I have been a supporter of Mancini's since it became obvious he was a huge upgrade on his predecessor.

However after last night's performance I have sadly come to the conclusion that we will never have significant success in Europe. Just as the demands of managing a big club were too much for Hughes the demands of competing against talented, speedy European sides seems to much for our Roberto. It was the one blot on his CV when he arrived and he has shown nothing in two European campaigns with us that suggest he is getting to grips with it.

While it was stirring stuff in the second half, it was basically traditional British up and at em. It had nothing to do with the style that Mancini has been playing all season.

Going out is not a disaster as we had little chance of winning the thing. Bilbao and Atletico Madrid would have provided sterner tests than Sporting. And that in a nutshell is why Mancini will have to be replaced sooner rather than later.
Why? Because with Kun, Silva, Yaya, Balo, Edin, Nasri etc we should have nothing to fear in a competition like this one. So RM has failed to produce anything meaningful with such a talented squad.

Wow! I didn't see that coming!

When one of the manager's most loyal acolytes throws in the towel, then Mancini really is drinking in the Last Chance Saloon!

Stop panicking mate. We need to be successful in the domestic game before we need to start worrying about dominating Europe.

Roberto wil be judged on ther Premiership this season. Not on another failed European foray.

Maybe so Soulboy. And we still have the quality to do so. As we saw yet again last night United are there for the taking by someone in the remaining fixtures.

After the second half last night I'd feel a bit more confident if we played a bit more directly like that for the rest of the season. Plenty of whipped in crosses. As we saw we have the strikers to capitalise on a panicy defence.

Heresy it may be but I think atm we can play without Silva and still win.

Even Gavin from Autoglass would struggle to repair the cracks that are appearing in this squad.

That first half performance last night was probably the worst that I've seen from us since the takeover and yet with the "talent" at our disposal it's really quite frightening.

First 70 mins we where shite

PMSL.

That's what I like about BM, no over-reaction to a defeat...

I take your point but I'm struggling to think of one worse. Maybe Spurs away when Hughes was in charge.

Sometimes (last night and Swansea, for example) we need to stop trying to be tactically clever and just go out and play to our strengths, i.e., batter the opposition.

^^^ This

If we wrap up a Premier League, we carry the mantle of Champions forward into all games, just like the woeful manure side are doing right now, in the league especially it gives them a hidden advantage and the players a metaphoric shot in the arm before games too....................

It is coming, and so will future success after it...........

I was calling for Mario's head on a platter last night but I am starting to realise (its taken a while) that we need stability, we stick with Bobby Manc and build an empire, just like our not so noisy neighbours did

I'd also like to see lancs blue's list of worse ones, I'd go back to Sven's debacle at M'brough for a worse performance than the shambles of last nights first half.