Maestre spoke of “dreaming big” after being appointed London City boss but any dreams at St Helens Stadium on Sunday can only have come from spectators who may have nodded off.
Of course, this was the Basque manager’s first game in charge following Jocelyn Precheur’s controversial sacking and he cannot be expected to make an immediate impact.
But having proclaimed to love attacking football in his introductory news conference, it seems there is still some way to go before that comes across on the pitch.
Against a Liverpool side that has scored just eight league goals all season, London City showed their opponents a remarkable amount of respect in the first half.
They pushed on more after the break, showing some encouraging signs with a high press that troubled Liverpool at times, but for much of the game there appeared to be a reticence to commit players forward.
The end result was one shot in the first half and one in the second – and it took until the 90th minute for that to arrive – with neither testing debutant goalkeeper Jennifer Falk.
“I don’t like this match, I am very ambitious,” Maestre told BBC Sport. “The first half is not enough, we were left in our own half for most of the minutes of the game.
“We improved a lot in the second half but not enough for me.”
It is extremely early days but having been brought in largely because of the adventurous, attractive style of play he advocates, Maestre will be keen to see significant improvements before too long.