Steven Gerrard was left frustrated after Aston Villa’s loss to Bournemouth on the opening day of the Premier League season.
The head coach saw his side get off to the worst possible start on the south coast, conceding after less than two minutes when Jefferson Lerma swept home.
And despite bossing the game for large spells, a second goal late on from Kieffer Moore killed off any hopes of a comeback.
“A really frustrating result and a frustrating day,” Gerrard said.
“We got what we deserved over the course of the game. A lot of focus will be on two set play moments but if you look across the board and across the game we haven’t shown enough quality.
“We didn’t look like creating today, which is on me and on us and it’s a big area that we need to improve upon.
“We gave ourselves a more difficult challenge in the opening minutes from a set play, but we’ve had more than enough time to get back into the game.
“We had long periods of possession, we had a lot of control, we got to the last areas of the pitch but we were lacking from a quality point of view – certainly in the final third.”
After going behind early on, the visiting Villans enjoyed 66% possession and racked up 15 shots.
However, despite using all the attacking talent at his disposal, Gerrard saw his side fail to seriously test Mark Travers in the Bournemouth goal.
He said: “It’s not down to energy today. It’s not down to application or effort, I think the lads have given a lot to the game.
“When I watch it back I’ll see a lot of possession, a lot of control and us moving up the pitch into the right areas but that last pass, that last cross and inventive spark was miles off today.
“We threw all our attacking players at it, but it wasn’t our day in the final third. We need to improve in that department.”
