mammutly said:
Wasn't so long ago Roberto was being talked about as a stop gap until Mourinho could be arsed to come over.
But I wouldn't swap Mancini for any other manager now. I think he's learning game by game and I can really see a comparison with Fergusons first season at Utd.
We need to keep Mancini for a long time - even if we win nothing this season. The man is the real deal in my opinion. I think we just might, potentially, have the best premier league manager in history on our hands right now.
It depends what you mean. Although I like him, I'm impressed with some of what he's done with us so far, I'm extatic to be top of the league and I certainly want him to remain our manager - I'm not convinced about him or us fully yet. Not by a long shot!
I think we've got a fuckin lot to improve on and I think they are areas that Mancini is not covering or is yet to cover. These things include:
1. Playing at a higher tempo. This needs sharper, quicker, pacier, more energetic, harder work rate to move away from the opponent marking our players to be able to find space to receive a pass. From there the passing can be far quicker and moved around the pitch with more fluidity and be more damaging. At the moment we are playing at far too slow a tempo, we're being out worked by many opponents, some players are stood still a lot (watch good passing teams like Arsenal and especially Barca, everyone is always on the move!) and thus we are passing the ball around slowly which allows the opposition to get set defensively. It really frustrates me!
2. Improving defensively on corners. We are caught out on short corners anything between two and eight times a game (yesterday was a joke!). We aren't aware, we aren't concentrating, people don't know their jobs, it's poor! Then in the box people are marking two players, some are marking none, we have different people on the posts all the time. We are better on corners than we were under Hughes but we are still not great at all.
3. Allowing the opposition easy possession. When we have the ball, almost no matter who we play (apart from Fulham away and Villa at home), the opposition put every single one of our players under immense pressure on and off the ball. It makes the players in possession have to think quicker, sometimes they panic and often it forces mistakes. Many of our players sit off and allow the opposition time and space on the ball. It has been noticable in our last two home games, so much so we've literally been hanging on to a one goal lead as the opposition go for an equaliser. I don't recall this happening to a team sitting top of the league at home, maybe ever!
The thing is it all takes time. I still think a lot of this comes from the fact we haven't played together as a team for very long at all. I think we're winning games because we have better players than the opposition not because we are a good TEAM. We've got enough individual brilliance. Sometimes two, three or four players can have a blinder for us and that will win us the game. But apart from Fulham away I've not stood there and thought "wow, we are a fuckin really good team".
I am behind Mancini but he's got a lot of work to do. To think we're top of the league playing like we have this season well it's a bit flattering to be honest.