Manager Alex Neil believes his team has made it “tough” for themselves, having watched his team fall to a 1-0 home defeat at home against Manchester United this afternoon, with the Canaries winless in four and heading for relegation.
Neil stayed with an unchanged team against the Red Devils, following City’s performance against Arsenal last week, and welcomed Dieumerci Mbokani, Graham Dorrans and Patrick Bamford into the fray in the second half.
However, missed opportunities and a defensive error as Sebastien Bassong failed to clear soon led to Wayne Rooney playing in Juan Mata to score the 72nd-minute winner.
Speaking to Norwich City TV, Neil believed City should have taken their opportunities early on after starting strongly.
We had some opportunities and didn’t take them. We started really well and I thought the shape was good, we limited Manchester United to pretty much nothing.
We had opportunities, although I wouldn’t say that we created a great deal today, but I didn’t think Manchester United did either.
When talking about the goal, the 34-year-old manager put it down to a “silly mistake”, which he believes has led to their relegation fight.
Their first shot on target comes off the back of us making a silly mistake and it cost us the game. It’s why we’re in the situation we’re in and the bottom line is that it’s not good enough.
I thought it was a cagey game where both teams recognised the significance of it, arguably we had the best chance but we gifted them a goal.
To be a team at this level and compete, you’re going to have to limit mistakes across a season. Not only that, you’re going to have to create more chances and score when those opportunities arise.
Neil also spoke ahead of City’s penultimate game against Watford on Wednesday, with a big challenge looming after Newcastle’s point against Aston Villa and Sunderland’s 3-2 victory against Chelsea.
There are teams in and about us who manage to [create chances and limit mistakes] better than us, and that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in.
I think we’ve made it really tough for ourselves regardless. If you continue to make bad decision, then it’s not going to be enough.
