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Claude Puel said he had one thought after his Leicester City side lost 1-0 at home to Manchester United - ‘how did we lose that?’

City suffered a third consecutive home league game after conceding an early goal for the fifth consecutive game and Marcus Rashford’s strike proved to be the winner, despite City creating some decent chances in the second half.

City have only won on home soil four times now this season but Puel believes this should not have been another defeat.

“The first feeling at the end was a question: “How can we lose this game?” It is a big shame and big disappointment after this game,” he said.

“We have had a lot of chances without finding the good clinical edge.

“I think we made a bad start again. Perhaps this time we expected too much from this team, I don’t know.

“We had the first good ball to make a good counter attack but often we played too laterally or behind and it was a shame because we often we made the difference in good situations to shoot or cross, and we didn’t take our responsibility.

“We conceded this goal early and not just the fault of the player (Ricardo Pereira who gave the ball away). It was the fault of the team not to start well.

“We found good opportunities to come back with good set pieces, good things. We started very well in the second half with the right desire and intention to pay forward. We played also without space between our lines. It was better.

“We recovered the ball early and that was important to retain pressure on this team.

“We had the middle of the second half difficulty to maintain the same rhythm and we needed to have our second wind and we finished stronger with a lot of chances, half chances without managing these fantastic opportunities.”

City have now conceded the opening goal in 17 of their 25 Premier League games and it has been a reoccurring problem that Puel hasn’t been able to rectify.

(Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

The City boss said his players could work on their starts to games all they want in training, b ut they had to show more desire and positivity on the ball in the opening stages of games.

“I think we try to work on this in training,” he said.

“We try to have good impact but often we don’t have enough desire to play forward and we want to secure our passes. We play latterly and behind too much.

“We hesitated to press high up the pitch and put them under pressure. We didn’t have the same feeling to play forward and take our responsibility. It is a shame.

“After we can work on this and do different things in training but the reality, the truth is in games, on the pitch.

“We need to find a good character to start our games. It is a shame because after we concede all the time we show this character and personality to get back into the game, playing good football and creating fantastic chances.

“It is a big shame because we waste our quality in our game because we concede too early. It makes it more difficult against a big team.”

Puel admits it has now become a psychological problem for his players.

(Image: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

Yes, I think. We need to be careful because if we repeat all the time the same things about beginning of the game we can put also ourselves in difficulties under pressure.

“We need to evaluate and try to play with freedom and to play. We are blocked in this situation and we need to correct this.”