Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool's 2-2 draw in Friday's FA Cup third-round tie away to Exeter City was a learning curve for his inexperienced side.
The manager fielded a team of whom only two -- Jose Enrique and Christian Benteke -- had played more than four times for the club, with three of them making their first-team debut.
And after they recovered to force a replay having twice trailed at St James Park, Klopp admitted their League Two opponents had taught them a thing or two.
"They tried everything but it's obvious what we have to learn in the future," he told the BBC. "We have to be more robust.
"It was a difficult pitch. Exeter did really well and they had a few parts where they played football -- maybe they know on which part of the pitch it's possible to play football and on which part you have to only play long balls."
Klopp admitted some of his young team needed to be tougher and more alert, even if they were thrown in at the deep end by an injury crisis that had ruled out 13 front-line players and makes a replay at Anfield far from the ideal outcome.
And he was reluctant to talk about Lee Holmes' second goal for Exeter, which sailed embarrassingly straight past goalkeeper Adam Bogdan from a corner on the stroke of half-time, compounding the club's ongoing issues between the sticks.
"We had a few good moments but of course it was really difficult for us," he said. "You saw the players of Exeter -- this is a surprise -- in a few one-on-one situations they were more robust than our guys. They won for sure too many easy flick-ons, so we have to work on this.
"Both goals were really unlucky for us. First goal was the first offensive situation and 'bang, we're awake'. And the second goal... yeah, OK.
"I heard about BBC showing it live, so come on -- full package spectacular. So it's a draw and now we have to play again -- I can't believe it, another game. But OK, you want it like this, so we will be there."
Left-back Brad Smith's determination helped him to grab a 73rd-minute equaliser after Reds striker Jerome Sinclair's 12th-minute finish had cancelled out Tom Nichols' ninth-minute opener. It was too early, however, to draw conclusions about whether those given a rare or first taste of first-team football were the real deal, Klopp cautioned.
"How can I mix a team together and then say it shows the future?" he said. "It can be the future but if I judge after this game finally... Thank god, it doesn't work like this.
"It was only that they helped us in our situation and we have another game to go on."
Liverpool have never lost to fourth-tier opposition in the FA Cup before but Nichols felt his side deserved a second chance at Anfield.
"I thought the boys were brilliant," he said. "I thought we thoroughly deserved a draw. We didn't park the bus, we gave it a right go and we've got a trip to Anfield."
On his goal, he added: "I'd been doing some work with our coaches the day before, they were saying 'you've got to run quicker into the box,' it was a great ball in and I got on the end of it.
"It was a great start, it was a shame we couldn't hang on but we've got a trip to Anfield.
"The fans have been different class for the past four or five games, the atmosphere was unbelievable."
Information from Press Association was used in this report.