Claudio Ranieri was frustrated with the manner in which Fulham exited the Emirates FA Cup on Sunday afternoon.

League Two Oldham Athletic advanced to the Fourth Round with a late winner, and the Whites Manager was not pleased with the application shown by his side throughout the encounter.

Asked if it ranks as one of his worst ever defeats, he replied: “No because the FA Cup is fantastic for this reason, but I wanted more from my players.

“If you lose but you give 100 per cent of your personality, desire, everything, passion, I can accept that Oldham scored twice. But we didn’t play with passion, that’s the problem.

“We’re disappointed. The first half was so boring for us, we didn’t play as we’re used to playing.

“The second half we improved a little. We scored a goal, we missed the chance to score a second time. And after we missed the chance from the penalty, Oldham won the match.

“I can only say well done to Oldham, and I can also say I gave a chance to the players who haven’t been involved, and they missed their chance.

“I wanted to see the players who aren’t involved so frequently. But I didn’t see the desire, I didn’t see the passion that I saw from the Oldham players.”

A huge Premier League clash away to fellow strugglers Burnley is next up, and Ranieri knows his team needs to improve as attentions return to our priority competition.

“I put my ideas across about the Premier League [being the priority] but of course I didn’t want to lose this match,” he said.

“We need the fire, we need the passion, we need blood, we need everything if we want to be safe. That’s the real problem. The desire to do something, is important.”