I miss Hughes

[RACHACE]

We're not winning palying well, we're limping over the line against the bottom of the table sides, were making our own problems before the opposition are even factored into the equation. Add into that, that football is an entertainment and with our wealth, i don't think its too unreasonable to ask for a few sparks of entertaining play.

Listen to manager when Hughes was in charge, they were begining to fear City and our attacking prowess... our schoolboy set up in defence let us down and his unwillingness to address it let us down. Mancini came in, sorted out the defence and we dicked WOlves and Bburn straight away... why do we now have to go into or shells? At 1-0 we should be looking at 3 or 4 before we shut up shop, 1-0 isnt the place to be slowing down and other than Mourinho and Geroge Graham not many managers in England succeed down that route.

The Pl is getting more and more competative meaning teams will create and score more, we can't hope to nick a goal and shut up shop... we wont get top4 that way.

2-0 against Stoke, a game we controlled. 4-1 against Blackburn, says it all. 3-0 away at Wolves, again nothing to say. Portsmouth at home 2-0, a game we controlled. 2-0 Bolton at home, a game we controlled.

We lost at Hull and a home draw against Stoke and some fans are going mad about it, I personally think we will get that 4th spot under Mancini.

 

[Project]

Also when Mancini took over we were 4 points behind Spurs and 6 points behind Villa (with a game in hand on each).

I'm not saying we wouldn't have taken as many points under Hughes... just pointing to the fact that Mancini has come in and improved the goals and points ratio, radically improved the defence and not just made up ground on our competitors but overtaken them with 2 games to spare. All whilst playing "shit", "ultra defensive" football that apparently doesn't work in the Premier League.

We really are a bunch of fussy bastards if we aren't happy with that.

I agree, but think this is more because they have lost ground then us making it up.

I don't miss MH (anymore) I was disappointed but given his very stylish replacement, I'm happy



....ish

It's both. Of course, they've had a downturn in form but we still had to make up that ground and more to be in the position we are in. Basically we have had to show top 3/4 form and we have (15 points from a possible 21)

 

[r.soleofsalford]

as i see it we always looked liked scoring with hughes in charge, bob has no clue what the word attack means, as i said in an earlier thread he should get advice from brian kidd, work with him and find the right balance, do that and there may be no need for jose after all.

But under Hughes our defence was laughable. Mancini is just the exact opposite of Hughes in style. They both had the balance of the team wrong, yet Mancini is still winning games.

Defence is the hardest thing to get right though, and as soon as Mancini gets this right, he can start moving his attentions up the field. he has form of doing this at Inter, when he walked in, he immediately sorted out the defence and the Inter fans were nearly in riots because the football was so dull. It won them their first title in 20-odd years though. After he solidified their defence, he eventually worked more and more forward to the point where they were one of the most entertaining sides in Europe (Barcelona and Arsenal aside). It's just him 'firefighting' so to speak before he starts his build, it's no different to his Inter days.

i hope your right mate, the defence has definitely tightened up, but as a spectacle Saturdays game was a woeful display that was boringly mind numbing IMO. fingers crossed we can get something out of stoke game, the 3 points would be nice. they can be as boring as they like as long as we can achieve a win. and no i wouldn't have Hughes back. i owe no allegiance to any manager just our club.

 

[GStar]

I think it's about happy mediums. It will take Mancini some time to find the right balance between attack and defense, and until he finds it, I'm happy for our base to be a defensive one.

We have some big big games coming up, and we'll know a lot more about where we are at the end of that run...Bobby v Rafa and Bobby v Carlo will shape the rest of our season.

Agreed about finding the medium, the balance.

I thought he was well on the way to finding it agaisnt Wolves... I hope we aren't judged by our performances versus Liverpool and Chelsea, i think we'll struggle under the current tactics, Chelsea especially can move and keep the ball so well and a Drogba on form would force us to have to go looking for goals.

Better teams are set up to play agaisnt teams who set up for a draw... so if we do that, in a way, we're playing into thier hands.

