bluetonium said:
Fair point. United are nowhere near as strong as they have been in previous seasons, but they are still a disciplined team with a desire to beat us.
Last night I was frustrated at our apparent lack of willingness to get forward, to win the game - it felt like a snub by Mancini and the players on what this game means to City fans. Toure's switch to a forward also worried me, and bringing on Ade for Tevez with 2 mins left? I'll admit I have concerns - does Mancini know what he is doing? Have we not got the right players?
But in the cold hard light of day we do have to remember that it's an improvement over last year. The test now is Brum on Saturday - we need 3 points from then to prove to everyone, even to our own City fans, that we can beat teams and want to win games.
Just be thankful the rags are not able to laud it over us this morning - they didn't beat us, they weren't much better than us. Beat Brum and we're well into the top 4 with Christmas approaching - now, that IS progress.
I'm not a great tactician and admitedly don't always entirely understand some of the more technical points of management, however! I did notice that, in the latter stages of the second half, when we had the ball in our half utd. would not come out of their half to try and get it. Kompany and co. were passing it back and forward and people were screaming to get it up and attack. The trouble was we had maybe four players up there and they had ten back! They wanted us to go for it, they'd probably smother the attack quickly and get us on the break. I think Mancini had made sure we didn't fall for that.
There was a lot more than three points at stake last night. We - the manager, the players and the club - are under the media spotlight and they are waiting to pounce on us again. Had we lost last night it wasn't the three points that would have hurt us the most - it would have been the humiliation and suggestion that we were simply not up to their standards and just a club with money. As it is we are equal with them. Which all in all isn't a bad thing - I'd prefer the win but if we'd been offered a draw I think I'd be happy with that. We didn't gain any ground on them, but more importantly we didn't lose any. The teams immediately below us seem to be slipping up and helping us stay ahead of the pack without actually doing anything!
Will Mancini approach the away game differently? Did he want to make sure we were not beaten on our home ground and take a huge blow to our once battered but now rebuilt confidence? The away game is different - teams are expected to lose at o.t. - so why not go for it - all out! All we can do is lose as would be expected by many - draw would be second choice and a win last option for many.
As far as Ade for Tevez - wasn't that for two reasons - to waste some time and the rags were putting a bit of pressure on us so it put things on hold and gave us time to get our heads together and regain concentration which seemed to be slipping at times.
