Daniel Farke said there were positives to take from Norwich City's defeat against Liverpool at Carrow Road in their Premier League opener.
The Canaries acquitted themselves well against the 2019-20 Premier League champions, but came unstuck in both boxes with Liverpool's clinical edge seeing them prevail.
Goals from Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah saw Liverpool win 3-0, but City head coach Farke remained level-headed after the game
Speaking to canaries.co.uk, Farke said: "It's always disappointing when you lose your first game, you want to grind out a result.
"There are positive things to take from today, but we had such a difficult pre-season. When I think about our starting eleven today, we were still missing some key players.
"We had to throw some key players into the cold water because we needed them. When I think about Grant Hanley, for example, he had to play this game without one single second of pre-season.
"Teemu Pukki missed many training days with us throughout pre-season, Milot Rashica missed two out of the last three weeks due to Covid-19.
"It was tricky, for that I have to say many compliments for the performance. As long as the energy was there, we were competitive.
"For 65 minutes, there was not much of a difference between us and Liverpool. The first goal was a little bit unnecessary. We were in a five against three overload and got a bit distracted from the situation. We were claiming for a foul against Teemu Pukki and dropped a bit too deep. It was a bit unlucky - I don't think Salah meant to play that pass the way he did.
"We felt a little bit tired after that and we have to respect the quality of Liverpool. For the second goal, we looked a bit tired and it was difficult after that.
"But I have many compliments. We were very competitive and I have to say, I was pleased with the final 15 minutes because when you are 3-0 down and tired and have many players who've not had a full pre-season, and you have players like Mane and Salah who are in the mood, we didn't want too concede anymore and looked pretty close to scoring ourselves.
"I still find it hard to explain how we didn't score from that set piece and also had good situations with Josh Sargent, Lukas Rupp and Kieran Dowell in the box.
"It was a deserved win for Liverpool but we have positives to take."
Dimitris Giannoulis caught the eye for City with a superb performance at left-back and the City boss was full of praise for his Greek full-back.
"I think he was unbelievable. He covered so much ground and looked good going forward. He defended against Salah well and even he had an interrupted pre-season.
"He had to isolate during pre-season and had an injury, but he was excellent."
The boss also reflected on playing in front of a full Carrow Road for the first time in almost 18 months:
"It was unbelievable. We know we always have this backing. The lads had one of the best seasons in the history of this club last season.
"They did it without supporters in ground. We came up against one of the best teams in the world today and they were fully in the mood.
"The players deserved the atmosphere and this is what football is all about. To share experiences like today with them and to have these feeling and emotions with them, it's great to have them back. It's not been the same without them."