Roberto Mancini has called on his Manchester City team to tighten up in defence after their 4-2 FA Cup win over Leicester City on Tuesday.Mancini’s side have conceded seven goals in their last three matches and were lucky to hang on for a 4-3 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the English Premier League on January 15.

They shipped two goals in each of their FA Cup third-round matches against Leicester and Mancini knows they will need to improve if they are to maintain a title challenge.

“Our defending has been so-so,” Mancini told ESPNsoccernet.

“I don’t like 4-2 or 4-3 results. It is good for you but not good for me. I prefer 4-1s or 2-0s and 1-0s. Those are the results that win you titles.”

“We have conceded a lot of goals in the last three games, so we must be sure to work hard.”

Manchester City struggled to contain Leicester in the first meeting at the Walkers Stadium on January 9 and they were forced to contend with another spirited performance in the replay at Eastlands.

“It is always difficult in the FA Cup,” Mancini said.

“Leicester played very well in the first 20 minutes but after we played better and scored the three goals.”

“But again in the last 15 minutes, like against Wolves, we thought that it was finished and we conceded another one.”

Leicester boss Sven-Goran Eriksson was proud of his players for remaining in contention against one of the Premier League title challengers.

“We were in the game for 90 minutes at home, and 87 here, and that’s good,” Eriksson said.

“They were better than we were tonight, but we never gave up and from 3-1 down at half-time, coming back to 3-2, we’re in the game again and of course I’m happy with that.”

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“It’s a little difficult. They have some better players than us, but I think we need to be proud.”

Former City manager Eriksson hoped his players would now reproduce their encouraging cup performances in the Championship.

“Maybe there will be some different type of games, but we have shown in these two games we can play good football and stand up to physically strong teams,” he said.

“The rest of the season is very much about that.”

Sao Paulo lost their first game of the Campeonato Paulista campaign, going down 1-0 to Ponte Preta on Saturday.

Tiago Luis was the hero for the visitors at Estadio Cicero Pompeu de Toledo, netting the winner in the 76th minute.

Conversely, Bragantino brought up its maiden win of the tournament, downing Santo Andre 2-1 at Estadio Nabi Abi Chedid.

The hosts went ahead in the 30th minute when Nego scored, and doubled their lead 10 minutes after the break via Luciano Sorriso.

Nunes pulled a goal back for Santo Andre in the 77th minute, but it was not enough to see them salvage a result.

Elsewhere, Marcelinho’s third-minute goal was all Mirassol needed to hold off Mogi Mirim 1-0 at the Estadio Romildo Vitor Gomes Ferreira.

Portugesa’s trip to Linense’s Estadio Municipal Gilberto Siqueira Lopes was a fruitful one, as they took away a 3-1 victory.

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Dodo opened the scoring for the visitors in the eighth minute, but Fausto struck for Linense 11 minutes later to have the scores level at half-time.

Fabricio Silva and Marcelo Cordeiro scored in the second half to seal victory for Portugesa.

Lazio striker Mauro Zarate is facing a lengthy ban from the Serie A after a brawl at the end of the fiery clash at Bologna on Sunday.

Zarate, who only played for half the match after substituting new signing Giuseppe Sculli in the 41st minute, was caught on camera punching a referee’s assistant.

Bologna won 3-1 but coach Alberto Malesani was furious after the match, claiming that Zarate also spat in the face of defender Matteo Rubin.

An earlier scuffle saw Andre Dias sent off and Henry Gimenez red carded from the Bologna bench.

But worse was to come at the final whistle.

A brawl broke out on the touchline with Zarate at the centre of it. Video footage showed he threw the ball at Matteo Rubin’s head, then provoked a pushing match with two opponents.

He tried to swing a punch at Albin Ekdal, but accidentally caught the linesman on the side of the head.

“Zarate also spat at Rubin,” claimed Bologna coach Malesani.

“Gaston Ramirez needs X-rays for a fractured cheekbone from Dias in the first half. Diego Perez reacted to defend his teammate, as did Gimenez before that red card.”

“Perhaps Zarate was coming off a period of tension and he even spat at Rubin’s face after hitting him with the ball following the final whistle.”

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“Our Uruguayans are good people and mentally strong. It’s not right that all this chaos ruins a great performance and 3-1 victory.”

It has been a tough month for Bologna, who were docked three points for financial irregularities and this week saw new President Massimo Zanetti resign.

