Manuel Pellegrini said Manchester City’s 4-1 mauling at the hands of Liverpool was “a complete disaster” as he defended his team selection and blasted his players.
The Etihad chief surprisingly left defender Nicolas Otamendi and midfielder Fernandinho on the bench against the Reds and his side were completely outplayed.
Liverpool romped to victory through an own goal from Eliaquim Mangala, who partnered Martin Demichelis at the back, and strikes for Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Martin Skrtel.
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Yaya Toure was hauled off at half time as Pellegrini, whose side’s response came from Sergio Aguero, said he was “more than angry” with the performance.
“It was an unbelievable performance we had,” he said. “It was difficult to know why we played so bad. We were bad at defending, attacking and there was no aggression.
“I will not explain the starting 11. It was not one name, it was a complete disaster. I was not happy with 11 players not just Yaya. We tried another system, we tried to press high.
“I don’t want to talk about one player. When you play so bad in attack and defence there are no excuses.
“We lost so many balls in attack, we did not create chances and we could have conceded three or four more.
“We did it all wrong, the performance. It was a fake night, a fake game. It is difficult to understand. If we meant to do it on purpose we couldn’t have done it that badly.
“We tried to fight but continued making so many mistakes with the ball. We must turn the page, you cannot analyse a performance as low as that.”
Jürgen: “At half-time I said to the lads they seemed a little bit surprised to be [winning].” #LFC
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 21, 2015
Pellegrini’s mood was in stark contrast to that of Reds boss Jurgen Klopp who said: “It feels perfect. The game was not perfect but it was very good.
“We played with big passion and that’s the most important thing for us. The good news is that we can do better. At half-time I told the boys they were surprised to be winning 3-0, and we must do better in that situation.
“We have quality, we could have more goals but 4-1 is perfect. We can believe in our strengths. The boys can believe now that they are stronger than many people think.”
