Ferran Soriano & Txiki Begiristain

[Troubadour]

You presume that Mancini would have offered Kolo a new contract. Given the wages he was on, he was always going to be offloaded. Pellegrini had faith in Lescott and Garcia and did not foresee injuries to our two best centre backs and to Micah. The goals conceded against Cardiff were from a players poor defending, man marking means you can see who is at fault, and Zabba was. He is still excellent but made a couple of mistakes. We showed fight and determination to go one up in that game and then to fight back. Cover has now been brought in considering the performances of Garcia and Lescott at centre back, Pellegrini has seen that we have needed to get some experienced cover in. Now the window is shut and we can see what happens. Lets see after 10 games where we are at.

I am not presuming anything supercity. All I am saying is we let Kolo go without an adequate replacement which we did.
Having faith in Garcia is an honourable thing to do. The results speak for themselves.
We changed our tactics and system when defending without our 2 best defenders. The results speak for themselves.
All I am saying is why a lot of the fans are now very nervous and they are. Hopefully, we will iron out the issues quickly.
I am not defending or criticising either Mancini or Pellegrini I am simply articulating my view.
Hopefully that is still allowed?

 

[SWP's back]

I think a lot of the worries from the fans comes from the sudden uncertainty of the performances. Under Mancini whilst we had become predictble and possibly a little boring we were a very hard team to breakdown and score against, hence a very hard team to beat. After the last 2 games that is now no longer the case, or at least appears to be no longer the case. That confidence has gone. As the confidence of some of our players appears to have gone. 'Fragile' it has been described as. I would say more brittle again this is worrying.
As a number of posters have already pointed out if we had played some 'top' or better teams who have top class strikers we could very well be sitting on just 3 points right now. Our defence which was once a fortress now looks like a colander and that is very unnerving.

Whilst some posters on here show admirable blind faith and positivity a lot of other are basing their judgments on what they have seen in the last 2 games and they are worried with what they see. We will have a much better idea of how the season will pan out after the next 2 games. We need a minimum of 4 points from those 2 games otherwise the worries will start to become more pronounced and 4 points from the next 2 games is not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. It looks like it is going to be an interesting season.

If Mancini had played without Kompany and Nasty then we would have looked leaky as well, don't forget the fact that we have only conceded 3 goals and the normally reliable Zaba was at fault for all 3. It is still far too early to judge.

That is true. However, Mancini would have played Kolo who put in a number of decent performances when called upon last season. However, he was shipped out before a replacement was brought in which wasn't exactly a good idea. Also lets not forget just why Zaba was calamatious? The well drilled, efficient, proven marking system had been changed and implemented without the 2 players you mention. Again not exactly the brightest of ideas?
So to some degree the issues we are discussing are very much self inflicted. We can make all of the excuses we want but the fact remains the issues could have been avoided but they were not. So the question is asked: Why not? This is why a lot fans are nervous, they are still afraid that similar mistakes will be made in the next few games which are of paramount importance.

All marking systems at set pieces have their flaws and whilst our defence was tight last year, we were well down the table when it came to defending from set pieces (think back to the CL and FA Cup Final). The key is to do whichever you implement well and Zaba simply had an off day unfortunately.<br /><br />-- Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:21 am --<br /><br />

You presume that Mancini would have offered Kolo a new contract. Given the wages he was on, he was always going to be offloaded. Pellegrini had faith in Lescott and Garcia and did not foresee injuries to our two best centre backs and to Micah. The goals conceded against Cardiff were from a players poor defending, man marking means you can see who is at fault, and Zabba was. He is still excellent but made a couple of mistakes. We showed fight and determination to go one up in that game and then to fight back. Cover has now been brought in considering the performances of Garcia and Lescott at centre back, Pellegrini has seen that we have needed to get some experienced cover in. Now the window is shut and we can see what happens. Lets see after 10 games where we are at.

I am not presuming anything supercity. All I am saying is we let Kolo go without an adequate replacement which we did.
Having faith in Garcia is an honourable thing to do. The results speak for themselves.
We changed our tactics and system when defending without our 2 best defenders. The results speak for themselves.
All I am saying is why a lot of the fans are now very nervous and they are. Hopefully, we will iron out the issues quickly.
I am not defending or criticising either Mancini or Pellegrini I am simply articulating my view.
Hopefully that is still allowed?

You ignore the set pieces we conceded last year with our best defenders.

 

[Troubadour]

If Mancini had played without Kompany and Nasty then we would have looked leaky as well, don't forget the fact that we have only conceded 3 goals and the normally reliable Zaba was at fault for all 3. It is still far too early to judge.

That is true. However, Mancini would have played Kolo who put in a number of decent performances when called upon last season. However, he was shipped out before a replacement was brought in which wasn't exactly a good idea. Also lets not forget just why Zaba was calamatious? The well drilled, efficient, proven marking system had been changed and implemented without the 2 players you mention. Again not exactly the brightest of ideas?
So to some degree the issues we are discussing are very much self inflicted. We can make all of the excuses we want but the fact remains the issues could have been avoided but they were not. So the question is asked: Why not? This is why a lot fans are nervous, they are still afraid that similar mistakes will be made in the next few games which are of paramount importance.

