Roberto Mancini - next Italy manager

They've spent on transfers more that all other clubs in the league combined, bought almost entirely new team, have the deepest squad in the country. And can't score in the league since 1st of October (20 mins left to beat the club's anti record).

The start was bright, but right now Mancini looks clueless.

Meanwhile all his Argentinian players (bar Driussi) were called-up by Sampaoli for friendlies vs Russia and Nigeria (both played in Russia):
 


Roberto is in Monaco today, where he's received a Golden Foot legends award. Congratulations to him.
 
DPA3DYyXUAEQqoa.jpg


The world feels a slightly better place for Mancini tonight, I'd imagine. His Zenit side have handed out a 5-goal hammering to Tosno in what the Russian media billed as the 'Northern Derby'. Tosno are the side from a small town 30 km outside St Petersburg who, with the backing of a large property development company, have this season made it to the top flight for the first time.

They're struggling among the elite but didn't make it easy for the hosts, especially in the opening period. They were well organised and Zenit found them hard to break down, leading at the break only through a Paredes penalty. It was probably a fair decision but was a little soft in that it came from a mistimed challenge when the goal wasn't really under threat. Zenit were a little below par again, just lacking the zip in their passing that they showed early in the season. But after the break, it was a different story. A neat finish by Kuzyaev doubled the advantage with the half just a few minutes old and before the end there were also scoring contributions from ex-Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovich (a header from a corner), Russia's golden boy Kokorin (a lovely solo effort), and a first of the season for the big Russian international target man Dzyuba (a nice move in which he featured and applied the final touch).

So Mancini's team earned themselves a much needed confidence boost before the next league game, a crunch clash away to Spartak Moscow. The reigning champions will want to avenge the 5-1 hammering they took from Zenit in August and they've been in great form recently, looking quite exceptional going forward in their 4-1 win at Krasnodar on Saturday. Next week's game will be on the Monday evening, 27 November.

The switch to Monday is because Zenit are in Europa League action this coming Thursday, when they host the Macedonians FK Vardar in a match they really could do with winning if they're to top their group. Having beaten the same opponents 5-0 away a couple of months ago, I imagine that they'll hope to be able to claim the victory even while rotating the squad with Monday in mind.
 
Spoke to a fella after the game last night and had an interesting conversation about Roberto. We both agreed that he left City too soon. He seemed to think /know that player power forced him out namely Hart and Dzeko. Anyone else heard this rumour?
 
I can't imagine dzeko had too much power, but player power definitely played a part.
 
Spoke to a fella after the game last night and had an interesting conversation about Roberto. We both agreed that he left City too soon. He seemed to think /know that player power forced him out namely Hart and Dzeko. Anyone else heard this rumour?
He certainly wasn't popular with the players - even Magic Dave and Mad Zab had had enough of him - but he forced himself out. He was given an ultimatum by the Sheikh and knew what would happen if he refused to do as he was asked.
 
He certainly wasn't popular with the players - even Magic Dave and Mad Zab had had enough of him - but he forced himself out. He was given an ultimatum by the Sheikh and knew what would happen if he refused to do as he was asked.

What was the ultimatum?
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.