'How we deal with this will shape our future'

On the emphatic scoreline…
"We had a good focus and I believe it is a flattering victory for Manchester City today. We conceded in stoppage time [at the end of the first-half] and before that they had not created much. We were quite in control but after the goal the game turned and they played on the counter-attack. We played into their hands.

"We lacked the maturity to deal with being in a dominant situation and not getting caught; it was a free-kick to us, then a goal for them. After that the third goal was a soft penalty."

On keeping to his principles…
"It is a defeat but I feel in the game it was a 0-0 with whoever scored first gaining the advantage. I believe in good passing rather than putting a man up there waving his hands in the air."

On a scrappy first goal …
"I think the first goal was a miss-kick rather than a lack of fight. We had too many players focussing on one ball, that was our problem then."

On the absentees…
"I won’t talk about William Gallas. He is just a player who did not play today so we don’t need to talk about that or any of the other nine players who missed the game."

On moving forward from here …
"I think we had enough focus and gave everything. It is not always negative and we have to take the positives and keep the belief. In a big club you have to go through these periods, and how we deal with it will shape our future."

On the importance of self assessment …
"I always look at myself, even when we win. We are not in a blaming culture at our club and we must stand up to our own responsibilities."

On realistic targets…
"I believe we must focus on the next game and not have set targets that don’t look immediately reachable. Lets try to win and see where we go from here. I have had worse weeks!"

[Saturday, November 22, 2008]

'How we deal with this will shape our future'

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