Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini says his side have time to recover in the Premier League title race despite slipping seven points behind Manchester United after Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to Sunderland.
Former Sky Blues midfielder Adam Johnson scored the winner for the Black Cats as City slipped further behind their title rivals after a performance which the Italian labelled “soft”. However, Mancini remained optimistic about his side’s title chances.
“Seven points? It doesn’t change. At this moment, United are better than us, they are at the top, but we have time to recover. We have to solve our problems and after maybe we can win this. It is no problem seven points,” Mancini said.
“We know that United is a fantastic team and probably they can win every game, but the season is long and it’s not important six or seven points. We need to resolve our problems, the problems that we have.
“But last year we scored one, two or three goals every game, but now when we have chances we are too soft. This is not good.
“Yes, too soft in attack, too soft when we had chances, too soft when we shoot. Sometimes we don’t shoot, we want to do one touch more and that’s not good. When we have a chance we need to score, like we did against Newcastle.
“When you play against a team like Sunderland who defend, who play with all players behind the ball, you dominate the game, but you have to score. If you don’t score then maybe you can lose. Last year was the same.”