Roy Hodgson said Crystal Palace were unfortunate to go in at half-time behind against Manchester City on Saturday.
Palace remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League without a goal or a point from their opening six games after a 5-0 defeat to City.
The visitors contained Pep Guardiola's side for much of the first half and even hit the host's upright on the break before Leroy Sane opened the scoring just before the interval.
Sane lifted the ball over Scott Dann and fired past Wayne Hennessey to prompt Palace's collapse.
After the interval, Raheem Sterling scored twice before Sergio Aguero and Fabian Delph sealed a five-star performance, but Hodgson rued Palace's defending in the build-up to City's first.
"I thought at half-time to come at 1-0 down is a bit unfortunate. I thought we'd played some good football," said the Palace boss.
"Two quick goals then and when they get a few up, with their quality, passing and movement it becomes very difficult.
"We know there is a lot of work to do with this group and they know that too.
"The goal before half-time was very damaging. We didn't defend anywhere near as well as we should have done for that goal. We looked reasonably dangerous on the counter-attack but when they go 1-0 up we have to score. In the end we have been heavily beaten."
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