Mancini - Room to improve

New City boss happy to start with a win

Last updated: 27th December 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Mancini - Room to improve

Mancini: Happy with win

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Roberto Mancini admits there is still room for improvement after starting his Manchester City tenure with a 2-0 win over Stoke City.

The Italian replaced Mark Hughes as manager a week ago and had to prepare his team for the Boxing Day visit of Stoke against a backdrop of rumours about when he was actually approached by City.

However, the off-field speculation was put to one side as goals from Martin Petrov and Carlos Tevez saw off a stubborn Stoke outfit at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Mancini had made five changes to the team which started Hughes' final game against Sunderland last weekend, with the likes of Nedum Onuoha and Roque Santa Cruz out through injury.

The changes helped City to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League for the first time in almost two months and Mancini was pleased to start on a winning note.

Fantastic

"I am very happy," Mancini told Sky Sports. "I'm very happy with this match because we won a hard match.

"I said that the players today were fantastic and in a very tough situation we always worked.

"I think we must improve, but today I'm very happy for the players."

Mancini switched Petrov from the left flank to the right moments before the Bulgarian scored the opener on 28 minutes, but he refused to take credit for the decisive switch.

He added: "It's a situation that you change on the pitch during the game and we changed the position and we have a goal, that's football."

The new City chief also praised the performance of goalkeeper Shay Given, who denied Tuncay Sanli early on in the contest.

The former Inter Milan coach commented: "For me he is the best goalkeeper."