Is now the time to consider Mancini's tenure at the club

[MCFC BOB]

I'm totally behind Mancini and wouldn't want the club to sack him now or at the end of the season. However, we need to adress our problems.

We have no width and so teams are happy to pack the centre of the pitch and we can't find a way through.

Without Barry, Yaya feels the need to stay nearer our area than the oppositions. This leads to Tevez dropping back to where Yaya should be and Aguero dropping out of the area. When we win the ball, there's no fucker in position.

Shooting practice. Why when the ball is at our forwards feet in or on the edge of the area, do they seem reluctant to pull the trigger? Why when 35 yards out with 3 players in front of them do they decide that a daisy cutter is going to beat a top goalkeeper?

Tempo. Our build up play is so slow it becomes boring. I can watch Arsenal, Barcelona and Spain play tiki-taki all day long because they do it quickly. Our idea is to lumber towards the opposition goal allowing them all the time in the World to get into position.

An inability to understand what kind of challenge we are likely to find at places such as The Stadium of Light, Goodison Park and Upton Park. We always seem to be shocked by the grittiness of the home team at these places.

Finally, if Joleon Lescott upfront was the only thing thought of on the bench then we are in serious shit.

This is down to Mancini, unfortunately.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I'm totally behind Mancini and wouldn't want the club to sack him now or at the end of the season. However, we need to adress our problems.

We have no width and so teams are happy to pack the centre of the pitch and we can't find a way through.

Without Barry, Yaya feels the need to stay nearer our area than the oppositions. This leads to Tevez dropping back to where Yaya should be and Aguero dropping out of the area. When we win the ball, there's no fucker in position.

Shooting practice. Why when the ball is at our forwards feet in or on the edge of the area, do they seem reluctant to pull the trigger? Why when 35 yards out with 3 players in front of them do they decide that a daisy cutter is going to beat a top goalkeeper?

Tempo. Our build up play is so slow it becomes boring. I can watch Arsenal, Barcelona and Spain play tiki-taki all day long because they do it quickly. Our idea is to lumber towards the opposition goal allowing them all the time in the World to get into position.

An inability to understand what kind of challenge we are likely to find at places such as The Stadium of Light, Goodison Park and Upton Park. We always seem to be shocked by the grittiness of the home team at these places.

Finally, if Joleon Lescott upfront was the only thing thought of on the bench then we are in serious shit.

Yet all those issues come down to the manager, so how can you be fully behind him if the source of all these issues are him and his lack of ability to change it up?

So to address our problems we need to address Mancini, and if you say you're fully behind him then you accept the problems as they are, because that is what he is bringing to the table.

I'm at the point where I don't think giving him 3/4 new faces in January would make the blindest bit of difference because I think the problems are far more fundamental than that, as proven by the clear, coherent structures that Ajax, Madrid and Dortmund used in the CL whereas ours was a jumbled mess that changed game upon game. The lack of pace and width and creativity has been apparent for 2 years bar the start of last season where Mancini's tactic worked and then was found out and stopped working to the same effect, in fact it works to the effect it has now. The fact he isn't getting the best out of players he was last season is also worrying.

 

[peoffrey]

I'm totally behind Mancini and wouldn't want the club to sack him now or at the end of the season. However, we need to adress our problems.

We have no width and so teams are happy to pack the centre of the pitch and we can't find a way through.

Without Barry, Yaya feels the need to stay nearer our area than the oppositions. This leads to Tevez dropping back to where Yaya should be and Aguero dropping out of the area. When we win the ball, there's no fucker in position.

Shooting practice. Why when the ball is at our forwards feet in or on the edge of the area, do they seem reluctant to pull the trigger? Why when 35 yards out with 3 players in front of them do they decide that a daisy cutter is going to beat a top goalkeeper?

Tempo. Our build up play is so slow it becomes boring. I can watch Arsenal, Barcelona and Spain play tiki-taki all day long because they do it quickly. Our idea is to lumber towards the opposition goal allowing them all the time in the World to get into position.

An inability to understand what kind of challenge we are likely to find at places such as The Stadium of Light, Goodison Park and Upton Park. We always seem to be shocked by the grittiness of the home team at these places.

Finally, if Joleon Lescott upfront was the only thing thought of on the bench then we are in serious shit.

How can you be totally behind the Manager when you've found so many problems that he's largely responsible for? Imagine if someone had told you that Lescott would be brought off the bench and stuck up front when we needed a goal during a match. You'd laugh in their face.

 

[Cellarite]

I'm totally behind Mancini and wouldn't want the club to sack him now or at the end of the season. However, we need to adress our problems.

We have no width and so teams are happy to pack the centre of the pitch and we can't find a way through.

Without Barry, Yaya feels the need to stay nearer our area than the oppositions. This leads to Tevez dropping back to where Yaya should be and Aguero dropping out of the area. When we win the ball, there's no fucker in position.

Shooting practice. Why when the ball is at our forwards feet in or on the edge of the area, do they seem reluctant to pull the trigger? Why when 35 yards out with 3 players in front of them do they decide that a daisy cutter is going to beat a top goalkeeper?

Tempo. Our build up play is so slow it becomes boring. I can watch Arsenal, Barcelona and Spain play tiki-taki all day long because they do it quickly. Our idea is to lumber towards the opposition goal allowing them all the time in the World to get into position.

