Mancini warns sloppy City to tighten up

Roberto Mancini has warned his Manchester City side that they have to tighten up defensively or risk throwing away their chances of silverware this season.

Manchester City won through to the FA Cup fourth round with a 4-2 victory over Championship side Leicester in a third round replay at Eastlands on Tuesday night.

But the two goals they let in means they have conceded seven goals in just three matches.

They drew 2-2 at Leicester, conceding from two crosses, and let in two late goals to set up a tense finish in a 4-3 win over Wolves at the weekend.

Mancini claims Manchester City’s defence is putting too much pressure on their attack with the regularity they are allowing goals in.

“In the last 10 minutes we thought the game was finished and made some mistakes but it was important that we won this game,” Mancini said.

“I don’t like it, 4-3 or 4-2. It’s good for the media and good for the supporters but I like 4-1, 1-0 or 2-0.

“If you don’t concede a lot of goals, you will win something at the end of the season.

“If you concede goal, goal, goal in every game, you can’t keep scoring three or four goals because it’s impossible.

“I think that we should improve this. I think that it’s only concentration but it’s better that we start to work out the game on the defensive phase.

“In the last three or four weeks we have been playing constantly and we haven’t had the chance to work hard in training but we must start again.”

Former Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson believes his Leicester team have shown that they can challenge for a spot in the Premier League over the course of their two matches against City.

He said: “They are one of the teams who can win the league, I’m sure of that. I hope they win the FA Cup because it’s nice for us to go out against the team that win the Cup.

“I said to the players 10 days ago that we are playing one of the best teams in this country and that means one of the best teams in Europe.

“In the first game against them we were exactly as good as they were and in the two games it was twice into the last minute and we should be proud of that.”