Carlo Ancelotti, manager of Real Madrid, has accepted responsibility for his team’s humiliating 3-1 loss to rival Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

Alvaro Morata scored two goals and Antoine Griezmann scored one to put Madrid to rest. Toni Kroos’ first-half goal served only as a consolation in a contest in which Ancelotti’s team controlled possession but couldn’t convert it into points.

Ancelotti wanted to take all the blame after the game, although he did acknowledge his defense had fallen short of stopping Atletico.

Ancelotti said at a news conference when asked about his lineup: “The formation has not altered; we came out with a diamond, as usual. But we stumbled in both our offense and defense. Additionally, they started playing the game they wanted to when they were ahead 2-0.“We have talked about [a lack of concentration] and will continue to talk about it. Many times, adversaries acquire an early advantage over us, and we only sometimes fight back. We came close today, but a 3-1 victory ended the matter. It becomes excessive after achieving that objective. [The three goals] were scored by photocopies against ill-positioned center backs.I feel like I could have performed better. It is obviously my duty if the team doesn’t function well. But my mentality is really powerful. No issue. Being accountable is the least we can do. I’m to blame.Madrid had twice as many shots on goal (20) as Atletico and 64% of the possession, but Ancelotti refused to place the responsibility on his attackers and once more criticized his defense.”The fact that Atleti is one of the teams that defend best in Spain also makes a difference,” he said. “They are formidable in combat; finding spaces is difficult. Outside pressure hasn’t been too effective, but I still believe that today’s issue was defensive more than attacking.Many angry fans were criticizing Ancelotti’s decision to play five midfielders rather than forward Joselu, who was left on the bench. He explained, “I started one additional midfielder because I needed better ball control. “In my opinion, the defensive brittleness rather than the technique was the issue. Since we had only given up three goals up until today, it was something that had not happened to us in the earlier games, but today was a concern. As usual, we didn’t defend. They benefited from the fact that we were not compact.