Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini believes the 5-0 defeat to Liverpool "felt different" to their loss to Manchester City last season.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, as well as a first Liverpool hat-trick for Diogo Jota, did the damage to the Serie A side as Jurgen Klopp's men moved five points clear at the summit of Group D in the Champions League.
The Premier League champions ran riot at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo, netting three second-half goals in five minutes to put their hosts to the sword.
The Italians were beaten 5-1 by City at the Etihad at the same stage of Europe's premier competition last term, but Gasperini believes the heavy home loss to Klopp's Liverpool felt more disheartening given the superior quality on show from the visitors.
"We’ll need to have a thought, because we lost badly at Manchester City last season, but it felt different because we knew we had to improve," Gasperini said.
"The difference tonight was huge, and we need to improve tactically, structurally.
"We came into this game with two positive results, and we faced Liverpool believing we could do well, but the difference was massive and they simply were much better.
"We struggled with the pace of the game. Let’s see the next games, we have time to work on ourselves.
"We are conceding too much lately and scoring less, we didn’t run enough and not well enough – all things we must work on."
Gasperini denied that his team held a fear of the 2019 winners, but conceded that the Reds were far too strong for their hosts.
He added: "I don't think there was a fear of Liverpool, we came from two good results and there was no fear, we faced them with confidence to be able to hold up and maybe be dangerous and instead they went too much stronger than us.
"We have also seen in the league that we are no longer the team that plays intensely, we have changed our characteristics a bit and it is also right to reflect on how to behave against this type of opponent.
"Against Ajax? There was a warning, then we fought back deservedly, but here (against Liverpool) we found another level, much higher.
"it is in anticipation of this we draw conclusions and see what to do."