 

[Mattyc55]

We're not winning palying well, we're limping over the line against the bottom of the table sides, were making our own problems before the opposition are even factored into the equation. Add into that, that football is an entertainment and with our wealth, i don't think its too unreasonable to ask for a few sparks of entertaining play.

Listen to manager when Hughes was in charge, they were begining to fear City and our attacking prowess... our schoolboy set up in defence let us down and his unwillingness to address it let us down. Mancini came in, sorted out the defence and we dicked WOlves and Bburn straight away... why do we now have to go into or shells? At 1-0 we should be looking at 3 or 4 before we shut up shop, 1-0 isnt the place to be slowing down and other than Mourinho and Geroge Graham not many managers in England succeed down that route.

The Pl is getting more and more competative meaning teams will create and score more, we can't hope to nick a goal and shut up shop... we wont get top4 that way.

Wouldn't you say it's a little early to be judging how attacking Mancini's team will be in the long term. We've had a constantly revolving forward line, and a constantly revolving back 4 since late December...and have played a hell of a lot of games in that time. Makes sense that organization would be the key word throughout that period...

I expect the football will evolve as the weeks go by...

Bar Rooney for obvious reasons (see Drogba for Chelsea) Fergie tinkers with his side every single game, and hasnt played the same eleven for over a hundred games. Nani, Valencia, Giggs, Scholes, Berbatov and Owen all come in and out of the side and they seem to make it work over the length of a season. Football is far more than a settled eleven in 2010 and that should not be an excuse at all for the way in which we've been playing, as weve got more than enough quality in our squad. I'll reserve any sweeping statements on Mancini's style of football for a fair few games yet, but the label "blip" should not be attached to the way in which we are setting up at the moment, as with the early stages of any new managers tenure, they like to get their approaches across to the team as early as possible. This begs the question, is this laboured, cautious and narrow style of play one in which were going to be seeing a hell of a lot of, or is it simply a case of Mancini "tweaking" certain aspects of our play (and in-built mentality) in order to achieve what he wants us to play like.

I guess all we can do is wait and see, hopefully the latter is the case and we'll see a far more positive performance on Tuesday and beyond. Time will tell as to whether this is how City are going to approach football matches; but until then, we have to back our successful manager and trust him to get the blend right.

 

[Bonol]

Mancini is a clown, simple as that.

 

[GStar]

2-0 against Stoke, a game we controlled. 4-1 against Blackburn, says it all. 3-0 away at Wolves, again nothing to say. Portsmouth at home 2-0, a game we controlled. 2-0 Bolton at home, a game we controlled.

We lost at Hull and a home draw against Stoke and some fans are going mad about it, I personally think we will get that 4th spot under Mancini.

Its a good point, maybe i'm being a little harsh. I just think, had Portsmouth had a bit more quality, we'd have been punished, had Bolton had a bit more about them they'd have caused us trouble.

We're cantering over the line, and giving teams possesion with unforced errors... we're not dominating or controlling games as much as we're sitting back and letting the game die.

Like you say we're in the best position to take 4th and this narrow defensive set up may only be short term. I think we're also unbalanced atm playing wingers on the wrong side and then taking one off and leaving the team lop sided until a second sub is made... but thats another, probably short term issue.

 

[RACHACE]

Mancini is a clown, simple as that.

Why?

 

[Bill]

Mancini is a clown, simple as that.

not one bit true, he has to learn the english game, we wont put up with boring football, attendances in italy having been dropping for fun, we wont put up with stifling opponants we like to batter them.
one thing for certain if our crowds drop we are in the shit.

 

[Cheltblue]

Ok, so the football is dire, yesterday was fuckin dire (so was the almosphere),but please,
Hughes legacy will be how he spent absolute shit loads of money creating an imballance in the team that even Pearce would have found hard to achieve.

Mancini v Hughes comparisons make me laugh my bollox off, so please stop it!!!