Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini fears they've lost ground because of poor transfer market work.

Garry Cook had gone, John Macbeath took interim charge and then Ferran Soriano took over.

On top of that, Mancini always had a problem with then Football Administrator Brian Marwood who was influential in transfer activity.

Marwood has since been moved sideways to oversee the new training ground and Mancini said: "The transfer market is always difficult.

"And we were also in a difficult period. We changed the CEO, the man who was in charge in that moment. If you are not strong enough you can have some problems in the transfer market.

"For us the market was really difficult and our problem for now is to improve our strikers.

"Anything can happen in the transfer market. You can want to buy one player but it is difficult because the player then makes another decision. We can't change that.

"We have four strikers who scored a lot of goals last season and we just need to work."