All marking systems at set pieces have their flaws and whilst our defence was tight last year, we were well down the table when it came to defending from set pieces (think back to the CL and FA Cup Final). The key is to do whichever you implement well and Zaba simply had an off day unfortunately.

-- Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:21 am --

You presume that Mancini would have offered Kolo a new contract. Given the wages he was on, he was always going to be offloaded. Pellegrini had faith in Lescott and Garcia and did not foresee injuries to our two best centre backs and to Micah. The goals conceded against Cardiff were from a players poor defending, man marking means you can see who is at fault, and Zabba was. He is still excellent but made a couple of mistakes. We showed fight and determination to go one up in that game and then to fight back. Cover has now been brought in considering the performances of Garcia and Lescott at centre back, Pellegrini has seen that we have needed to get some experienced cover in. Now the window is shut and we can see what happens. Lets see after 10 games where we are at.

I am not presuming anything supercity. All I am saying is we let Kolo go without an adequate replacement which we did.
Having faith in Garcia is an honourable thing to do. The results speak for themselves.
We changed our tactics and system when defending without our 2 best defenders. The results speak for themselves.
All I am saying is why a lot of the fans are now very nervous and they are. Hopefully, we will iron out the issues quickly.
I am not defending or criticising either Mancini or Pellegrini I am simply articulating my view.
Hopefully that is still allowed?

You ignore the set pieces we conceded last year with our best defenders.

SWP it isn't just the set pieces where we are struggling. Against Hull last Saturday they were breaking through our defense for fun in the first 30 minutes.

 

[SWP's back]

SWP it isn't just the set pieces where we are struggling. Against Hull last Saturday they were breaking through our defense for fun in the first 30 minutes.

If you are saying that we need more strength in depth in the defence then I agree but Kolo was always leaving this summer. I remember reading articles saying that back at the start of the year when Mancini thought he would still be here.

 

[blueparrot]

I think a lot of the worries from the fans comes from the sudden uncertainty of the performances. Under Mancini whilst we had become predictble and possibly a little boring we were a very hard team to breakdown and score against, hence a very hard team to beat. After the last 2 games that is now no longer the case, or at least appears to be no longer the case. That confidence has gone. As the confidence of some of our players appears to have gone. 'Fragile' it has been described as. I would say more brittle again this is worrying.
As a number of posters have already pointed out if we had played some 'top' or better teams who have top class strikers we could very well be sitting on just 3 points right now. Our defence which was once a fortress now looks like a colander and that is very unnerving.

Whilst some posters on here show admirable blind faith and positivity a lot of other are basing their judgments on what they have seen in the last 2 games and they are worried with what they see. We will have a much better idea of how the season will pan out after the next 2 games. We need a minimum of 4 points from those 2 games otherwise the worries will start to become more pronounced and 4 points from the next 2 games is not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. It looks like it is going to be an interesting season.

If Mancini had played without Kompany and Nasty then we would have looked leaky as well, don't forget the fact that we have only conceded 3 goals and the normally reliable Zaba was at fault for all 3. It is still far too early to judge.

That is true. However, Mancini would have played Kolo who put in a number of decent performances when called upon last season. However, he was shipped out before a replacement was brought in which wasn't exactly a good idea. Also lets not forget just why Zaba was calamatious? The well drilled, efficient, proven marking system had been changed and implemented without the 2 players you mention. Again not exactly the brightest of ideas?
So to some degree the issues we are discussing are very much self inflicted. We can make all of the excuses we want but the fact remains the issues could have been avoided but they were not. So the question is asked: Why not? This is why a lot fans are nervous, they are still afraid that similar mistakes will be made in the next few games which are of paramount importance.

Toure was at the end of his contract if Mancini was going to keep him he would have offered an extension well before the end of last season.

 

[Anonymous]

SWP it isn't just the set pieces where we are struggling. Against Hull last Saturday they were breaking through our defense for fun in the first 30 minutes.

If you are saying that we need more strength in depth in the defence then I agree but Kolo was always leaving this summer. I remember reading articles saying that back at the start of the year when Mancini thought he would still be here.

More importantly, we have been trying to sign a centre half since late June/early July. As Barcelona have found finding one of the right profile is very difficult. Bottom line is Vinny's injury at a time when Nasty and Micah were already out, is what as caused the problems in our back four. Talk about the system working/not working is premature when you're working with entirely make shift back lines.

 

[Skashion]

Kolo was offered a contract extension wasn't he and turned it down? About March/April?

 

[supercity88]

We have bought well this window and now brought in a defender to add experience and depth to the squad. Lescott was shown up against Hull trying to press the ball but losing out. The fact is though despite not playing very well, we managed to win and have 6 points from a possible 9. Not the greatest start to the season but given the injuries we have had it isn't a dreadful start by any means. I think most people would agree we have bought well and have a well rounded squad now to challenge in the league. We have been slow out of the blocks but I think most were realistic and didn't expect us to hit the ground running. Our form is actually quite reflective of where we were last season.

 

[Anonymous]

Kolo was offered a contract extension wasn't he and turned it down? About March/April?

I don't think so ... I think much like Barry he was a high earner who because of his position in the squad, the club/Txiki probably felt it was better to get him off the wage bill and find a more affordable option for cover.

 

[Any1aBlue]

Didnt get us what we really needed - a world class centre back................