Ruben Amorim has claimed his AC Milan side were "not prepared to play football" after they suffered a surprise 2-0 defeat to Ferencvaros, although he did single out one player for praise.

Milan suffered a third Europa League defeat in four games on Thursday following a second-half brace from Lenny Joseph.

It was an evening to forget for the Italian giants, and head coach Amorim was left to rue the absence of centre-back Strahinja Pavlovic following a poor defensive display at the San Siro.

Pavlovic, who has played almost every minute this season, was given a rest by Amorim and his backroom staff - a decision that may well have backfired.

After the full-time whistle, the Portuguese coach was quick to mention Pavlovic as an example to follow for the rest of the squad.

"We are not ready to compete on two fronts," he began.

"We need to work on the way we see football and how we approach matches. There are no excuses tonight; there is nothing I can say. I usually have plenty to say in defence of our team, but not tonight.

"We need to be more humble and understand what happened. I need to work out how to change this provincial mentality. Everyone must train like Pavlovic. He is ready to die in training. He is a good example."

Ruben Amorim admits his side were 'not prepared for football'

Asked to explain what happened on the pitch against Hungarian outfit Ferencvaros, Amorim was almost stuck for words.

“There is no explanation," he told Sky Sports Italia. "There is nothing I can say, especially about the first half.

“I don’t remember us playing any other first-half performances like that. This is about ambition, concentration. We gifted opportunities, made stupid errors. We were not prepared to play football tonight.”

Amorim accepted some responsibility for the performance but also highlighted weaknesses from the previous campaign.

“Perhaps I did something wrong over the last two days, but I saw the team had similar problems last season," he added.

"We have to find a solution. We were not ready tonight, we showed no courage. If we don’t win, we should at least do everything we can to turn the situation around, but we didn’t see that tonight.”

AC Milan will be hoping to bounce back with a win on Sunday (November 8), when they take on Genoa at the Luigi Ferraris. Amorim's men currently sit fifth in Serie A, seven points behind leaders Lazio.