After a nights sleep...

[Scooby Blue]

Drawing away and winning at home wins you the league..........I didn't like last nights game anymore than any of you Mancini outers BUT we are progressing and nicely IMHO, a few players are currently off form or injured, a win at weekend will turn this typical city fan bitching back to positive notes I'm sure......chin up guys it could and has been much worse for us

Forza Mancini

I hate to be pedantic, ( well no, actually I love it! ) but winning at home and drawing away only gets you 76 pts. Some years you would not even have got into the Champions League with 76. Last year it would have been 3rd. This brings me onto my main point yet again. Football is now set up to favour attacking teams, teams that are positive, teams that go for wins. 3pts for a win, no tackling from behind, sending offs for last man fouls, offside anomalies etc. Football is now a TV game and the rules will continue to change in favour of entertainment i.e. attacking play. I'm certainly no Mancini outer but he is peeing into the wind with his defensive focus.

I have to agree that RM is following an out-of-date gameplan in the Premier League: the NDJ / Barry / Yaya midfield is maybe ok for tough visits to the Emirates / Old Trafford etc... but it is way too conservative for home games vs Blackburn / Bham.

Ferguson is quite happy to play 4-5-1 away to Chelsea + Arsenal away...and for certain CL games...but people forget that he is equally comfortable playing 4-4-2 (with no "defensive" midfielder in sight) at home to weaker teams...and overrunning them with forward-minded players as a result.

I am disappointed:
i) that Kidd/Platt seem to be "yes" men in advising RM
ii) that we weren't a bit cuter in the transfer window to bring in some more attack-minded players (not necessarily superstars but the Malbranque / Tuncay sort of player)
iii) that RM's hardline (or inability to manage egos -depending which way you see it) means that we have to watch Bellamy + Adebayor playing for other clubs when we have Jo as our only striker on the bench.

 

[EalingBlue2]

Obviously wasn't a good nights sleep!

I wish for one second people could hold the moaning about how we are going to come 5th when we are actually 5th and not carp on, give up and generally act like spoilt kids when (from my last view at the league table) we are 3rd by right!

As for the slagging off of the stubborness of Mancini, the clearest thing is in football that a manager who picks the best TEAM , who will fearlessly kick out a teams best player and who will remove anyone against the teams goals will be a success. The manager who cows down picks the 11 best individuals and lets people walk on him may do ok on a playstation but will always fail in the real world. All the whinging about Bellamy and Adebayour shows such an incredible lack of understanding of what it takes to succeed it astounds me;

Mourinho was quite happy to bin Ibra, Fergie happily binned about ten "best" players that is what it takes to succeed not cowing down to whinging "super stars"