The City chief called on his players to finish off teams earlier on in the 90 minutes and to bring an end to what’s being dubbed: Mancini time.
“It’s more important to score early on in games – my heart is not strong for these late goals,” he smiled after Gareth Barry’s injury time winner earned the Blues three points against Reading.
“I think that we deserved to win but when you are in the last two or three minutes it can be difficult if you don’t score in the first half when you have lots of chances.
“You have to be strong because they defended really well with lots of players behind the ball and we didn’t find the space to play.
“In the end I’m happy with this victory.”
It was the fourth time City have found a winning goal after the 87th minute in the Premier League so far this season and Mancini paid tribute to his men for the latest.
“Our attitude was good, we kept our concentration until the end – we tried until the last second, in this game it’s important that we play well like we did in the first-half,” Mancini stated.
“I told the guys before the game, maybe Reading conceded a lot of goals in their last game [against Arsenal] but they were excellent against Everton when I saw them.
“This was a very difficult game and I think we will see more games like this towards the end of the season.”
...Roberto Mancini...
With the festive fixture pile-up continuing against Sunderland on Boxing Day, City had to rotate today and a debut was handed to Dutch defender Karim Rekik who won his manager’s approval with a solid performance.
“Karim played well, he’s very young only 18 but he has good quality – he played very well,” Roberto declared.
“He’s a central defender but he can play left-back – we are very happy with him.”
