Roberto Mancini believes the next five games will determine the outcome of Manchester City's season - starting with tomorrow night's clash with Bolton.

The Italian boss suffered his second league defeat in charge of the club on Saturday when the Citizens went down 2-1 at Hull, dealing a blow to their hopes of Champions League football next season.

But Mancini remains confident that goal is very much within reach as he targets victory against Bolton and Stoke before tougher challenges against Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Having described his players as being "on holiday" in the first half at the KC Stadium, Mancini was far more impressed with the fight shown after the break, and believes that is how they must play for the rest of the month and beyond.

"We played very hard and we must continue like the second half," he said. "If we continue in this way we can improve but we must recover all of our players now, this is most important.

"February, this month, is a crucial moment with games against Bolton, Stoke, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham."

Mancini has been frustrated by the number of injuries he has encountered since taking over, particularly in defence, where Vincent Kompany, Micah Richards and Wayne Bridge have all suffered problems, Kolo Toure spent time at the African Nations Cup, while Joleon Lescott is yet to feature for the Italian due to a knee problem.

"I have many players injured and its difficult for me," he said. "If I have three, four, five players always injured it's a big problem so we want changes in this situation because then we have a good chance to play well both at home and away.

"If we want to arrive at our targets we must also be able to play well away."

In the league, Mancini has mostly faced games against teams at the bottom end of the table since coming to City, and therefore games his side were expected to win.

Two defeats have seen him already equal the number suffered by Mark Hughes before he was sacked, but the Italian believes the big money spent by his club have put a target on their backs.

"When City play against Bolton or Hull or Wolverhampton they plays always at 200%, but this is good for us because we are growing now and when clubs play against us they are playing against a top squad," he said.

"If we want to be up there we must play at the same level. They fight for every ball so we must change our mentality."

Bolton are likely to be in unforgiving mood for one of their derby matches, and Mancini has been impressed by the Trotters under new manager Owen Coyle.

"I watched Bolton's last three or four games and they have played very well, very aggressively, and changed mentality under a good manager," he said.

"We must concentrate at 100% because it will be a difficult game.

"Two weeks ago they were 2-0 up (after half an hour) against Arsenal in London and this is important because it shows they play very aggressively.

"This match is very important because after we go to Stoke, which could be a battle, and after that we start playing important matches against Liverpool and Chelsea, so it is important we win this game."