Chris Wilder believes Liverpool remain one of the best teams in Europe after the Reds eased past his Sheffield United side.
The champions ended a run of four successive Premier League defeats with a comfortable 2-0 triumph at Bramall Lane on Sunday evening.
Curtis Jones opened the scoring shortly after half-time before a Roberto Firmino shot was deflected in by home defender Kean Bryan.
And Wilder was realistic about the task his rock-bottom side had faced.
“You’ve got to be at your best to beat Liverpool,” he said. “They’re one of the top sides in England and Europe.
“I’m not looking at their last few games – 2-0 down against these top players and it turns into a long last 20 minutes.
“Andy Robertson and Trent (Alexander-Arnold), the best pair of full-backs not just in this division but in European football.
“In midfield there is Thiago, (Gini) Wijnaldum and Curtis Jones, who is a terrific young player – they have always produced good young players – and it’s still the front three at the top of the pitch.
“Continuity and options for us to pick a side to try and get an against-all-odds result is quite difficult. It has to be a perfect storm for us and obviously at the moment it isn’t.”
Wilder added: “The first goal is really disappointing for us.
"Aaron Ramsdale is always going to have to make saves against Liverpool, like most goalkeepers are, and in the first half he did.
“But two individual mistakes opened it up for them (for the first goal). The gap is big enough at the best of times without giving those kind of goals away.
“It’s not enough to be running around the pitch against teams like this. We put an enormous amount of effort in but the players are running on empty.
“There were no white flags flying tonight but the gap is huge.”
