Philippe Clement believe his Norwich City side were punished by Manchester City’s ruthlessness in front of goal during Thursday night’s Carabao Cup tie at the Etihad Stadium.
The competition holders controlled possession for large periods of the game and ultimately ran out comfortable winners on the night.
But after the game, the Norwich City boss pointed to the home side converted five of their six shots on targets.
Speaking to the media post-match, he said: “Yes, I thought they were more ruthless rather than relentless. They scored from a high number of their shots on target, so that shows you their quality.
“They are operating at not only the highest level in European football, but in global football. They are one of the best teams in the world and we saw that if they get chances they can very quickly kill off a game.
Despite the result, Clement is hoping his sides can take lessons from the defeat.
He continued: “It’s an interesting lesson for our young group of players to take.
“On the transition moments, our choice-making was not good enough. We were better at that in the second-half, but we have to learn from this experience.
“We can learn a lot about our shape and our discipline in phases of the game. In the moments that we make mistakes we have to learn more about why and make sure correct those going forward.
“We have improved a lot over the last seven or eight months, but we are never finished and must learn and continue to develop.
“Our players all want to play at the highest level and we have seen what it takes in the game tonight. This is the highest level of opponent we have played against.”
The Canaries return to Sky Bet Championship action on Sunday, welcoming Bolton Wanderers to Carrow Road.
The boss also took time to explain his reasons for rotating the squad for Thursday night’s game at the Etihad Stadium.
“When you have less than 72 hours in between two games it is really important,” he concluded.
“There's no time to recover for people who played 90 minutes in tonight’s game. It's impossible and those players will not be fresh for Sunday.
“We know that Bolton have had a full week to prepare the game this weekend, so it was also important that made a sensible selection tonight.
“We've been now playing every three days the last four or five weeks. So, it's normal that we need to create some freshness with players to play that important game this weekend.”