Marco Di Vaio, a product of the Lazio youth academy, stunned his former club with two goals in the fiery encounter at the Dall’Ara after Sergio Floccari had given Lazio a fifth minute lead.

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has again slammed the Premier League for fining him over fielding an allegedly ‘weakened’ team.

The English Premier League’s governing body issued Holloway with a 25,000 pound fine for fielding what they deemed to be a weakened side in the 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa in November, after the Blackpool manager made 10 changes.

The former QPR manager vowed to resign after the game if any action was taken against him and his firm stance on the matter has not changed.

“It’s a total disgrace to Blackpool,” Holloway said. “I’m told who I can pick and when I can pick them. I’m absolutely devastated and my chairman’s asked me not to say anything.”

The ex-Plymouth manager claimed that he had followed through with his vow in the wake of any action but his Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston refused to let him walk out on the club he guided to promotion last season.

“I’ve offered my resignation because I cannot believe for one minute that I’m a manager,” he said.

“I don’t feel like a manager anymore, I feel I’ve got a second string and that someone in some office and panel has told me the players aren’t good enough.”

Holloway’s squad has been dramatically strengthened in the January transfer window and all but one of his new squad additions could feature in Wednesday’s clash with bottom-of-the-table side West Ham.

Striker James Beattie has arrived on loan until the end of the season from Scottish Premier League heavyweights Rangers, as has winger Jason Puncheon from Southampton.

Holloway also signed Belarus striker Sergei Kornilenko on loan from Zenit St Petersberg until the end of the season, but a delay in his work permit may rule him out of Wednesday’s game.

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Attacking midfielder Andy Reid was the club’s fourth signing after joined from Sunderland.

Captain Charlie Adam was the subject of bids from Liverpool and Tottenham but remains a Blackpool player.

Defender Stephen Crainey is likely to miss out as he nurses ankle ligament damage he suffered against Sunderland on Saturday.

In light of the big debate as to whether Fulham’s new away kit is one of the worse the Premier League has ever seen, I have taken the time out to assess the worst Liverpool kits of our time.

There’s something unsettling about a multi-national sports manufacturer managing to botch the simple task of designing a football shirt. However, whilst Liverpool have had some decent kits over the years, some of the shirts Liverpool fans have been cursed with would have been more at home in an avant-garde fashion show for Vivienne Westwood. However, we haven’t got all day, and so here are arguably the top five worst Liverpool shirts…

5. 1981-82 3rd strip, Umbro

Perhaps this pinstriped number has a sense of wistfulness about it for some Liverpool fans. They did, after all, win Division 1 and the League Cup the season this shirt was worn. Further, the legendary Bill Shankly tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 67 at the start of the 1981/82 season.

However, nostalgia aside, this shirt looks more like a school PE kit than a professional football team’s jersey. The shimmering, shiny material looks cheap, and that shade of yellow is wrong on many levels. Shame on you Umbro.

Continued on Page TWO

4. 1987/88 away strip, Adidas

This was the first ever grey Liverpool away shirt, and so is responsible for all it’s equally grey ugly siblings that that came along later.

If this kit were a child at school, it would definitely have been picked on profusely, and it would only have itself to blame. When has grey been part of Liverpool colours? When has a murky grey ever been part of the Reds tradition? Historically, Liverpool played in white shirts and black shorts away from home. However, in 1987/88 all hell broke loose and Adidas went with a grey abomination.

However, Liverpool did win their penultimate championship with this as their away kit, and last season they came close to winning the league again for the first time in 19 years with another grey shirt…perhaps they’re lucky?

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3. 1991/92 home strip, Adidas

Is this a Liverpool shirt, or an Adidas t-shirt? It looks like something even a Mancunian might have mistakenly picked out to wear at an early 90s rave. Seriously Adidas, we get it, your logo is three stripes, but where’s the Liverpool in this red eyesore?

Liverpool fans might still harbour fond memories of this kit however, as they lifted the FA Cup in 1992 wearing this shirt, with Ian Rush and Michael Thomas getting the goals in a 2-0 win over Sunderland. However, with Graeme Souness at the helm, Liverpool were a club in decline, finishing sixth in the league that season.

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Continued on Page THREE

2. 1996/97 away strip, Reebok

All hail Reebok’s first stab at a Liverpool away kit. The result: beige.

