John McGinn felt Aston Villa’s slow start at Anfield set the tone for a tough afternoon against Liverpool on Sunday.
Conceding after three minutes put the visitors on the back foot and they couldn’t recover, losing 3-0 on Merseyside.
Villa had chances to get back into the game, including one for McGinn himself, and the captain was left disappointed by their failure to mount a response.
“The corner comes from us – we allow them to get the ball in the box and it’s a terrific strike from (Dominik) Szoboszlai,” he said.
“They’ve got players that can hurt you and have the quality to score goals like that. If you allow a team like Liverpool that head start it becomes a difficult afternoon.
“We had chances for people like me to get back into the game, but we didn’t take them. Liverpool proved that they’ll be a real force this season.”
McGinn added: “It’s about character and how we on the pitch react.
“We lost Diego (Carlos) – hopefully it’s not too serious. He’s a big player for us going down with an injury.
“There are a lot of things going against us, injury-wise, but we’ve still got players and quality to go and hurt Liverpool.
“We did it at times but not enough to get any points here.”
Villa suffered a setback in the opening game of the season against Newcastle United but showed their character to reel off four straight wins.
And McGinn says the team must pick themselves up and respond in the same vein when the Premier League campaign resumes after the international break.
When asked about Villa’s start to the season, he said: “Up and down, a bit of a rollercoaster so far, which doesn’t really suit us.
“It was a tough first game of the season, but we reacted really well and managed to qualify in Europe alongside two great results.
“Today was a bit of a blow but we need to react the same way we did after Newcastle.
“We need to put this game in the past and show everyone how good a team we are.”
