Micah Richards: Carlos Tevez can fire Manchester City to league title

Carlos Tevez

Micah Richards believes Manchester City need Carlos Tevez back in their attack to rediscover their goalscoring form. Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Swansea at the Liberty Stadium saw City surrender top spot for the first time since 15 October, as rivals Manchester United secured a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

But Richards believes that the return of Tevez can be the boost City need as they enter the home straight. "I have always been a big fan of Tevez, I love him," Richards said. "There were games last season where he carried us on his own and in these sort of games he would get a 1-0 win for us. It's up to the manager ultimately but I would love to see him back."

It was Swansea's 11th clean sheet of the season, but also marked City's second consecutive failure to find the net following the midweek Europa League defeat to Sporting Lisbon.

And while Richards, who had a late equaliser ruled out for offside, insists Roberto Mancini's side have the mental strength to bounce back and claim the title, he says they need to find their shooting boots quickly to keep themselves in touch.

"We have to take every game as it comes. We need to go back and see where we went wrong here and why we are not scoring as many goals as we used to," Richards said.

"Teams are defending better against us. At the start of the season we were scoring, four, five or six goals a game but in the last two games we have not hit the net and it is something we want to look at and improve on in next couple of games."

Source: guardian.co.uk