Beige? Why beige? Did Reebok think that there was some sort of intrinsic link between Liverpool and the colour beige? They must have, because they couldn’t have looked at the shirt and thought ‘that looks nice. Yes, we’ll go with the beige’.

It looks like the neutral colour people paint their bedrooms on those annoying property daytime TV shows, of which I am unfortunately all-too familiar. Liverpool need a bold colour, something representative of their proud histroy. Liverpool, under the management of Roy Evans, couldn’t even manage a League Cup or FA Cup in this kit, and I’m not surprised.

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1. 1994-1996 3rd strip, Adidas

Here we are then, ladies and gentleman. Possibly, the worst kit Liverpool have ever had. Personally, I class this kit as orange. Maybe it is yellow, but for me, it’s at least bordering orange and so the damage is done.

It’s difficult to make out the black outline of the Liverpool badge here, to the extent that it could be just another old orange t-shirt left, on the shelf.

It’s actually such an ugly colour, it leaves you yearning for the grey number, or even one of those various green fashion disasters.

Well, those were the days, and these are the kits. Apologies to those who bought and wore these shirts, we’ve all been there. Let’s just hope that next season, Adidas don’t pull out another orange number…

Any glaring omissions?

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Louis van Gaal’s future as Bayern Munich coach is in doubt after the team exited the DFB Pokal Cup and lost to Hannover in the Bundesliga.Bayern’s slim hopes of finishing second and securing automatic qualification for the Champions League have faded following successive defeats to Borussia Dortmund and Hannover.The team also surrendered their DFB Pokal Cup title with a 1-0 semi-final loss at home to Schalke on Wednesday.”This is the absolute low point of the season,” club chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said after Saturday’s 3-1 defeat in Hannover. “We’ve just had eight catastrophic days.””We came here to win but the way we lost today was just so painful.””We are all bitterly disappointed but we have been around long enough to take a night digesting it.””I do not think anyone will sleep tonight. We are in a situation where everyone at Bayern Munich is very concerned.”Dutch coach Van Gaal won the Bundesliga and DFB Pokal Cup in his first season with Bayern last year. He also guided the team to the Champions League final, where they lost to Inter Milan.But with Borussia Dortmund almost certain to capture the Bundesliga, the Champions League is now the only competition that Bayern retain a slim chance of winning. Even Van Gaal himself admits he is now in an unenviable position at the Allianz Arena. “That is up to those in charge,” he said when questioned about whether recent results might have earned him the sack. “I continue with my work but obviously after the third straight loss it becomes tricky.”

Hindsight is a wonderful thing in the world of sport. I am going to use it here to show just how lucky Tottenham were earlier this season. When Joe Cole became available for a free transfer, Harry Redknapp must have been licking his lips. He loves a bargain player and he also loves, former West Ham player, Joe Cole, but when he signed for Liverpool, Tottenham fans must have felt like they missed out on a bargain. A good player for nothing. However, eight months down the line, it seems Liverpool’s signing of Joe Cole is the best thing that could have happened for Tottenham.

Joe Cole made a career decision when he joined Liverpool. I imagine he thought he was joining a new era of Liverpool football. He chose not to play in the Champions League at Tottenham and went to Liverpool who have a bigger history. I thought he was just chasing the more lucrative contract initially, but in fairness I imagine he thought he would get more first team action at Liverpool. The bigger squad at Tottenham would have meant he featured less regularly, or so he would have thought.

The truth is, Tottenham got lucky. Joe Cole has been poor at Liverpool this season. He has been unlucky with injuries and he has been suspended, but he has not made an impact. He has certainly not contributed to the extent that Roy Hodgson would have dreamt he would.

If he had come to Tottenham in September, he could have had a major effect on Tottenham’s season, in a negative sense. Redknapp, who is a fan of Cole might have given him plenty of games. While this could have potenitally got the best out of Joe Cole, but it could also he could have inhibited Tottenham’s style of football. A style that has been central to their success this year.

Cole would have seen Tottenham’s midfield, in particular their wide men, play a less direct and fast pace style of football. Cole’s strengths are his skill and his flair, but not his ability to run past players at pace, unlike Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon.

Furthermore, if he had played all season, this could have led to Bale playing at left back. This would have seriously effected Bale’s influence in the side, particularly against Inter and his development as a footballer. If Cole had played on the right, this would have led to Aaron Lennon getting less pitch time. Lennon has been in good form this year and has continued his development into more than a one-dimensional player, his break away against Milan was vital. So Cole’s absence has led to two young players improving at Tottenham.

