Roberto Mancini ready to go on the offensive
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini is confident that he has finally got his team’s defence sorted out, and all he wants to do is focus on the attacking side of the team.
Manchester City will take on Newcastle United this weekend at home, till now City have only conceded 6 goals in the season. 2 of those 6 goals came in a bizarre 2 minute period against West Brom in the Carling Cup which resulted
in them being knocked out of the tournament. One of them was a result of a penalty and a mix up between Joe Hart and Kolo Toure resulted in the 4th.
The latest goal against them came in the Europa League tie against Juventus when Vincenzo Iaquinta let fly from a distance and after a deflection the ball ended up in back of the net.
Still considering that it was the 11th game in all competitions, Mancini is happy with the overall goal ratio.
The City boss is more concerned about the fact that his team has only managed to score 14 times, and scored more than once just thrice.
With his last signing Mario Balotelli out for a while, Mancini says that his team has enough firepower to do much better than what they are doing at present. The manager said that he will focus more attention on the attacking side
of the game when the team hits the practice pitches at Carrington training base.
"We have worked very well in the defensive phase, now we must improve on the offensive side so we score more than one goal a game," said Mancini.
"But I believe we only have this problem because all our strikers are injured.
The manager once again referred to the injuries in his squad, and said that once he has all of his strike force well and kicking Manchester City will be able to pose a much bigger threat to opposition goals. The blue side of Manchester
spent 130 million pounds this summer and hence has the load of expectations that comes with big names coming to the club.
"When Emmanuel Adebayor recovers 100% fitness and Mario Balotelli is back, I am confident we can change this situation."
The former Inter Milan manager said that he does realise that, his team will be under the scanner this weekend more so because they beat the champions last weekend. Mancini however did reflect back to August where after scoring
3 past Liverpool they managed to lose to an un-fancied Sunderland team the very next weekend. The international break just after the start of new season also did not work in their favour last month.
"We must beat teams like Newcastle and West Brom," said Mancini "We can't allow ourselves just to think we can beat Chelsea and Liverpool.”
"If we want to go higher up the table we must beat other teams as well."
Roberto Mancini like any other manager has his fair share of injury worries, but at the same time it is always good to have someone back from the medical room. Jerome Boateng, the summer signing from Germany finally recovered and
made his first start in the Europa League. As one player made his way back in the team, another went into the injury list. Just as the first half was over Pablo Zabaleta was also substituted and is now out with a hamstring strain for at least 2 weeks.
The interesting decision to make for the manager at the weekend will be, to choose between the half fit Joleon Lescott or try his luck with Boateng for his second game in four days.
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