Massimiliano Allegri has urged AC Milan not to play the blame game and instead switch their focus to getting their quest for Champions League football back on track.
Allegri's words came after his team were beaten 3-2 by Atalanta on Sunday, leaving them inside the top four in Serie A due to their superior head-to-head record over Roma.
Ederson, Davide Zappacosta and Giacomo Raspadori had given Atalanta a three-goal cushion by the 51st minute, though a late revival almost snatched a point for Allegri's side.
Strahinja Pavlovic scored in the 88th minute before Christopher Nkunku tucked away a stoppage-time penalty, but it proved to be too little, too late for the Rossoneri.
The Opta supercomputer has now assigned Milan a 60.7% chance of qualifying for UEFA's flagship competition, and while Allegri shouldered the blame for the defeat, he said his team must recover from their recent slump to achieve their end goal.
"When results are lacking, I am the first person responsible, as I am the coach," Allegri told DAZN, as quoted by Football Italia.
"These lads have always given their all, we mustn't go looking for blame right now, but focus on how we achieved many victories this season and need to get two more.
"I said repeatedly that the Champions League spot was not locked down, despite what everyone else claimed, because I knew we hadn't had a dip yet.
"The dip has arrived, now we've got to finish it off."
Milan's defeat means they are now winless in three league games at San Siro for the first time since between December 2024 and January 2025, when they drew three times under Paulo Fonseca and Sergio Conceicao.
They have also now lost at least two home games while conceding three or more goals, in a single Serie A season, for only the fifth time in the three-points-for-win era (since 1994-95), after 1996-97 (two), 2006-07 (two), 2015-16 (two) and 2020-21 (three).
Allegri's side had their chances, though, with Santiago Gimenez, Rafael Leao and Alexis Saelemaekers all denied by visiting goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi in the first half.
Milan also finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.94 from 20 shots, to Atalanta's 1.08 from nine attempts, but Allegri was pleased with the reaction from his players after finding themselves three goals behind.
"There's no point talking about what has happened so far, because we cannot change it," Allegri added.
"All we can do is work well over the next week and be ready for a game against Genoa that will be decisive for our Champions League qualification.
“Tonight had started fairly well for 10 minutes, then we conceded that goal at the first chance, after which we fell apart.
"In the second half, once we had gone 3-0 down, there was a strong reaction.
"At least we got back to scoring goals. I realise it might seem an odd thing to say, but that's a good sign."