Vieira came on for the final 30 minutes of City's 2-1 defeat to Hull and although he could not alter the result, the veteran midfielder helped his side look much better after a very poor first half.
With Mancini still concerned by the number of injuries that have hit his squad - paying particular attention to the lack of numbers in midfield - the Italian is looking to Vieira to play a key role in City's push for Champions League football next season.
"I hope Patrick can stay fit for the next 15 games because if we have Patrick at 100% I think he can play very, very hard every game," Mancini said.
"Patrick is an important player with a good mentality. On Saturday he went on the pitch and changed the situation in the middle and I think the whole team can improve with Patrick on the pitch."
Vieira was one of only two signings by Mancini in January - along with young winger Adam Johnson - and Mancini wants him to shore up the centre of midfield where City have had concerns this season.
"I think this is a good squad but we have had more players injured and this is difficult," he said. "In midfield, we have had only three midfielders, Gareth (Barry), Nigel (de Jong) and Stephen (Ireland), and it's impossible that you can play a season with only three midfielders."
Vieira is likely to be involved again tonight against Bolton and the same goes for Johnson, who also made his debut as a substitute at Hull and set up City's goal.
"He's a good player, he played very well," Mancini said. "He's young but can be a good player for us in the future."
Those performances were bright spots in a defeat which saw arguably City's worst first-half performance since Mancini took charge.
The usually cool Italian admitted he had let his players know about it at half-time.
"Yes, I was angry," he said. "This is normal. I was angry after the first half, but I told them if they had a good second half they could recover."
City improved after the break, but could not find an equaliser as Hull lifted themselves out of the drop zone, leaving Mancini in need of three points tomorrow to quickly restore his side's momentum.
"I watch the players every day and when they work they work well and they want to arrive at our targets," he said. "On this I'm very confident.
"I think that Tottenham, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Arsenal are five teams playing for two places and we have a good chance."
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Showing comments 1 to 17 and replies | View All
John Gidman's curly perm, Manchester (09/02/2010 at 10:35)
At the moment we have no cover on the right,PETROV is playing out of position and couldn't hit a cows backside with a banjo with his right foot,IRELAND is way below his normal form and BARRY looks like he's either carrying an injury or he is tired and needs a rest.
The signing of VIEIRA and JOHNSON will add much needed variety but we required a creative central midfielder and a box to box player to boost the numbers and give the other players a kick up the backside.
IMO we should have kept WEISS as cover for SWP and added 2 more to the squad.
Portsmouth Blue (09/02/2010 at 10:43)
The President of LALAC (LETS ALL LAUGH AT CITY), always above the berties (09/02/2010 at 10:49)
wemberlee !!!
George Roper (09/02/2010 at 10:57)
Blue Jazzman, Marple (09/02/2010 at 11:07)
The lack of success over decades can not be put down solely to individual players, current or recent past, or to managers, coaches, chairmen, chief executives, stadia – they have all come and gone and still and all we failed to achieve what we should have – We might not like the banner at OT but it is fact
Between us we have all failed to live up to the potential of this great club
We, the fans are the only long term constants – so maybe we are to blame
So let’s look at ourselves – closely – and resolve to eliminate the negativity that floods across the pitch, match after match, and give it everything we have tonight
This is a really critical match – we need a win – preferably a big win
Never mind being the twelfth man – lets be the thirteenth and fourteenth also - even if (and this is the biggy) the players start badly – In fact if they start badly they need even more support – not less
It was a known fact that teams came to City to keep us at bay until the crowd got at the players and things went from bad to worse
I know we have a good home record, but given how dire our away record is we can’t afford any kind of slip up
We need to make Bolton feel really uncomfortable – Lets go for it
Pivo, Manchester (09/02/2010 at 11:17)
Peter Beagrie`s beagle (09/02/2010 at 11:21)
Swiss Blue (09/02/2010 at 11:35)
LEASE ON COUNCIL HOUSE IS 250 YEAR'S, MANCHESTER (09/02/2010 at 12:03)
glad to be blue, halifax (09/02/2010 at 12:07)
The Kippax Kid, Irlam (now West Sussex) (09/02/2010 at 12:27)
TruBlu132 (09/02/2010 at 12:48)
I go to every game pretty much and even when we play well, there are still the moans and groans from the eternally pessimistic!!
Also, we don't sing much unless we are playing and winning against the top 4 sides. I have been to some incredible atmospheric games and have to say that we up the game when we all sing. However this doesn't happen at every game and is a true reflection of our attitude to other teams.
The game against portsmouth was embarrasing. I know there wasn't much to shout about, but we didn't even start off singing. Well actually I did, and was almost shushed to sit down!!
Lets sing sing sing at every game and show our true support. We are the best supporters in the land and all the world and we need to show this every game. We can criticise and moan after a game if we play badly, but during the 90 mins lets support and sing our hearts out.
CTID
Grant600 (09/02/2010 at 13:11)
shouldn't this have been addressed in January instead of the shambolic dealings on the last day of the transfer window!!
Andrew Shaw (09/02/2010 at 13:51)
trevels1968 , Failsworth (09/02/2010 at 15:52)
tommybatess, Langley (09/02/2010 at 16:01)
john blue, levenshulme (09/02/2010 at 16:22)