Sven-Goran Eriksson believes his Manchester City side were not brave enough to play their brand of attacking football as they lost 1-0 at Everton in the increasingly tight battle for fourth spot.
Both sides have dreams of Champions League qualification, and with Liverpool again slipping up there are now four clubs on 39 points with the Anfield men clinging to fourth spot only on goal difference.
And it is City who are beginning to slip. They are now down to seventh having held a top four spot for much of the season, and their manager was disappointed with their approach at Goodison Park.
Eriksson said: "It took far too long for us to get going, we started 40 minutes late. Just the last few minutes of the first half saw us starting to play the football we want to play.
"We were kicking long balls, chasing second balls, we are not good at that. If that is the way we are going to play our football we will have to sell half our team and buy other players instead.
"We will not do that. So it was frustrating and disappointing, we were not brave enough to play the way we wanted in the beginning.
"It was more our attitude. Joe Hart kicked the ball out more than 18 times in that first half, long balls going nowhere and we are not good at that.
"In training it is forbidden. So why did we do on Saturday something different to the way we play in training all week?"
He added: "But credit to Everton. They are aggressive and our opponents know we want to play football and they try to prevent it.
"We have to be big enough to beat that if we want to be a great team. But we were more positive in the second half, our attitude was much better.
"But we did not create enough chances. Considering how much we had the ball, we should be creating more opportunities than that. But it has been our problem in many, many games this season."
Everton boss David Moyes, celebrating 10 years as a manager this weekend, saw his weakened side forced to hang on to their lead, given them by Joleon Lescott's first-half effort.
Moyes said: "I knew today that with the players we had missing, injured or away on international duty, that this was going be a tough one.
"For half an hour we played well, but after that our defenders were excellent while we had two youngsters up front who gave City a lot of worries with their enthusiasm.
"And that was Joleon's six goal of the season, but for a central defender the target should be 10 like Tony Adams or Derek Mountfield used to get. He can do that too before the end of the season.
"It was good for Joleon after what happened right at the death with his own goal at Chelsea. He was down, but this has helped him bounce back."
He added: "We missed the flair of Steven Pienaar and the strength of (Ayegbeni) Yakubu. But we know this will be a difficult month.
"But we defended really well, and Tony Hibbert did a really good job on (Martin) Petrov, who has been terrorising defenders.
"It is getting really tight now for fourth spot. Looking at the way the results are going, we know we just have to hang in there and hope we are in the right place at the end of the season. But that will be tough, there is nothing between anyone these days in the top half."
And it is City who are beginning to slip. They are now down to seventh having held a top four spot for much of the season, and their manager was disappointed with their approach at Goodison Park.
Eriksson said: "It took far too long for us to get going, we started 40 minutes late. Just the last few minutes of the first half saw us starting to play the football we want to play.
"We were kicking long balls, chasing second balls, we are not good at that. If that is the way we are going to play our football we will have to sell half our team and buy other players instead.
"We will not do that. So it was frustrating and disappointing, we were not brave enough to play the way we wanted in the beginning.
"It was more our attitude. Joe Hart kicked the ball out more than 18 times in that first half, long balls going nowhere and we are not good at that.
"In training it is forbidden. So why did we do on Saturday something different to the way we play in training all week?"
He added: "But credit to Everton. They are aggressive and our opponents know we want to play football and they try to prevent it.
"We have to be big enough to beat that if we want to be a great team. But we were more positive in the second half, our attitude was much better.
"But we did not create enough chances. Considering how much we had the ball, we should be creating more opportunities than that. But it has been our problem in many, many games this season."
Everton boss David Moyes, celebrating 10 years as a manager this weekend, saw his weakened side forced to hang on to their lead, given them by Joleon Lescott's first-half effort.
Moyes said: "I knew today that with the players we had missing, injured or away on international duty, that this was going be a tough one.
"For half an hour we played well, but after that our defenders were excellent while we had two youngsters up front who gave City a lot of worries with their enthusiasm.
"And that was Joleon's six goal of the season, but for a central defender the target should be 10 like Tony Adams or Derek Mountfield used to get. He can do that too before the end of the season.
"It was good for Joleon after what happened right at the death with his own goal at Chelsea. He was down, but this has helped him bounce back."
He added: "We missed the flair of Steven Pienaar and the strength of (Ayegbeni) Yakubu. But we know this will be a difficult month.
"But we defended really well, and Tony Hibbert did a really good job on (Martin) Petrov, who has been terrorising defenders.
"It is getting really tight now for fourth spot. Looking at the way the results are going, we know we just have to hang in there and hope we are in the right place at the end of the season. But that will be tough, there is nothing between anyone these days in the top half."
Copyright (c) Press Association
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