I hate our 4-2-3-1 tactics.

[Esteban de la Sexface]

That exact same formation before Christmas last season was the reason we were scoring for fun and hammering teams. What has happened since then is that we are not playing against mugs week in week out. Teams study how we play and try and figure out how to stop us. What they have come up with is to camp 10 men outside their own 18 yard box and hope for the best on the counter.

Mancini isn't an idiot either, he knows this is happening, which is why he worked on the 3-5-2 to commit more players forward, we don't have out and out wingers so he is trying to use full backs to provide width. He hasn't used it at the right times though. In Europe against Madrid, the decision to go to 3 at the back was absolutely mind numbing, with the pace of Ronaldo and Di Maria we were always going to be exposed at the back.

When you are trying to get a team and fans/players/coaching staff to buy into a formation, you need to make sure shite like above doesn't happen. Once a doubt sets in you might as well scrap the idea and go back to the drawing board. People are negative about it and expect bad things to happen when you use it

Macnini has to get in natural wide players who can cross a ball in the box. When teams are camped and defending for their lives we need to get to the endline and get balls in the box. Plan B. Whatever you want to call it. We don't have it at the moment.

 

[City_Sean]

The 4-2-3-1 works a treat, but its how you use it as a team, look at dortmund, real etc, its so simple but effective, gary neville put his hat on it against madrid, you have to defend well off the ball, which is something we dont do collectively as a team, going forward mancini should force faster football, like pep did at barca, 1-2 touch, quick incisive movement, almost let your attackers go and express themselves, then on the defensive side, set your team out to press the opposition, (barca had the idea that they wanted to win the ball back in 6 seconds).

 

[MihaiCity]

4-2-3-1 is the best system for our team atm..why to change that?

 

[jay_mcfc]

Wow! 4-2-3-1 Is our best and only formation for me.

The thing that truly staggers me is how little the team that won 6-1 at OT has played together. It is still our best lineup and formation, maybe with the exception of one or two players like Nasty for Lescott and Zaba at RB.

 

[sh249]

I suppose it depends to some extent on how you put down formations 'on paper', so to speak, but for me we didn't really play much of a 4-2-3-1 last season anyway, certainly not during the periods at the start (especially) and end. We tended to play with two out-and-out strikers, a kind of 4-2-2-2. In the 6-1, for example, Balotelli and Aguero both played right up top, neither of them was in a position I would consider to be in a '3' behind a single striker. Once Tevez came back in, I suppose you could argue the toss about whether he might be seen to play that position, but for me he played as a striker who ocassionally dropped deep, he didn't play anything like the position Yaya plays when he is there - i.e. as an advanced midfielder with licence to get forward.

Either way, the switch to playing with two strikers was for me the main change from 2010/11 - when we did play a 4-2-3-1, with Yaya ahead of Barry and De Jong. Start of last season, we brought Nasri and Aguero in, and played an extra attacker, with Yaya dropping back alongside Barry. And it made us so much better going forward and was a huge factor in turning us into a championship-winning side. To my mind, it's a shame that we haven't really played this way in the CL - only times have been 1st half against Dortmund (h), second half against Ajax (h), second half against Madrid (h) - and we played well in each of those periods. Last night we went back to that system and did ok(ish) first half, were very poor second half. But we were hampered by having markedly inferior players in the team (i.e. Sinclair and Garcia). I know everyone gets hung up on the idea that you have to play an extra midfielder in Europe, but I really don't buy it - especially not when you play with Silva (and to a lesser extent Nasri or Milner) coming inside so often anyway. In fact, the times we've been most comprehensively outplayed have been when we've tried to get extra bodies in midfield (Madrid away, Dortmund home (2nd half), Ajax away, Madrid home (1st half))<br /><br />-- Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:14 pm --<br /><br />

Are you taking into account injuries?

Mancini is the most tactically astute manager I have seen in the Premiership. Mourinho was good too

Mancini does get things right most times in the league (though I'd still put Mourinho a long way ahead of him). Makes his continual errors in Europe all the more frustrating, though.

 

[Quinny851]

Are you taking into account injuries?

Mancini is the most tactically astute manager I have seen in the Premiership. Mourinho was good too

Tactically astute? Fuck off

 

[Deleted member 52846]

Are you taking into account injuries?

Mancini is the most tactically astute manager I have seen in the Premiership. Mourinho was good too

Tactically astute? Fuck off

You're now getting quite boring.

 

[elbombastico123]

team for sunday:


.....................hart.......................

zab.....komp.....lescot....clichy(if fit)

...........barry........yaya................

...silva..........tevez.......aguero.....

..................balotelli.....................

would like milner in there too!

 

[lindy64]

I would like to think our manager knows what he's doing and trust him to make tactical decisions.
We can all have different views but we dont get paid for them and of course he ultimately has to carry the can if it all goes wrong.
Personally, I would like us to be a bit more flexible but I think Bobby is trying to do this.
At the end of the day talent should shine through.

 

[The Man With The Stick]

...Aguero...Tevez...Silva...
.......Nasri.........YaYa........
..............Barry..................
..Clichy...................Zaba..
..........Nasty...Komps.......