Manuel Pellegrini has called on his Hebei China Fortune players to prove their worth in what remains of the Chinese Super League season after the Chilean saw his new side slip to a 3-2 loss against Yanbian Funde.
The former Manchester City manager is attempting to arrest a disappointing run of form after being appointed earlier this month and watched last week's 3-0 defeat against Guangzhou Evergrande from the stands before officially taking over on Monday.
Hebei have not won since late July and Pellegrini's side slipped up once again despite taking the lead through Brazilian forward Aloisio. Goals from Kim Seung-dae and Bubacar Trawally in the dying minutes of the first half put Yanbian in front before Aloisio levelled, only for Cui Min to score 13 minutes from time to give the home side all three points.
"Now I'm only thinking about the next five rounds of matches, and I'm not distracted by anything else," Pellegrini said. "But, like I have said, it is time for every player to show me that they deserve to be kept at this club."
The defeat leaves Hebei fifth, seven points behind Shanghai Shenhua in the last of the three Asian Champions League qualifying positions and a further 11 points behind leaders Guangzhou Evergrande.
"I'm happy with the performance, I saw the good football I expected to see in the first 43 minutes, but we need to work on our defence because the two goals we conceded shouldn't happen," Pellegrini added.
"I've only coached the team for four or five days but in the first 40 minutes three of our players received yellow cards, and all of them were defenders. It was completely unnecessary. We have to be patient in defence."