Jurgen Klopp pointed to the effects of Liverpool's gruelling pre-season tour of the United States as a factor behind the club's loss to Roma.
Liverpool's American trip ended on a losing note, beaten 2-1 by Italian outfit Roma in Missouri on Monday.
Sheyi Ojo continued his fine pre-season form, cancelling out Edin Dzeko's first-half opener, but Liverpool were undone by Mohamed Salah's 62nd-minute effort.
While the result was not ideal, Liverpool boss Klopp insisted his jaded players are on track heading into the Premier League season, with an International Champions Cup clash with Barcelona to come in London on Saturday.
"It was obviously not our best game but games like this can happen," said Klopp, who revealed full-back Alberto Moreno suffered a dead leg late in the match.
"We weren't compact in the first half and had too big spaces between the positions, so nearly every offensive action of Roma was a chance. It makes no sense.
"On the other hand, we had a lot of good chances too so it could have been 6-5 to either side at half-time. That may be exciting but is of course not what I want.
"Sometimes as a manager you have to accept things and tonight I can accept it because I know why. Thirteen days in the USA and the hardest circumstances tonight at the end, after a lot of intensive sessions and then this wet heat. It was not too easy.
"We had a lot of games in the last few weeks and the opponent had no games in the last two weeks. We knew all that before the game, so it’s hard. But of course we have to do better in games like this.
"Tonight it was easy to see what's wrong; that's good because it's easier to change it. We did really well in this pre-season camp – we had a lot of perfect sessions and really good moments in our games. Tonight there were a few offensive situations we played really well and were unlucky or a good goalkeeper or whatever. We didn't score often enough but I'm happy nobody is injured after this game.
"It was really difficult for my team to play tonight after this intense time. Now we have finished, hopefully a safe trip, go home to England and build on the base we made here."
