Mancini livid as 'sleepy' City slip up in title race
Manager critical of goalkeeper Hart and his team's recent sloppy defending
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Roberto Mancini launched an stinging attack on his Manchester City players last night accusing them of "sleeping" and conceding that their Premier League title hopes had taken a major blow after a 2-2 draw here with Birmingham City.
The Italian also did not rule out dropping the England goalkeeper Joe Hart after another uncertain performance. Asked whether he might re-think his choice of No 1, he said: "Anything is possible".
Craig Gardner's penalty, the second time Birmingham came back after goals from Carlos Tevez and Aleksandr Kolarov, leaves City eight points adrift of leaders Manchester United having played a game more. Tottenham's 1-0 win at Blackburn means that they are within four points of City having played one game fewer.
"We didn't play well," Mancini said. "I don't like it. It is better that we wake up. It [the gap to United] is too much but for us now it is important to start to play football again and better. I'm disappointed we conceded more goals – it is impossible to win if you concede two goals. We concede because we stop. We are the only team to concede two goals in the last six games. We slept. Probably we don't work well in training and we sleep in the game and it's better we wake up quickly."
Mancini also accused Kevin Phillips of "diving", after contact from Patrick Vieira, to win Birmingham's penalty.
Last night's scores
Birmingham 2 Man City 2
Blackburn 0 Spurs 1
Blackpool 1 West Ham 3
Bolton 1 Wolves 0
Fulham 1 Newcastle 0
Liverpool 2 Stoke 0
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments