Forget Recriminations, how do we sort this mess out?

[dancity19]

No, I'm just not a guy who thinks that I can backup a point by referring to what "my friend at City" told me.

You don't have to believe it, it isn't important to the debate.

Don't rise to it, he said on s thread yesterday that posters argue with you for the sake of it. Maybe he is just being facetious.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Mancini is one-dimensional, won't mix it up, won't work on two different formations that the players are familiar with.

4-3-3(4-5-1) is used just because it is safe, it is steady, but it isn't working. Other teams shouldn't be able to break through our midfield but they can. Going forward Silva and Tevez play between themselves, Dzeko already doesn't seem to fit. We have no pace, no depth and no alternatives. It's called squad rotation Mancini, that's what keeps players happy, but to do that you have to make sacrifices and also really work hard to make sure every player knows their role.

Our keeper has cost us game after game recently, and has probably cost us the title. Has to be dropped, should have been 3 weeks ago. Don't buy the "he's a young lad", he's dropped several bollocks and should be man enough to accept he deserves it and work harder to get back in. If Mancini has no faith in Given to replace him why keep him? Sell him and buy a replacement.

We have 1 very good CB(Kompany). Boateng looks good in that role so they should be the partnership, but Mancini decides to bring on the inconsistent Kolo instead of Zaba, and then again Vieira instead of Zaba in midfield yesterday, absolutely ridiculous. Kolo is for me on his last season of usefulness, Lescott should go, and we need another LB now Bridge has gone. 2 players for every position is a necessity.

We have no back-up Central midfielders WHATSOEVER, Mancini has failed on this. If De Jong, Barry or Yaya get injured it's Milner who's been frankly useless. Barry isn't good enough long term so we need at least 2 new centre midfielders, 1 ballwinner, 1 creative in the summer. Mancini refuses to use out and out wingers so we're 1 dimensional, we need 2 imo for flexibility, Mancini has to flexible, all the top managers will have a plan B, Mancini doesn't.

Up front he needs a formation to fit Tevez, Silva and Dzeko in and for them to work together. Balotelli, well nobody knows how he'll turn out and Mancini's stubborness means we've lost Adebayor, and Jo HAS to go, he has to. If Mancini doesn't get rid of him and Vieira I'm just going to lose all faith in him. So another striker.

Mancini needs to work on formations, tactics and set pieces. Zonal isn't working, players need to match up man for man so defenders can't pick who they get a run on, because otherwise guys like Bamba will pick the small lad and easily outjump him. De Jong and Zaba aren't tall enough for the posts.

COMMUNICATION-Kolo and Hart are all over the place and they DON'T communicate. They are always uncertain over who's ball it is and they are fucking up, and it can't go on. It's costing us points.

Mancini has let things go. After november that had to be our only blip, now we're in another one, and he's let problems carry on and now we're struggling. Ever since Blackpool I've been worrying because it's just looked unconfident, edgy and a distinct lack of concentration and awareness.

Not confident.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

You don't have to believe it, it isn't important to the debate.

It was important to your post, you used it to qualify your opinion that all top clubs do it. It isn't about belief, it's about the fact that you're smart enough to actually debate your opinion properly on here, but choose the most aggravating and laziest path possible

It might aggravate you, but most things seem to in all honesty...

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Mancini is one-dimensional, won't mix it up, won't work on two different formations that the players are familiar with.

4-3-3(4-5-1) is used just because it is safe, it is steady, but it isn't working. Other teams shouldn't be able to break through our midfield but they can. Going forward Silva and Tevez play between themselves, Dzeko already doesn't seem to fit. We have no pace, no depth and no alternatives. It's called squad rotation Mancini, that's what keeps players happy, but to do that you have to make sacrifices and also really work hard to make sure every player knows their role.

Our keeper has cost us game after game recently, and has probably cost us the title. Has to be dropped, should have been 3 weeks ago. Don't buy the "he's a young lad", he's dropped several bollocks and should be man enough to accept he deserves it and work harder to get back in. If Mancini has no faith in Given to replace him why keep him? Sell him and buy a replacement.

We have 1 very good CB(Kompany). Boateng looks good in that role so they should be the partnership, but Mancini decides to bring on the inconsistent Kolo instead of Zaba, and then again Vieira instead of Zaba in midfield yesterday, absolutely ridiculous. Kolo is for me on his last season of usefulness, Lescott should go, and we need another LB now Bridge has gone. 2 players for every position is a necessity.

We have no back-up Central midfielders WHATSOEVER, Mancini has failed on this. If De Jong, Barry or Yaya get injured it's Milner who's been frankly useless. Barry isn't good enough long term so we need at least 2 new centre midfielders, 1 ballwinner, 1 creative in the summer. Mancini refuses to use out and out wingers so we're 1 dimensional, we need 2 imo for flexibility, Mancini has to flexible, all the top managers will have a plan B, Mancini doesn't.

Up front he needs a formation to fit Tevez, Silva and Dzeko in and for them to work together. Balotelli, well nobody knows how he'll turn out and Mancini's stubborness means we've lost Adebayor, and Jo HAS to go, he has to. If Mancini doesn't get rid of him and Vieira I'm just going to lose all faith in him. So another striker.

Mancini needs to work on formations, tactics and set pieces. Zonal isn't working, players need to match up man for man so defenders can't pick who they get a run on, because otherwise guys like Bamba will pick the small lad and easily outjump him. De Jong and Zaba aren't tall enough for the posts.

COMMUNICATION-Kolo and Hart are all over the place and they DON'T communicate. They are always uncertain over who's ball it is and they are fucking up, and it can't go on. It's costing us points.

Mancini has let things go. After november that had to be our only blip, now we're in another one, and he's let problems carry on and now we're struggling. Ever since Blackpool I've been worrying because it's just looked unconfident, edgy and a distinct lack of concentration and awareness.

Not confident.

A good, well thought out post that. Our favoured formation is 4-2-3-1, but your points I agree with mostly.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

"this mess" is actually other teams playing their games in hand, picking up points and us sliding "relatively" down the table.

I think we really "clicked" vs a poor Fulham side away...and after that...I'm struggling to think of a game which we really dominated + looked completely in control.

Some scorelines flattered us (e.g. 4-0 vs a pathetic Villa team) and others we deserved more (Bham / Blackburn at home, Sunderland / Villa away) but our plan (A) of give the ball to Tevez / Silva / AJ (if on the pitch) and hope for some magic hasn't really changed all season.

The lack of a coherent attacking plan was not a problem when we were picking up points and contesting the title race, but now that we appear to be falling off the pace a bit: we have no credible pattern or style of football to fall back on.

To back-up Van Persie / Chamakh / Bendtner... Arsenal have the attacking options of Walcott,Arshavin,Nasri,Fabregas,Rosicky + creativity of Wilshere.
To back-up Tevez / Dzeko... we have Silva, an injured AJ...the forward runs of Yaya + creativity of ??? + ???? + ????.

The pressure that our system places on Silva / Tevez to produce chances is intense: if they don't play well we have nothing to fall back on.

the mess isn't that, otherwise we'd be 3 points behind United as they've only played 1 game in hand. We're 8 behind, because we've dropped points

 

[blueinsa]

Mancini is one-dimensional, won't mix it up, won't work on two different formations that the players are familiar with.

4-3-3(4-5-1) is used just because it is safe, it is steady, but it isn't working. Other teams shouldn't be able to break through our midfield but they can. Going forward Silva and Tevez play between themselves, Dzeko already doesn't seem to fit. We have no pace, no depth and no alternatives. It's called squad rotation Mancini, that's what keeps players happy, but to do that you have to make sacrifices and also really work hard to make sure every player knows their role.

Our keeper has cost us game after game recently, and has probably cost us the title. Has to be dropped, should have been 3 weeks ago. Don't buy the "he's a young lad", he's dropped several bollocks and should be man enough to accept he deserves it and work harder to get back in. If Mancini has no faith in Given to replace him why keep him? Sell him and buy a replacement.

We have 1 very good CB(Kompany). Boateng looks good in that role so they should be the partnership, but Mancini decides to bring on the inconsistent Kolo instead of Zaba, and then again Vieira instead of Zaba in midfield yesterday, absolutely ridiculous. Kolo is for me on his last season of usefulness, Lescott should go, and we need another LB now Bridge has gone. 2 players for every position is a necessity.

We have no back-up Central midfielders WHATSOEVER, Mancini has failed on this. If De Jong, Barry or Yaya get injured it's Milner who's been frankly useless. Barry isn't good enough long term so we need at least 2 new centre midfielders, 1 ballwinner, 1 creative in the summer. Mancini refuses to use out and out wingers so we're 1 dimensional, we need 2 imo for flexibility, Mancini has to flexible, all the top managers will have a plan B, Mancini doesn't.

Up front he needs a formation to fit Tevez, Silva and Dzeko in and for them to work together. Balotelli, well nobody knows how he'll turn out and Mancini's stubborness means we've lost Adebayor, and Jo HAS to go, he has to. If Mancini doesn't get rid of him and Vieira I'm just going to lose all faith in him. So another striker.

Mancini needs to work on formations, tactics and set pieces. Zonal isn't working, players need to match up man for man so defenders can't pick who they get a run on, because otherwise guys like Bamba will pick the small lad and easily outjump him. De Jong and Zaba aren't tall enough for the posts.

COMMUNICATION-Kolo and Hart are all over the place and they DON'T communicate. They are always uncertain over who's ball it is and they are fucking up, and it can't go on. It's costing us points.

Mancini has let things go. After november that had to be our only blip, now we're in another one, and he's let problems carry on and now we're struggling. Ever since Blackpool I've been worrying because it's just looked unconfident, edgy and a distinct lack of concentration and awareness.

Not confident.

Summed up perfectly unfortunately.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Mancini is one-dimensional, won't mix it up, won't work on two different formations that the players are familiar with.

