Ashamed Mihajlovic apologises for Sampdoria's 5-1 defeat

MILAN (Reuters) - Sampdoria coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, brutally honest as usual, apologised for his team's 5-1 Serie A defeat at Torino on Sunday and said he and his players were ashamed of themselves.

"If I had to start discussing what my team did wrong, we’d still be here tomorrow," the fiery Serb told reporters after his side's third league defeat of the season.

"I offer apologies to our supporters for this performance. Today, I'm ashamed, we started the game badly and we were even worse at the end.

"I take the responsibility, obviously, but my players must also undergo an examination of their conscience."

Mihajlovic has turned Sampdoria's fortunes around since he took over in November 2013 with the team lying one off the bottom of Serie A.

He led them to a comfortable 12th-placed finish last season and has done even better this season as his team sit joint-fifth with Lazio and are challenging for a Champions League place.

"It wasn't about tactics today," he said. "With the attitude we had, we could’ve had an extra man and still lost.

"We have to remember the humility and work ethic that got us to where we are today. When we forget those, we end up embarrassed like this."

Former Barcelona and Inter Milan forward Samuel Eto'o came on in the second half for his debut following his move from Everton and Mihajlovic reiterated that the Cameroonian should not become a distraction for his team.

"He could turn out to be valuable for us, but there's a risk that everything revolving around him could become a distraction. We have to get used to this from now on."

(Writing by Brian Homewood in Berne, editing by Mark Meadows)