Mancini: City are cyclists

This is probably one of the most bizarre headlines to originate about Manchester City, but Roberto Mancini claims that his team could take a few lessons from Great Britain’s cyclists. During a visit to the Manchester velodrome, Mancini revealed that he was amazed at the amount of fitness work the cyclists get through and said that his team sometimes need to work harder.

Mancini was visiting the velodrome for the first time and met with some of the big players of British cycling, including Ed Clancy and Philip Hindes. After watching the athletes take part in the typical session, Mancini could not hide his surprise at the intensity of the training.

He told reporters, “Cyclists work very, very hard. More than us. They do this every day. Every day they do 200km. Sometimes we need to work harder. You can win only if you work hard. I have a lot of respect for these guys because from the very first moment that I sat on a bike I realised how hard you have to work to be good at it. Sometimes I think that it’s just impossible that these guys stay on these bikes for three or four hours.”

One has to wonder if his words were influenced following the dour showing against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday evening. It was after that game that Mancini criticised his team for the effort against the German champions and it is clear that he has some serious problems with the performances of some of his top players. The fact that City only sit in 4th position in the top flight and 3rd in their Champions League group is certainly disappointing and you just have to wonder when the situation is going to turn around and the team are going to look anything like the outfit that won the title last year.

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