Liverpool vs Manchester City: Manuel Pellegrini admits excuses 'hard to find' after City fall to damaging defeat

Liverpool 3 Manchester City 0

Manuel Pellegrini meets Jurgen Klopp on the side-lines (Getty)

Manuel Pellegrini admitted Manchester City could afford no more performances like the one they delivered at Anfield if they are to remain in the title race.

Liverpool’s emphatic 3-0 win meant City are now 10 points behind the Premier League leaders, Leicester, and are only in the Champions League positions on goal difference. Pellegrini said: “We cannot keep playing the way we did today because we did not shoot once at the Liverpool goal and this is now the third straight game we have lost in the league.”

The Manchester City manager argued that his team were still feeling the effects of Sunday’s victory over Liverpool in the Capital One Cup final, saying that his counterpart, Jurgen Klopp, had been able to make more changes.

“Liverpool recovered better than us,” he said. “They had more pace, they were able to make more changes and, unfortunately, we did not have the players available to make changes.” Pellegrini said he had substituted Raheem Sterling, who endured a miserable return to Anfield, at half time because he had made little impact on the Liverpool defence.

Klopp rejected Pellegrini’s argument about tiredness, saying that every club could make the same claim at this stage of the season. The Liverpool manager added that his side were determined to take revenge for their defeat at Wembley.

“It was really good from the first tackle,” he said. “We had talked about this game and it was important that we showed a reaction after the cup final. We were disappointed but we didn’t want to go into this game in despair – we were very angry in a good way. I am too old to think we will play like this every week but everyone who loves Liverpool had a really good night and could forget for a while that we lost on Sunday.”