Football
ESPN staff 9y

Man City boss Manuel Pellegrini takes responsibility for derby loss

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini said he accepts full responsibility for his side's 4-2 derby defeat at Old Trafford and that he was concerned by the way the team collapsed.

After being joint top of the table in January, City now find themselves in fourth position, 12 points off the summit having played one more match than leaders Chelsea.

Rather than fighting for the title, they could now face a battle just to finish in the top four, and Pellegrini said after the loss to Manchester United: "I always think it is my responsibility, always."

There has been speculation about Pellegrini's job for some time, but he said: "The only way we can change this is by winning games. I am not talking about my position. It is not important."

City showed little sign of recovering once Ashley Young had cancelled out Sergio Aguero's opener.

Before half-time the Blues were 2-1 down as a result of Marouane Fellaini's header, and Juan Mata added a third after the restart before Chris Smalling scored United's final goal in the 73rd minute.

The former Real Madrid and Malaga coach complained that City only played well for 20 minutes and he said there may be an issue with team spirit.

"Maybe it is something we can be concerned by," he said. "It is easy when you are two goals in front to play with more trust than the team that is two goals behind.

"We made important mistakes for the second goal and the third was offside but the result was a fair one."

Mata had appeared to be offside when he made it 3-1 but Pellegrini said: "I don't want to analyse the referee's decision -- they have to do their work. Maybe the third goal was offside but that was just one thing that happened during this game."

Pellegrini said he was hopeful the supporters would continue to back the team as they look to get back on track in the upcoming home games against West Ham and Aston Villa.

"I think the fans of City are very important fans," he said. "Maybe we are not in a good moment but I am sure they will continue supporting this group.

"We had a whole year in second place. We had a bad 2015 and a very bad week. We have to all together play the next six games to recover our position.

"We have 18 points more to play so we must try not to make it a dramatic moment. We now have two games at home -- we must try to recover from this defeat. We must try to win the next game."

Information from the Press Association was used in this report.

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