Minggu, 26 Agustus 2012

Liverpool v Man City reaction

Tevez: Enjoys his equaliser

The controversial Argentinian continued his rehabilitation after last season's troubles by pouncing on a Martin Skrtel mistake at Anfield and ensure City avoided a first Premier League loss of the season.

It capped a lively performance from the rejuvenated 28-year-old, who also scored in last week's defeat of Southampton and in the Community Shield against Chelsea.

Mancini said: "Carlos is in good form at this moment. I am happy for him. It is important he continues to play like he did in these two games."

Despite Tevez's excellence, Liverpool still dominated most of a pulsating encounter and deservedly led twice through Skrtel and Luis Suarez either side of a Yaya Toure effort.

Ultimately a draw might have been a good result for City but Mancini was still disappointed to settle for the point.

He said: "We want to win, always. We were 2-1, 1-0 down but we didn't deserve to lose this game because we played well.

"I think we did a good performance, we played very well in the first 30 minutes.

"We had good chances and if you want to win a game at Liverpool, you should score.

"We had three at the back because we wanted to play more in attack.

"I don't think there are a lot of teams that come here and push Liverpool in their half.

"In the first 30 minutes we had three or four incredible chances but we conceded a goal from a corner and it changes."

Mancini will now turn his attention to the last five days of the summer transfer window and is anxious to add new faces.

City have been linked with a number of players including Swansea's Scott Sinclair, Athletic Bilbao's Javi Martinez and Roma's Daniele De Rossi.

Mancini, after joking he has "10 or 15" targets, said: "We need to put players in but we work for this, we have five days and we should work hard."

Of those prospective signings, a deal for Sinclair looks the closest to coming to fruition, eve n though Mancini played it down.

When asked about him, the Italian said: "Maybe, I don't know. We can't say a name."

Mancini laughed off a suggestion he might leave City if he does not secure the transfer targets he wants.

He said: "No. It is not true. If the newspaper sells a lot of copies, I am happy for the newspaper. I never said this and I never think this."

Mancini also played down an apparent show of frustration from midfielder James Milner during the game.

He said: "No - I think all the players played well but when you are down you should try something different but all the players played well."

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers felt he should have claimed his first league win since taking charge.

The Reds were much improved from the side which crashed 3-0 in their opener at West Brom, with midfielder Joe Allen particularly impressive on his home debut.

Striker Raheem Sterling, 17, also shone on his first league start.

Rodgers said: "The best team didn't win. I thought we were outstanding, playing against a top side.

"Once we managed that first 10 minutes, tactically the players were terrific.

"The players' attitude and application has been great. We have shown great resilience. We had a one-off day last week."

Rodgers had words of support for Skrtel, whose bullet header for the opening goal was the highlight of a fine display marred by his costly error.

He said: "Martin Skrtel was immense. I commend the courage. The easy thing is to smash it up the pitch.

"For us to dominate games, we need players to have the courage to have the ball."

On Allen's performance, Rodgers said: "The Liverpool supporters will enjoy watching this kid play football.

"We paid 15million but I said when he came in that price will double. Some people probably laughed."

Rodgers also hopes to add to his squad this week.

"We just need help," h e said. "We lost players in the summer and we need to bring in players to replace those."

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