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Roberto Mancini hits out at Manchester City critics following Lech Poznan defeat
Roberto Mancini remained defiant despite watching his Manchester City side slump to their third successive defeat, at Lech Poznan in the Europa League.
The Italian has been fighting a rearguard action all week as speculation mounts that his position at Eastlands is under threat after a disappointing run, which has been accompanied by reports of disagreements in the dressing room, in particular with Carlos Tévez.
Mancini conceded that “everything is against us” but said he was unperturbed by speculation surrounding his future, blaming unfavourable media reports on his nationality. “Why should I worry about being fired?” he said. “This does not exist. To say the team are against me is lies – all rubbish. There were some hard discussions with players but the team follows me and results are arriving.
“The tabloids rage on us because City are headed by an Italian. I am sorry to say this but the English are nationalists when it comes to football.
“City are fourth in the standings and we were in second. The club have asked me to qualify for next season’s Champions League and we are going well for that.
“I’m disappointed because we don’t deserve to lose the game. At the moment everything is against us. We played a good game and we had a lot of chances to win. We lost the last three games but that is football, sometimes you play well, you deserve to score but you don’t.
“I think we can change this but at some situations we must pay more attention. We can change this only if we stay together.”
Meanwhile, Mancini has won a key battle in his attempt to impose his authority, with the club’s head physiotherapist set to lose his first-team role.
Jamie Murphy, whose relationship with Mancini is understood to have become strained, was absent from last night’s trip to Poland.
City have moved to shake up their medical set-up after commissioning an audit to assess the club’s treatment of injuries and the club’s medical resources.