Most importantly, the signing of Cole would have meant that Tottenham did not buy Van Der Vaart. The jury is still out amongst Spurs fans over the influence of Van Der Vaart. Some feel that his presence has led to the downfall of Jermain Defoe. Contrary to this, I think Defoe is not effective enough against the bigger sides to warrant a place in the side anymore, I wrote about this earlier in the week. Van Der Vaart’s involvement in the team has revealed that Tottenham need a new striker.

Earlier this month Cole confessed his future at Liverpool was uncertain. Harry Redknapp is also reported to be interested in him. Personally, I would not want to see Cole come to White Hart Lane. This is nothing personal, and nothing to do with the fact that he chose Liverpool over Tottenham earlier in the year. It is because Cole is an aging player and will only add congestion to a squad where classy players like Kranjcar are struggling to play.

Hopefully Joe Cole will get a run of games and return to his best. He could still have a few good years left in him. But I think he should stay at Anfield where he can compete with Maxi Rodriguez, rather than at White Hart Lane where he will have to compete with Gareth Bale.

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In the case of Joe Cole, Redknapp got lucky.

You can follow Joe on twitter @joeaustin8 where he is currently trying to convince people that Tottenham should invest in a new striker and no more midfielders.

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It is certainly true that over the last ten years Liverpool FC have only developed a handful of players who have gone on to play in England’s top flight, but there has been a question over whether this was due to the lack of decent grass roots football in Merseyside or purely down to the lack of real development at the Reds Academy at Kirkby.

The answers have come in a study created by Cambridge-based website TrueKnowledge.com. In it they assessed the 1,383 English born players who have played in the Premier League since its inception in 1992 and tried to determine which areas of England were most adept at producing professional top tier footballers. To make the study as fair as possible, the study was split into counties and rigid boundaries of cities. With London split into boroughs too so its 7 million population could not skew the result as to where most English Premier League players had been born, it was revealed that Liverpool came out on top with 62 players. Birmingham came second on 55 with Manchester coming a distant third with 44.

The result is even more astonishing when the rigid boundary used to assess the data exempts Steven Gerrard (Knowsley), Jamie Carragher (Sefton), Leighton Baines and Leon Osman who were born in neighbouring Merseyside boroughs. Robbie Fowler, Tony Hibbert, Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and Newcastle United midfielder Kevin Nolan were all included in the 62 player list though, but it shows that the city of Liverpool is more than capable of producing the required quality to make it in the Premier League. In fact Liverpool comes out third in the list when assessed by the percentage of the population. 6.59 players per 100,000 became Premier League footballers from the Liverpool population, while the only two better were North Yorkshire (7.69) and County Durham (8.70).

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From this point of view then, it can be assumed that over the past ten years, Liverpool’s Academy has just not been good enough to make the best of the wealth of talent that has come out of Liverpool since the inception of the Premier League in 1992. It seems as if the grass roots in the city has done its fair share but the Academy has failed to pick up on the best talent in Liverpool and lost out on players who could have played for the Reds.

Hopefully the restructuring of the Academy at Kirkby over the last couple of years will see this issue being addressed. With the departure of John McMahon as reserve team coach however it looks as if however the restructuring of the club below senior level is still ongoing. In a statement at the weekend announcing McMahon’s departure and the temporary appointment of Academy Technical Manager Pep Segura as reserve team manager, the club said:

“The Club have conducted a thorough review of all operations based at our Academy as part of our overall strategy to constantly improve our youth and professional player performance. We have a clear vision of the way ahead and a number of changes will now be put in place to help us to build on the considerable progress already made. Pep Segura will step in as Reserve team manager on a temporary basis for the remainder of this term only, before a revised structure is put in place this summer.”

Despite both Dalglish praising the work of Rafa Benitez restructuring the Academy and FSG already working closely with the Spanish coaches at Kirkby, the new owners seem to believe that more restructuring is required. FSG have stated from the outset that developing youth players is a priority for the long term economic viability of the club and it seems as if they are moving along at pace to make the changes needed to make their ambitions become a reality. It will hopefully mean the Reds will now be able to tap into the wealth of talent in Liverpool more effectively than they have done for the last ten years, and hopefully the future looks bright for the youth of Liverpool Football Club.

