ROBERTO MANCINI flew into a dressing-room rage after City lost the Manchester derby to Robin van Persie’s late free-kick.
Mancini tore into keeper Joe Hart saying, “It’s your fault” as City’s unbeaten Premier League record was ended dramatically.
The City boss then turned his attentions to misfiring striker Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez and Samir Nasri.
Balotelli was surprisingly chosen to start but was hauled off early in the second half and replaced by Tevez. A dressing-room insider said: “Mancini was going mad, he just seems to pick fights with everybody.”
Mancini was also fuming with Tevez and Nasri for their dismal efforts to keep out Van Persie’s winner.
Tevez conceded the free-kick then walked away from the wall and Mancini said: “I don’t know why. I understood before that the free-kick was dangerous, I don’t know why it happened.
“The player shooting was Van Persie and he hit it very well. I called Carlos to return to the wall but I was too far away on the bench.”
Nasri inexplicably moved behind Edin Dzeko, then got a touch on RVP’s effort, sending it out of Hart’s reach.
Mancini added: “We made a mistake and only put three players there. Actually we had only had 2½ players there, we didn’t cover very well.
“I think the wall should have been better. I think in the last second we should pay more attention to this situation. If you need to put your face there, you need to put your face there.”
City looked far more threatening when Tevez replaced Balotelli early in the second half as the champions pulled back a two-goal deficit.
The Italy international stormed straight off down the tunnel and Mancini issued a stark warning to Super Mario afterwards.
He said: “I love Mario as a guy and a player but it is important for him to start to think about his job.
“He has everything to play well. We wanted more from him and he cannot play like he played today.
“When you have the quality that Mario has, you can’t just throw it out of the window.”
City are now six points behind their neighbours as the season approaches the halfway stage but Mancini insists it is still all to play for.
He said: “I was happy with our performance. For 20 minutes they did not touch the ball.
“They shot at goal three times and scored three goals. We are not in a good moment but this season is long, we have time to recover.”
The Sun
