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Mancini: Top players can play two systems

Roberto Mancini struggled to watch as his side lost to Ajax © PA Photos

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Roberto Mancini's problems have been splashed across the back pages of the national newspapers on Friday. See if his Manchester City can overcome Swansea this weekend exclusively live on ESPN

Roberto Mancini has hit back at criticism of his decision to switch formations during the Champions League defeat to Ajax, insisting top players should be able to adapt to new tactics.

Mancini came under the spotlight after Micah Richards spoke out following the 3-1 loss in Amsterdam, revealing the City defence had not spent much time working on a 3-5-2 formation.

The City boss switched to a back three after seeing his side fall 2-1 behind, and has since received what - on the surface at least - appears to be an unjustifiable amount of criticism in the media for his tactics.

City won the league title last season by employing a wing-backs formation when the pattern of the game needed changing, yet only after their most recent outing has Mancini come under fire. A heated meeting with his squad reportedly took place on Thursday, but the Italian is in no doubt that top players should not be confined to one role.

Asked if he had endured a difficult couple of days, Mancini joked: "For you or for me?"

Speaking ahead of a home meeting with Swansea, he added: "When you play an important game and lose you are disappointed. I am disappointed like my players. We played a bad game. If we [lose control] after one game, we are really weak.

"If you are a top player, it's not important which system you use. If you don't understand, you are not a top player and can't play for a top team.

"I don't speak about Micah. He only answered questions. I understand you need to write about this but it is not important what Micah said after the game.

"Every player knows the system, we did not concede the third goal because we changed system, we conceded the third goal because of a stupid mistake.

"When you're losing 2-1, the manager has to change something. They had one striker so we tried to be more offensive."

A defiant Mancini is adamant his side can get results with a back three. It is a system City used in the Community Shield win over Chelsea, the Premier League draw at Liverpool and the Capital One Cup defeat to Aston Villa.

But the Italian pointed out that he has also changed the shape during the course of several games even if Richards, who missed the start of the season because he was injured playing for Great Britain's Olympic team, has spent less time in a back three than many of his team-mates.

Mancini explained: "With the system we beat Chelsea 3-2 in the Charity Shield. With this system we recover from 3-0 to 3-2 with one player less against Manchester United last year [after Vincent Kompany's sending off].

"With this system, every time we change the result. Maybe Micah doesn't know this because it is the first game for him after he was out for two months. Probably he has worked less than the other players but maybe the next time when we play this system, he will understand it better.

"I repeat, this system we played a minimum of 15 times last year. It is not a new system."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.