Cristian Brocchi took responsibility for AC Milan's 2-1 Serie A defeat to relegated Verona on Monday.
Things began brightly for the visitors, as Jeremy Menez's first league goal of the season put them ahead midway through the first half.
But bottom club Verona, needing a win to keep their survival chances alive, rallied in the second half and equalised through Giampaolo Pazzini's penalty, before Luca Siligardi smashed home a last-second free-kick to cap a dramatic turnaround.
Unfortunately for Verona, Siligardi's stunning late winner proved to be in vain as Carpi's subsequent 1-0 win over Empoli confirmed their relegation.
Defeat was Brocchi's first in his third match since taking over from Sinisa Mihajlovic, and the coach accepted the blame for a poor showing.
"Right now I represent this team and I take responsibility," he told Premium Sport.
"The team played poorly, we didn't play the way we wanted to and we didn't want this defeat.
"It's like the light went off and after that we were in trouble so we have to work on that, being united through difficulty. We couldn't take control of the game and be a team.
"I've spoken to [joint-CEO Adriano] Galliani and there's disappointment, but now we have to take the hit, get our heads up, and get out of this situation.
"We were disunited and we didn't double our effort. We managed to create some goalscoring chances, but to win the team must be one unit, and right now we're not.
"The team was [not] united and that gave our opponents a psychological boost. In difficulty you have to remain united, and that's our limitation right now."
"Milan found a motivated Verona," added Verona head coach Luigi Del Neri to Premium Sport, speaking before Carpi's win.
"We were much more aggressive, but we had more scoring chances and we were up against a great [Gianluigi] Donnarumma.
"Verona don't deserve the position we're in, but Milan remain Milan. We had a lot of scoring chances though and we deserved the win."
