Roberto Mancini was disappointed with his side's defending after suffering a 3-2 defeat at Real Madrid in the Champions League.
City twice took the lead in the game through Edin Dzeko, in the 69th minute, and Aleksandar Kolarov in the 85th, but a stirring fightback from Real saw goals from Marcelo, Karim Benzema and a late winner from Cristiano Ronaldo allow the home team to take the plaudits.
"We didn't defend as we can on the edge of the box and made some mistakes -- we cannot continue to defend this way and we need to resolve this problem quickly," the Italian manager said.
"We played too deep and this invited problems. Madrid were better than us in the first half but we improved a lot after the break. We are disappointed because we were 2-1 up with five minutes to go and if you find yourself in this situation away to Real Madrid, you should pay more attention and go on and win.
"Teams can lose here, that is not a surprise but we have lost from a good position -- that is the disappointment, but I was happy with our performance in the second half."
Mancini refused blame Manchester City's inexperience in the Champions League as a factor in the defeat, after the club crashed out after the group stages in their maiden appearance last season. "We can't continue to talk about experience because we have good players who are used to playing in big games like this," he said.
"Other teams will lose here, too, but now we have five games left and it is important that we beat Borussia Dortmund in our next game. That won't be easy because they are another top team.
"It will be difficult and we know ever match will be hard, but we should go through to the group stages this year."
Joe Hart said the players had to take the blame for the defeat. "You can't go 2-1 up with five minutes to go and lose the game," Hart told ITV1. "Who else can we blame? We can only blame ourselves.
"They're a very good team, so are we. We dug deep, got a lead twice and we lost it, so we can only blame ourselves.
"It's hard to come off the field after losing 3-2 and be positive. I'm really sorry. We're not a team that should come here and pat ourselves on the back for doing well.
"We're a team that gets results."
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