I have calmed down a bit since Saturday. There's no point in even thinking about sacking him at this point. As he says, we are still in every trophy. But there's no point thinking about him beyond this summer, either.
He's been treading water, at best, for a long time. He won't survive the summer whatever happens. He still wants to achieve, still wants to please the bosses. Their overwhelming goal this year is a CL Semi. Pelle is betting everything on that. And already our fate can be said to be in Juventus' hands. Not looking good, but there are many twists and turns to happen this season.
If it fails, then I think it's wrong to blame it all on him. The transfer policy has worked on the balance sheet, but of all the players bought in, just one, Fernandinho, has proved himself - he is highly useful and extremely able. Quite a few of the others don't really fit either category.
Mancini liked ego's. Dzeko is an example. A frustrating player who never quite fitted in, but one who had the character to turn the odd difficult game our way. Bony is better suited to the task on paper, but isn't doing any better for our game, and crucially, you just don't ever think he's going to pop up with a goal against the run of play. Toure is another example - his deficiencies and temperament have always been the same - but Mancini recognised them and compensated for them - he knew full well this was a guy who could win you a dozen games a season on his own.
The idea of disposing with that 'individualistic' approach was appealing, for sure. However, the execution hasn't worked. We are, if anything, more predictable in attack. Many players seem to lack confidence in launching attacks ad-hoc. They want to stick to the prescribed moves. Then you've got Aguero who just does it head down. Frankly, five goals in half an hour doesn't do much for the team compared to scoring in five games. I think De Bruyne has suffered because others aren't as responsive to attacks outside of the choreographed phases of possession.
I'm worried about Sterling and DeBruyne. They look very peripheral at times - 'small' (for want of a better word) and isolated, in a way Silva and even Navas never does. Those two look available and confident, even when Navas can't produce toffee, he looks happy to have the ball and be facing an opponent - happy to go through a few phases of possession. De Bruyne looks like he's trying to avoid ever being caught with the ball - fine to keep moving, but it looks a bit like he doesn't fancy shielding it, doesn't know where his team mates will be. We're seeing more of Sterling's shortcomings than I'd like as well. Both impressed with their defensive work-rate in the first few games, but not any more, not by a long shot. I'd also say Aguero has disappointed me in this regard. I can't recall the last time he got close enough to make a defender rush
IF it turns out we have actually kept a fair bit in the tank for the second half of the season, and we turn it on when it matters, the results are good enough so far - we are in contention. But it's a pretty big ''IF'. And 'IF' we don't achieve a leap forward in the big games, all we will have done was to practise mistakes and telegraph our weaknesses.
