KENNY DALGLISH admits Liverpool FC suffered a “harsh lesson” after slumping to defeat at Premier League leaders Manchester City.

Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure struck in the first half before James Milner’s late penalty sealed a 3-0 defeat for Liverpool FC at Eastlands last night.

All three goals owed much to defensive mistakes with Liverpool FC unable to make the most of a generous amount of possession, most notably when Stewart Downing wasted a glorious chance to open the scoring early on.

And Dalglish accepts the Anfield outfit have only themselves to blame after falling further behind in the race for Champions League qualification.

“I’m not so sure the scoreline reflects how the game went,” said the Liverpool manager. “I’m not saying we deserved to win but the lesson we have learned is that if we are not clinical we are going to suffer.

“There are a lot of things that happened tonight that we can correct ourselves, so we need to go and do that.

“It was a harsh lesson but it will be even harsher if we don’t learn from it.”

Shortly before Milner’s spot kick, City midfielder Gareth Barry had been dismissed for a second bookable offence.

And Dalglish added: “We had a good opportunity to open the scoring, then we lose the first goal from losing possession and the second goal was a corner when we had the warning just before it.

“Then the third came when they had just gone down to 10 men and we conceded a penalty.”

Pepe Reina was at fault for Aguero’s opener by allowing the Argentine’s speculative effort to bounce in under his body.

But Dalglish said: “They changed the ball just before it so maybe that had something to do with it.

“We aren’t going to sit and isolate individuals. Every member of the squad made a mistake in some way shape or form tonight.”

Liverpool FC were without Luis Suarez after reluctantly accepting the striker’s eight-match for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.

But Dalglish believes the full story has not been told of the incident.

“Luis has made a brilliant statement and we stand by that,” he said. “There are a lot of things we would like to say and could say but we don’t want to get into trouble.

“We know what went on, they know what’s not in the report. And that’s important for us.

“It’s very dangerous and unfortunate that people don’t know the whole content of what went on at the hearing.

“It’s up to the club what they want to do next. But I don’t think we are building a bigger hole, I just think it’s unfortunate we can’t be more forthcoming.”

Of opting not to wait until after next week’s Carling Cup semi-final first leg at City before starting Suarez’s ban, Dalglish added: “He has to serve the games at some point. It was better to get the situation over and done with.

“But I don’t have any concern with Luis playing in England again.”

Dalglish also moved to defend the decision of Liverpool’s players to wear t-shirts backing Suarez before the goalless draw at Wigan Athletic a fortnight ago, the day after the Uruguayan learned of the guilty verdict.

“They wanted to show support for their team-mate,” said the manager. “What’s wrong with that? I think it’s a fabulous statement to make, support for a guy who is endeared in the dressing room.

“All his friends in the dressing room could speak up for him.”

Meanwhile, City manager Roberto Mancini was unhappy at Barry’s dismissal after fouls on Jay Spearing and later Daniel Agger.

“I didn’t agree with the second card for Gareth Barry,” said the Italian. “I’ve seen worse tackles that that this week.”

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