Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has admitted his side are suffering from a "crisis of confidence" after seeing the English Premier League champions fall to a shock 2-1 home loss to Russian side CSKA Moscow, on Wednesday.
Currently sitting in last place in their Champions League group, Manchester City have only two matches remaining to turn their fortunes around on the European stage, but face the daunting task of hosting Bundesliga holders Bayern Munich at the Etihad, and will be without Fernandinho and Yaya Toure, who were both sent off in the 2-1 defeat.
"It's a crisis of confidence, of course, but we must find out why," Pellegrini stated. "We will talk to the players every day and try to win again.
"It's difficult to understand why we played so bad. From the beginning we are so nervous and we lose so many passes. We gave them the two goals and really we didn't play.
"It's difficult to know why you have so low performance from important players. The way we tried to play, we are not changing anything from what we've done in other games. It's a strange moment to understand why.
"In the last two weeks we are not playing the way we normally do. I don't understand why but we must find a reason.
"The referee had to decide about that [the two red cards]. I don't know if Fernandinho made the second foul for the second yellow card. The first half especially we didn't see the team we normally see. We shot once at their goal and we concede two easy goals.
Man City will be without influential midfielders Yaya Toure and Fernandinho for their clash with Bayern after picking up red cards in Wednesday's loss to CSKA Moscow
The club's Ivorian ace, however, took to Twitter to apologise for his sending off
City fans - I am sorry for my red card. I feel it is important to apologise for this.
— Yaya Touré (@YayaToure) November 5, 2014
Another early Champions League exits appears to be on the horizon for the Citizens, but their Chilean boss remains hopeful of sealing progression. When asked whether their chances of securing qualification is all but gone, Pellegrini responded with: "No. You never must think you're out when mathematics say you are in.
"Not only for Champions League because we have Premier League this Saturday against QPR - we must try to return to our normal performance."
