Fans aren't managers because we're irrational, over reactive, and seldom can see the bigger picture. We beat West Ham and everyone is in love with Zaba's rebirth as a CM and crying for the same tactics in the next match. Then we get thumped by Everton and how could the manager not see that the midfield was too old and why couldn't he change shape to combat them? We aren't good at this and we won't be. I am struggling to cope with Bravo as much as many of you and maybe the manager will need to make a call there, but appeals to what a fan would do in this situation are not going to produce much in the way of a sensible approach to anything. It would be overreactive and incoherent. And even then fans label you the tinkerman and go bananas that if the manager would just play a settled XI everything would be different.
Just look at the increase in quality in all of the managers who have left us and all of the players who have left us. Whenever a player is injured, he improves massively in the eyes of our fans. Now, if we just had Joe, Nasri, and Mangala, everything would be different! Forget that we suffered from all of the same problems last season with those players and that plenty of fans had problems with each of those players in different ways.
It's really, really hard to take a long view after a day like today. But we won't get anywhere as a club overreacting to today either. It is not an exaggeration to say that Pep could lose every match for the rest of the season and he'd still be the most successful manager in world football. As fans, we need to back him, even during a tough spell. This season clearly doesn't seem like it's going to produce what we would have wanted but there's nobody I'd rather have turning the squad over. I keep coming back to this point. The core group here essentially quit on everyone's re-favorite, Mancini. Dressing room unrest, absolutely dire performances that everyone conveniently forgets. We sacked him, brought in Pellegrini. The same exact thing happens. Now, we go and get the undisputed best manager in the game and he suffers the same problems with largely the same group. Can we maybe put to rest the idea that the Managers were the problem? If anything, I have a lot more respect for both Roberto and Pellegrini today because I feel like this season is proving that there really wasn't much they could have done.
