BERGAMO - Roberto Mancini says he expects more from his team after they only managed to claim a point at Atalanta today.
"I'm not angry or disappointed, I'm just sad because we didn't win," the manager began after the 1-1 draw in Bergamo. "It wasn't an easy game and we knew that but I'm not happy with the way some of my players performed. You can win games like this with a bit of individual magic. We have good players and we need to do better.
"Atalanta came into this game on the back of four straight defeats. We expected a match like this but we wanted three points to move back to the top of the table.
"We gave a goal away and that's happened quite a lot recently. Sometimes we put ourselves under too much pressure because we make mistakes. Just as we were starting to assert ourselves on the game we went and scored an own goal and that encouraged them.
"Then we equalised in the first normal move of the game. At times we want to be too clever but often football is about doing the simple things. You have to put the ball in the back of the net and we need to improve our attacking play."
The boss also spoke about what the rest of the season could hold.
“We have the ability to remain up near the top - you don't stay top of the league for 15 games by chance. We have our qualities and we mustn't waste them.
"We need to keep calm because it's a long league season. We must get ourselves back on track and make sure we keep challenging for the top spots.”
Mancini then fielded questions on Handanovic's contribution and Murillo's own goal.
"The keeper is there for that reason and Samir was superb on two or three occasions."
"As for Jeison, he's a young lad who's done brilliantly in lots of matches. He's made a few mistakes now but that can help a player to grow. I'm sure he'll soon get back to performing at the same level he was before."
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