Ballotelli

[Anonymous]

I just find it incredible that people can write off a new player that's returning from a bad injury and hasn't played for three months-on the basis of one poor TEAM performance.

 

[levets]

Balo will need 5 or 6 games before we see what he can do....

Then why are those the most important games?

We have too many pointless Europa league games and numerous "easy" home games. Why play him in such a tough game that matters so much.

Are you for real?.... He plays because he needs games under his belt. Wolves away should not be a difficult game! They hadn't won in 8... the reason they did yesterday was because they had more desire and attitude than us. Nothing to do with the fact that balotelli or anyone else was picked. The players didn't perform, Kompany was awful, as was Kolo Toure.

There are far harder games than wolves still to come.

 

[jacko]

Wouldnt it be great to have the power to just go up to this fella and say if you play like that again you can f**k off back to Italy. After that game I'd love to sack him. Knee jerk I know but Im fucked off with these prima donnas taking us for a ride. Never seen a worst debut in my life....and still stay on the field.

Were you at the same game as me??? He played ok in the first half, looked lively, showed a good first touch and linked up well. He certainly tired in the second half and was slow when in possession a few times, but he is just coming back from injury, 20 years old, in a foreign country / league in a new team. Give him time to get fit and adapt. If thats the worst debut you've seen I can only assume you haven't been to many games.

 

[Number10]

I have followed the Italian league for nearly 20 years. Balotelli is a raw talent up there with the best of them when they were at his age. If Mancini and Balo himself can harness his potential, he's going to be more than awesome.

Having managed Balotelli at Inter, Mancini knew that he would have to take on the huge task to develop Balotelli into a team player who doesn't spend his energy on complaining left and right on the pitch, to use his aggression constructively. Balo is, obviously, not making himself any favour by showing this side of him.

In the game against Wolves, he had all eyes on him, and people forget that it was his first full game for City, and that the vast majority of the other City players underperformed. Trying to shine while the rest of the team are not up to standard is very difficult. If all other City players had a brilliant day and Balotelli was the only person who caused the Wolves debacle, there maybe would be a bigger cause for concern. Certainly, though, Mancini took a risk of exposing him to harscher criticism when keeping him on the pitch, it was a gamble to see if he could "wake up" and unfortunately that gamble didn't pay off this time.

Patience and support is what is required from all City fans. And watching Balotelli at Inter for the last few years, I would say that the chance of Balotelli becoming a success is much greater than the risk of him being a failure.

perfect post , i fully agree if not for a little bit : any manager of this world in front at the choice of keep on one between balo and ade would keep balo cos he always may push out a bunny from a hat.

Thanks Mancio.

Regarding the "little bit":
What I mean is that Mancini could have taken the easy way out to "protect" Balotelli from criticism by subbing him after 55-60 minutes, phasing him in quietly, and people would remember the positive things from the first half. But Mancini took a gamble to see if Balotelli could pull the bunny out of the hat, the result was that the bunny pulled Balotelli out of the hat - it didn't go well for him.

Actually, for me, it was never a choice between taking out any of them, I would have kept both Ade and Balo on the pitch. The Ade-Zab substitution is still a mystery to me and imho it shouldn't have taken place at all.

 

[Mancio]

perfect post , i fully agree if not for a little bit : any manager of this world in front at the choice of keep on one between balo and ade would keep balo cos he always may push out a bunny from a hat.

Thanks Mancio.

Regarding the "little bit":
What I mean is that Mancini could have taken the easy way out to "protect" Balotelli from criticism by subbing him after 55-60 minutes, phasing him in quietly, and people would remember the positive things from the first half. But Mancini took a gamble to see if Balotelli could pull the bunny out of the hat, the result was that the bunny pulled Balotelli out of the hat - it didn't go well for him.

Actually, for me, it was never a choice between taking out any of them, I would have kept both Ade and Balo on the pitch. The Ade-Zab substitution is still a mystery to me and imho it shouldn't have taken place at all.

mancini's target is grown up balo , not keep him protected :)

the sub for me isnt a mistery, mancini did the same at blackpool and won the game.

 

[Number10]

Thanks Mancio.

