Steven Gerrard says Liverpool were "not good enough" to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage and that the club is lacking firepower.
Captain Gerrard scored a late free kick to give Brendan Rodgers' side hope in Tuesday's Group B decider against Basel, but the Swiss side held firm to progress alongside Real Madrid with a 1-1 draw.
"I don't think we deserved better," Gerrard told ITV. "We have not gone out because of this performance.
"We weren't good enough away to Basel and we let in a silly goal away to Ludogorets [Razgrad]. You qualify over six games and we have not been good enough."
Liverpool were without both the injured Daniel Sturridge and Mario Balotelli for the winner-takes-all clash at Anfield, meaning Rickie Lambert started as a lone striker. And Gerrard believes the club are struggling from their lack of front-line options.
"We need to get our main striker Daniel Sturridge back and get some more goals in the side. We need to get Mario Balotelli back and firing. That is not to take away anything from the lads who have played tonight and have slogged their guts out," Gerrard added.
"Rickie Lambert has ran himself into the ground tonight, but it has just been a game too far tonight and that has been because of a lack of numbers."
Basel took the lead through Fabian Frei and looked good for all three points, particularly after second-half substitute Lazar Markovic was controversially shown a red card for the home side.
However, a superb free kick from Gerrard gave the home side a lifeline, but they failed to find a winner despite piling on the pressure in added time.
"I still knew after I scored that it was going to be difficult with 10 men and running out of time, but it gave us some hope and, as the manager said, the first half was not good enough and we had to go down fighting," Gerrard said.
"I have not seen the sending off, but I have heard it was harsh. It made it harder because we could have made it hell for Basel in the final stages with 11 men."