4-3-3(4-5-1) is used just because it is safe, it is steady, but it isn't working. Other teams shouldn't be able to break through our midfield but they can. Going forward Silva and Tevez play between themselves, Dzeko already doesn't seem to fit. We have no pace, no depth and no alternatives. It's called squad rotation Mancini, that's what keeps players happy, but to do that you have to make sacrifices and also really work hard to make sure every player knows their role.

Our keeper has cost us game after game recently, and has probably cost us the title. Has to be dropped, should have been 3 weeks ago. Don't buy the "he's a young lad", he's dropped several bollocks and should be man enough to accept he deserves it and work harder to get back in. If Mancini has no faith in Given to replace him why keep him? Sell him and buy a replacement.

We have 1 very good CB(Kompany). Boateng looks good in that role so they should be the partnership, but Mancini decides to bring on the inconsistent Kolo instead of Zaba, and then again Vieira instead of Zaba in midfield yesterday, absolutely ridiculous. Kolo is for me on his last season of usefulness, Lescott should go, and we need another LB now Bridge has gone. 2 players for every position is a necessity.

We have no back-up Central midfielders WHATSOEVER, Mancini has failed on this. If De Jong, Barry or Yaya get injured it's Milner who's been frankly useless. Barry isn't good enough long term so we need at least 2 new centre midfielders, 1 ballwinner, 1 creative in the summer. Mancini refuses to use out and out wingers so we're 1 dimensional, we need 2 imo for flexibility, Mancini has to flexible, all the top managers will have a plan B, Mancini doesn't.

Up front he needs a formation to fit Tevez, Silva and Dzeko in and for them to work together. Balotelli, well nobody knows how he'll turn out and Mancini's stubborness means we've lost Adebayor, and Jo HAS to go, he has to. If Mancini doesn't get rid of him and Vieira I'm just going to lose all faith in him. So another striker.

Mancini needs to work on formations, tactics and set pieces. Zonal isn't working, players need to match up man for man so defenders can't pick who they get a run on, because otherwise guys like Bamba will pick the small lad and easily outjump him. De Jong and Zaba aren't tall enough for the posts.

COMMUNICATION-Kolo and Hart are all over the place and they DON'T communicate. They are always uncertain over who's ball it is and they are fucking up, and it can't go on. It's costing us points.

Mancini has let things go. After november that had to be our only blip, now we're in another one, and he's let problems carry on and now we're struggling. Ever since Blackpool I've been worrying because it's just looked unconfident, edgy and a distinct lack of concentration and awareness.

Not confident.

A good, well thought out post that. Our favoured formation is 4-2-3-1, but your points I agree with mostly.

It's a version of 4-5-1, it sort of changes depending on where the attacking midfielder is depending on attack or defence, but in essence it's the same.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

He had the defence sorted at one point but we've gone back to Mark Hughes standard in the last few weeks. To me, it's largely down to two things. The full-backs who just aren't able to shut out the opposition wide-man and stop crosses coming in. Teams know this and players like Jarvis, Bentley and even that lad at Blackpool are ripping us to pieces down the flanks. Nani will destroy us at the swamp. It's clear that their runs forward are meant to compensate for a lack of width in midfield but that's not really working well yet and they have to be able to defend and the midfield need ot give them cover.

Then there's the zonal marking system. Nothing wrong with that per se but players actually have to do something more than cover their zone. Tracking opponents and attacking the ball would be a decent start. We are the softest of soft touches from set pieces.

Finally there's the slowness in which we turn defence into attack, which used to be our strength. This is where we miss Bellamy & Robinho.

Too often the midfield players turn inside and play the ball square or even backwards when we have a potential numerical advantage. In fact, we now seem to be able to turn attack into defence, rather than the other way round.

 

[Danamy]

He's another Eriksson in the way that he sends his team out and hopes for the best..............he lacks the ability to change the team or it's formation if things are'nt going to plan.

Something he needs to learn and quick.......................

 

[lionheart]

He had the defence sorted at one point but we've gone back to Mark Hughes standard in the last few weeks. To me, it's largely down to two things. The full-backs who just aren't able to shut out the opposition wide-man and stop crosses coming in. Teams know this and players like Jarvis, Bentley and even that lad at Blackpool are ripping us to pieces down the flanks. Nani will destroy us at the swamp. It's clear that their runs forward are meant to compensate for a lack of width in midfield but that's not really working well yet and they have to be able to defend and the midfield need ot give them cover.

Then there's the zonal marking system. Nothing wrong with that per se but players actually have to do something more than cover their zone. Tracking opponents and attacking the ball would be a decent start. We are the softest of soft touches from set pieces.

Finally there's the slowness in which we turn defence into attack, which used to be our strength. This is where we miss Bellamy & Robinho.

Too often the midfield players turn inside and play the ball square or even backwards when we have a potential numerical advantage. In fact, we now seem to be able to turn attack into defence, rather than the other way round.

Nice to read a constructive post where the likes of Jo, Vieira and Lescott are not being singled out for personal criticism. Maybe the training regime needs to be thought through rather than the squad members themselves. Man for man, we are still arguably the strongest 25 in the league.