Football: We have to be critical of ourselves says Villas-Boas

Pressure on Chelsea manager increases after 2-0 League Cup defeat to Liverpool.

LONDON: Andre Villas-Boas was left ruing a dismal performance by Chelsea as Liverpool piled more pressure on the embattled manager with a 2-0 victory over the Blues in the League Cup quarter-finals.

Villas-Boas, who has found his position under increasing scrutiny following a poor run that included three defeats in four Premier League matches, admitted that his opponents were the superior side.

“I thought Liverpool were superior all the way through,” he said. “They had a strong desire to kill the game off and we couldn’t match it. We have to be critical of ourselves and shouldn’t accept this result.”

Villas-Boas has now targeted December’s fixtures as being key to easing the unfamiliar anxiety at Stamford Bridge.

“For our Premier League challenge to be alive we need to make the most of the December fixtures,” he said. “We play most of the top teams and that’s our challenge for December. At the moment at home we just haven’t been good enough.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was all praise for Craig Bellamy for his contribution to the win just 48 hours after the death of his friend Gary Speed. Bellamy overcame his grief to produce assists for goals by Maxi Rodriguez and Martin Kelly.

Nasri has to do more: Mancini

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has demanded an improvement from Samir Nasri following the midfielder’s lacklustre performance in the team’s 1-0 win at Arsenal.

Nasri was a subdued figure as City moved into the last-four thanks to Sergio Aguero’s late winner. Mancini admitted Nasri, who left Arsenal in an acrimonious move to City, was ‘nervous’ during the game and has yet to play to his potential since arriving at the club.

“He can play better because he’s a top player,” said Mancini. “It was his first game at Arsenal and it’s not easy for a player who’s been here for four or five years, maybe he was nervous. For him it’s better that he played in this game so when he comes back to play again, he knows what will happen.”

The tie was settled in the 83rd minute following a sweeping counter-attack that was started by Edin Dzeko in his own penalty area and finished off by Aguero.

“It was a great goal, a great counter-attack,” added Mancini. “I don’t think Arsenal had a lot of chances.

Elsewhere, Cardiff registered a 2-0 win over Blackburn as manager Steve Kean admitted he had ‘forfeited’ the encounter ahead of crucial Premier League games for the Rovers.

“We’ve forfeited having the chance to reach a cup final,” he said. “We have games against sides within touching distance of us in the league. We need to treat those games as cup finals.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2011.