Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says he is concerned by his leaky defence after the English champions were dumped out of the Capital One Cup in the third round on Tuesday.
A below-strength City side were upended 4-2 at home by Aston Villa, joining Everton and West Ham as the only Premier League casualties in the third round so far.
City led twice but went out after extra-time and Mancini said the reasons were simple.
“We were unlucky because we had chances but we conceded goals which we made mistakes on and they deserved to go through,” Mancini said.
“I’m disappointed for the result, Aston Villa are a good team but we didn’t play well. Our play is not quick, we want to take one touch too many – this is not good.”
City have conceded 16 goals in their eight matches so far this season and Mancini believes his players have a lot of hard work ahead of them on the training ground.
“Conceding goals is a real problem, we need to work with our defenders because we aren’t defending well at the moment,” he said.
“It’s the fourth competition (in terms of status), but it’s the only one we haven’t won and for this reason we wanted to win – we are so disappointed.”
Everton were beaten 2-1 at Leeds United while the only other Premier League side to go out were West Ham, beaten 4-1 at home by Wigan.