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Read more of David’s articles at Live4Liverpool, but first check out Liverpool’s next big thing…

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Shaanxi Chanba climbed to second in the Chinese Super League on Saturday thanks to a thrilling 3-2 home win over Henan Construction.Australian defender Dino Dulbic handed the hosts the lead after 17 minutes, but Henan hit back four minutes later through Leandro Netta.

Tomas Oravec restored Shaanxi’s advantage on the stroke of half-time, and that was where it stayed until a dramatic final 10 minutes.

Xu Yang equalised for Henan with nine minutes to play, but midfielder Qu Bo blasted home the winner from the penalty spot with five minutes to go to ensure all three points for the home side, who have now won their opening three games to join leaders Hangzhou Lucheng on nine points.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Liaoning Whowin moved into fourth spot with a 1-0 win over Jiangsu Sainty courtesy of a goal from Yu Hanchao with eight minutes remaining.

Dalian Shide had a brace from Bulgarian striker Martin Kamburov to thank for their 2-1 win over Nanchang Bayi – their first win of the campaign.

And Changchun Yatai played out a 1-1 draw at home with Chengdu Blades, after a Zhang Yuan goal for the visitors just before half-time cancelled out Zhang Wenzhao’s 29th-minute opener.

Last weekend’s Premier League football highlighted a case of two undershirts: Jermain Defoe’s and Tamir Cohen’s. For his previous two games, since last month’s brace at Wolves brought up his 99th Premier League goal, Jermain Defoe had been wearing a special T-shirt underneath his Tottenham colours emblazoned with ‘100 goals.’ The England striker finally achieved the milestone against West Brom on Saturday but his celebratory shirt was nowhere to be seen and had apparently been neglected in ‘the boot of the car.’

Cohen on the other hand, removed his Bolton jersey in a pre-meditated tribute to his late father having scored a 90th minute winner against Arsenal after being introduced as a substitute five minutes earlier. His father is Avi Cohen, a former Liverpool defender, and was killed in a motorcycle crash only four months ago, but the poignancy and emotion of the moment was not acknowledged by referee, Mike Jones, who booked the Israeli on his way back to the centre circle. Jones was perfectly within his rights to do so, and although he was probably suffering from an overwhelming sense of embarrassment by booking the midfielder, a significant level of consistency is expected of referees and unfortunately removal of a shirt, no matter what the occasion, is an offence worthy of caution under FIFA guidelines.

The law was implemented not long after the 2002 World Cup, but its inception has served only to confuse and irritate football players and fans alike since. It was my understanding that offence could be caused by baring naked torsos or promoting a particular political slogan, but in fact the rule was devised simply as a reaction to the growing popularity of such a celebration, with the thinly veiled excuse that time is wasted by players putting their shirts back on after a goal. This is the only published justification for the rule and is hard to swallow considering all goal celebrations take considerable time to complete, particular celebrations surface as fads (baby-rocking, corner-flag punching, finger-pointing to god etc.), and fans are expected to pay significant fees attending their teams’ performances and should at least be rewarded by players demonstrating a relative display of ecstasy in reaction to goals. Celebrations play a significant role in the entertainment of any sport, and should only be tempered as a reaction to particular ferocity or offence, the referee judging each example at the time.

I understand that particular content emblazoned on the undershirts of some players may cause offence to a section of supporters, but if political slogans are the problem then book players if they’ve got a slogan on their vest, if time-wasting is the problem then book players for delaying the restart, and if it’s apparently down to some religious objection then find a senior representative of that religion who will probably reveal the opposite.

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The fact that any type of shirt removal is considered unnecessary based on its previous excessiveness will be something Cohen finds difficult to understand. That one players’ tribute to his recently deceased father be punished to the same degree as a dangerous, potentially career-threatening tackle is beyond my comprehension. Footballers should be afforded the freedom to express their joy at scoring in any way they see fit, but should of course be disciplined for inciting offence, mocking opponents or causing security concerns (i.e. running in to the crowd, but that’s another point of contention all together). Similarly, referees shouldn’t feel weighed down by pressure from the FIFA authority to book players because of an all-encompassing rule regarding shirt removal, and I’m convinced Mike Jones would have refrained from producing a yellow card on Sunday had he maintained an element of free will.

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If you think footballers should be allowed to take their shirts off, follow me on Twitter!