Former Manchester City defender Danny Mills says that Manuel Pellegrini should take the blame for the club’s 2-1 defeat against Wigan in the FA Cup.

The Chilean selected a team that had a couple of first-team players missing and it was thought that he had done so with the Barcelona midweek match in mind. City are chasing the Catalan club with a 2-0 deficit from the first leg.

They could be noted out of the Champions League if they do not score at least two goals at the Camp Nou. However, City enjoyed the worst preparation for this match by losing to Wigan at the Etihad stadium.

After scoring goals for fun in the first half of the season, City have been unable to replicate their form in the second half. This has largely been down to injuries to key players like Sergio Aguero, but former City defender Mills reckons that it was the tactics of the Chilean that led to the defeat against Wigan. He says that Pellegrini should have been aware of the fact that lower league opposition certainly worked hard in order to overcome their deficit in quality. Hence, he should have prepared his players mentally for such a proposition.

City were second-best in all areas of the pitch and were rightly given a 2-1 defeat according to the defender.
"They gave it a real good go in the last 20 minutes but didn't really create too many clear-cut chances and really test the goalkeeper. He (Pellegrini) may well have got it wrong. He has to take a lot of responsibility. When you play against a lower-division side you know they're going to work hard, you know they're going to be organised. He's had one or two problems so far this season against lower-division teams,” said Mills.