Regarding the "little bit":
What I mean is that Mancini could have taken the easy way out to "protect" Balotelli from criticism by subbing him after 55-60 minutes, phasing him in quietly, and people would remember the positive things from the first half. But Mancini took a gamble to see if Balotelli could pull the bunny out of the hat, the result was that the bunny pulled Balotelli out of the hat - it didn't go well for him.

Actually, for me, it was never a choice between taking out any of them, I would have kept both Ade and Balo on the pitch. The Ade-Zab substitution is still a mystery to me and imho it shouldn't have taken place at all.

mancini's target is grown up balo , not keep him protected :)

the sub for me isnt a mistery, mancini did the same at blackpool and won the game.

We are on the same page with Balo, as you can read in my previous post, I say that I would have kept Balo (and Ade) on the field. It was a corageous decision and a gamble, unfortunately Balo did not have a dream debut, and I express myself kindly.

And I do beg to differ about the Blackpool game: In that game, Ade was subbed by Silva, who turned the game around for City - Zab didn't even play in that game. And that Ade-Silva substitution was when it was 0-0 and 25 minutes left, not losing by 2 goals and 12 minutes left. And it was a striker for an offensive midfielder, not for a left back. You can find all stats here: <a class="postlink" href="http://guardian.touch-line.com/?MAID=428699&TEID=229&Lang=0&CTID=11&CPID=4&pStr=Match_Details&frm=T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://guardian.touch-line.com/?MAID=42 ... ails&frm=T</a>

 

[TTS]

perfect post , i fully agree if not for a little bit : any manager of this world in front at the choice of keep on one between balo and ade would keep balo cos he always may push out a bunny from a hat.

Thanks Mancio.

Regarding the "little bit":
What I mean is that Mancini could have taken the easy way out to "protect" Balotelli from criticism by subbing him after 55-60 minutes, phasing him in quietly, and people would remember the positive things from the first half. But Mancini took a gamble to see if Balotelli could pull the bunny out of the hat, the result was that the bunny pulled Balotelli out of the hat - it didn't go well for him.

Actually, for me, it was never a choice between taking out any of them, I would have kept both Ade and Balo on the pitch. The Ade-Zab substitution is still a mystery to me and imho it shouldn't have taken place at all.

It's not that much of a mystery. In between the 1st and 2nd substitutions, while we started to look more dangerous from the flanks, we were seriously lacking through the middle, and we weren't really able to impose ourselves, consistently, higher up the pitch.

As it turns out, it didn't really work, but it has done before. Normally it's Vieira though, who excels in that role.

 

[Scooby Blue]

The encouraging thing about Balotelli is that Mancini knows him + wanted him.

His temperament is clearly not fully mature yet...but Mancini believes in him enough to risk Balotelli's ego unsettling the team - so presumably the talent must be considerable to justify taking this gamble.

Equally though, RM must show that he doesn't have favourites within the team.

One of the criticisms of MH was that he was obsessed with "his" players (RSC / Lescott / Bellamy etc) and did not get enough out of other players that were not his signings.

I think Micah / Kolo / Kompany all look to have improved a bit under RM but I am concerned that we are not maximising the talent of AJ within our team.
If Mancini is prepared to work with Balo and shape him into a good team player - then I would like to see him put the same effort into working with AJ and finding a more frequent role for him as well.

 

[City Raider]

The encouraging thing about Balotelli is that Mancini knows him + wanted him.

His temperament is clearly not fully mature yet...but Mancini believes in him enough to risk Balotelli's ego unsettling the team - so presumably the talent must be considerable to justify taking this gamble.

Equally though, RM must show that he doesn't have favourites within the team.

One of the criticisms of MH was that he was obsessed with "his" players (RSC / Lescott / Bellamy etc) and did not get enough out of other players that were not his signings.

I think Micah / Kolo / Kompany all look to have improved a bit under RM but I am concerned that we are not maximising the talent of AJ within our team.
If Mancini is prepared to work with Balo and shape him into a good team player - then I would like to see him put the same effort into working with AJ and finding a more frequent role for him as well.

good post

 

[adammck]

Some fans doubted Silva after two games, now look at him.

Some fans are doubting Ballotelli after two/three games. Give the lad some time, he is highly rated by both Mancini and Mourinho and his so young.

I look forward to him proving the doubters wrong.