Kolo Toure, defender for Manchester City and Ivory Coast has admitted that a solution has to be proffered to the defensive crisis plaguing the current EPL title holders so as to relevant in hunting for trophies but mostly to retain their EPL title.
This is coming from the Ivorian defender after a surprise 4-2 defeat at the Etihad stadium against Aston Villa during the third round of the Capital One Cup and this was despite a change in the tam setup.
Conceding two late goals in the Bernabeu cost them a famous victory against Real Madrid last week and now one of the four competitions they would have expected to challenge in has slipped through their grasp.
City, were leaders twice in the game before they slipped totally and conceded the much desired victory to the visitors.
City so far have conceded 16 in eight matches including the Community Shield but without it then Roberto Mancini’s side have conceded 14 goals in seven matches and are without a clean sheet in a match.
Defensive errors certainly cost them against Villa and Toure accepts it is a concern.
According to Toure ‘It was a disappointing night for the team as we didn’t play up to standard because we gave cheap goals to Villa and conceded four goals, which is not good’.
‘It concerns us because a team like Man City cannot expect to concede four goals at home.
‘Since the season started we have not had a clean sheet and that is very important when you want to be a top club, you have to defend better as a team.
‘As a defender and as a group we have to work on it because mistakes were done by a few players and when you win it is everybody so when you lose it is everybody.’
After the defeat Mancini accepted his side had been poor and that defensively they needed to tighten up.
‘This is a problem. We need to work with our defenders because they don’t work well at this moment,’ said the Italian.
‘When the situation is like this we have to understand our mistake and do our best for the future.’
Toure’s foreseeable future seems destined to be on the bench as, after just one start and a substitute appearance prior to last night, he was hoping a good cup run would give him more pitch time.
But now that avenue has been closed off to him and several others the focus has to be on ensuring he is still able to do a job for the first team should he be called upon.
‘It is disappointing to go out,’ he told CityTV. ‘For us we don’t have a lot of games to play in and this was a chance to have a few games but we’ve wasted that.
‘I think it is going to be hard maybe to play now but we will work hard to try to get a chance to play in the Premier League.’
City is still awaiting an update on midfielder Jack Rodwell’s groin injury after he pulled out of the starting line-up having been injured in the warm-up.
