Joleon Lescott remains upbeat despite Man City's recent slump and has offered his backing to Roberto Mancini.
Blues defender plays down rift talk and backs his boss
Joleon Lescott remains upbeat despite Manchester City's recent slump and has offered his backing to Roberto Mancini.
The Blues slipped to a third consecutive defeat on Thursday as they crashed 3-1 away at Lech Poznan in the Europa League.
That result has piled further pressure on Mancini, amid reports of dressing room unrest at Eastlands and divisions within the ranks.
Lescott, though, insists everyone at City continues to pull in the same direction and is confident they will soon get their season back on track.
"It's not a crisis," he told
Sky Sports News following the Poznan setback.
"We are disappointed to have lost the game, and three on the bounce is never good at this stage of the season, but there is still a long way to go in the league and we are still in pole position to qualify in the Europa League. Things aren't too bad."
Problems
Asked if there was a split in the camp which was causing disruption, Lescott said: "Not in my eyes. Every club has got their problems and we're no different to any other, but the boys are bouncing.
"We are obviously not as happy as we would like after the previous three games but we are confident going into most games, if not all the games, that we are going to win."
Next up for City is a trip to West Brom on Sunday and Lescott admits it is imperative that Mancini's men take maximum points from that contest.
He said: "It was always a must-win game, even if we had won tonight. The Premier League and Europa League are different situations, we made 10 changes tonight and the onus was on those who haven't been playing as regularly as they would like to get a result and a performance. We felt we got the performance without the result."
Control
England international Lescott has also offered his support to the under-fire Mancini, insisting reports of player pressure attempting to remove the Italian from his post are wide of the mark.
"We all back the manager, that's our job," he added.
"He's in control of all of us and what he says goes. We aren't getting the results but we are controlling games and we just need to punish teams at the right time."
Lescott appreciates that City's big spending over recent years has made them an easy target for critics, but is adamant that negativity has not been allowed to infiltrate the camp.
He said: "I don't think it's pressure on the team, we know that everyone wants us to fail. At this moment in time it's not a great situation to be in but we are confident going into Sunday's game that we can get a result."
