Manchester City thrashed out what went wrong in their 4-1 dismantling by Liverpool when they assembled at the training ground on Sunday, with Bacary Sagna stating they wanted to “try to fix what we have to fix”.
City’s defeat was their heaviest at home since their move to the Etihad Stadium in August 2003 and dropped them from top of the Premier League to third. Liverpool were 3-0 up after 32 minutes and Manuel Pellegrini described his team’s display as the poorest of his tenure.
At their usual light training session on Sunday the players took the opportunity to dissect their performance in the hope of sparking a reaction similar to that which followed September’s 4-1 defeat at Tottenham. City won seven and drew one of the following eight games.
Sagna said: “We lost and we are very disappointed but [Sunday] is another day and we are going to start talking between each other and try to fix what we have to fix. We know we can do better.”
Since their impressive 3-1 victory at Sevilla in the Champions League, City have had a goalless draw at Aston Villa and now this humiliation.
They are back in Europe on Wednesday, at Juventus. Sagna said: “It’s never easy when you come back from the national team and some of us have played many games. You don’t have time to train, you don’t have time to work on the basics as you do [normally].”
Sagna and Eliaquim Mangala, who scored an own-goal and had a particularly poor game, had been involved with France at the time of the terrorist attacks on Paris. Sagna said: “It’s not my best week. But it’s life and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s part of the past now and you just have to keep your head up. It was not easy to be part of that event [in Paris]. Mentally I was ready to play. Physically I believed I was. But I wasn’t. I tired quite quickly .”
Of Mangala, Sagna added: “It was quite difficult [for him too]. We started the game really well but we conceded a goal quite quickly and we were both involved in the first goal so it’s never easy [after that]. We had to keep our head up and that’s what we are going to do in the future.”
Sagna lost to ball to Coutinho which allowed the Brazilian to initiate the attack for Liverpool’s opener. Of Philippe Coutinho’s challenge, the right-back said: “To me it’s a foul, he pushed me. when the game keeps going and right behind me we concede a goal it’s not easy. I feel guilty [for the goal] and after that I had to keep my head up and I was too upset. I was thinking about what happened and I shouldn’t have.”
