. The attitude was not right in the beginning, we wanted to fight back but we don't find it as easy any more.
"The result is fine, we don't deserve more than that but the performance is massively improvable."
Pressed for comment on how he handled his half-time team talk, Klopp appeared to imply he let rip at his players. "You can't always hug the boys," he admitted.
"We do that usually when they deserve it and the first half - it's not that they didn't but when you start a game the opposite of how we want to start it's difficult.
"Everybody was under pressure, we couldn't really break the lines. We never had momentum, we could have won the game as we had the bigger chances but that would have been too much."
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Aleksandar Mitrovic opened the scoring in the first-half with a header that showcased the Serbian international's best asset - his strength. The Fulham forward outjumped Trent Alexander-Arnold to nod home from close range to put the hosts in front, before Darwin Nunez just after the hour mark.
The scores weren't level for long after Virgil van Dijk was guilty of some uncharacteristically clumsy defending. The Dutchman flung a leg out in an attempt to thwart Mitrovic, but mistimed his tackle which prompted Stuart Atwell to point to the spot.
Up stepped Fulham's talisman and he made no mistake, with Mitrovic firing his effort into the bottom right-corner to secure his brace. Klopp cut a frustrated figure watching on from the away dugout.
Ultimately, Mohamed Salah was on hand to rescue a point for the Reds and spare some blushes. However, it was clear for all to see that this was about as an unconvincing Liverpool performance as anyone has seen for quite some time.
Particularly in the opening exchanges, it looked as if Klopp's side were stunned into submission by Fulham's front-footed, aggressive approach. Liverpool's most potent players struggled to get to grips with the intensity of the opposition.