An inability to understand what kind of challenge we are likely to find at places such as The Stadium of Light, Goodison Park and Upton Park. We always seem to be shocked by the grittiness of the home team at these places.

Finally, if Joleon Lescott upfront was the only thing thought of on the bench then we are in serious shit.

This is down to Mancini, unfortunately.

I know Bob. I'm worried because I'm not sure he'll recognise the problems and deal with them. I trust him more than any manager we've had in my lifetime but he needs to act quickly.

 

[LoveCity]

I'm totally behind Mancini and wouldn't want the club to sack him now or at the end of the season. However, we need to adress our problems.

We have no width and so teams are happy to pack the centre of the pitch and we can't find a way through.

The lack of width is completely down to Mancini. A bottomless wallet for much of his stay and has bought not a single winger of high quality, yet has bought multiple central midfielders of the same ilk (Garcia and Rodwell the latest).

Our squad is very unbalanced and unrefined and last season we got away with it but almost didn't (there were so many games like today's such as the equivalent fixture last season... plus Stoke away, Everton away, Swansea away, West Brom away, Fulham away). We stockpile players in certain positions while leaving other positions light - such as the playmaker role, we like to play two (Silva, Nasri) yet have no real competition for them.

I hope the reports were right and Txiki stamps his authority on the first team squad next season, enforcing a more balanced squad on Mancini. For a start, sacrificing one of the £140,000/week+ strikers Mancini can't make his mind up on (anyone but Aguero who despite his dodgy form is clearly our best striker) and using those resources on a playmaker of genuine class (I won't ask for a winger because Mancini would just bench him).

 

[bluesimon]

Perhaps we might have to come to terms with the limits and boundaries that Mancini is really capable of. He is certainly a 'winner', as Khaldoon so boldly pointed out when he was appointed and in all fairness, he has achieved what he was asked to do - go win some silverware and get those Rag cnuts to take down their 44/45 year banner at the swamp! Job done.

But there is never any smoke without fire and Mancini keeps on repeating his own history. His mantra is one of looking around the corner - not looking or planning too far ahead. Yet again, his limits are as clear as day and I believe he has taken City as far as can be.

Exactly the same happened at Inter. Good league and Cup wins but in the Champions league, total continuous wipe out, which continues at City. For 7-8 years, he has had a real mental block and his inability to engage with his players on a one to one level and bring them onto the next level, is as clear as day. With the greatest respect to him, any manager of similar standing, given the additional £200m+ he spent would have achieved what he has done. Mancini was the icing on the cake - Aguero, Yaya, Nasri, Dzeko, Silva - came to plug the gaps and make up the difference. But going on from there, thats another story.

It would be very easy to critisize Mancini on many levels and at times, I feel like going on a massive rant about him on these forums. it would easy to pick holes and expose all the small flaws and wounds, but Manchester City and its fans have to be bigger than that. As a life long 49 year old fan and 14 years as a season ticket holder, the 'evolving' city is what continues to hold me glued to following our team. Since the Sheikh came in with his oil money, the 'ONE' true underlying strength that is now the vision of 'City' - is longevity. Just take a few minutes to google the Sheikh and what he is investing his money in - and a very large proportion of it is in areas even he is unlikely to experience the full benefit from in his life-time. A year (even a month) can feel like a lifetime in football, but for these guys, a lifetime is not 'their' lifetime. They want to be remembered for 100's of years, written and talked about in the history books. When you have more money than god, that is the way you can think. Money does not buy you anything immediate anymore because you already have it all.

Getting back to Mancini, I would be prepared to bet huge money that he will be gone at the end of this season. He has become their 'Mark Hughes' now and am sure they realise he has taken City as far as he can. The new back room team precided over the kind of change at Barcelona, never seen in footballing history before - and they are now at the top table with City. For them, it is a game of the mind - a game of cutting edge tactics, thought provoking diversity, border breaking decision making - something that Mancini clearly is not cut out for. He was once a good striker that never really made it in the national team and he has gone on to be a good manager at the upper levels of the game, but his mind is that of singlarity - formulas - training ground perpetualism - mantras - sound bites. But most dangerously of all, clearly displays a character of believing his own publicity. I do not see an evolving manager. He is the 'Nicky Shorey' of managers, digs his heals in and wonders why someone has climbed on his shoulders and gone 1 up. This is the man that has said, on 5 different occassions 'I know what the problem is - it is my fault and I know how to fix it'. This is the man that keeps on throwing the toys out of the pram because he cannot carry on buying anyone and everyone and then end up doing a Wenger and buys 5 players in a matter of days by way of petulance. This is the man that gets rid of the likes of Nigel DJ (who I thought was our Scholes) and then drops Lescott from the most successful defence in Premiship history (Baconface has never done that to the likes of Neville or Ferdinand). He then, despite all the wall of evidence, keeps on shoving his decisions in the face of reason, without a plan B. Nastasic might be a great defender in the future, but he is no Lescott. Lescotts experience, alone, is worth a starting place for every game. For example, take yourselves back to the first Champions league game against Munich. He inexplicably dropped Lescott to the bench and bought in Kolo (who had played in one league cup game in the previous 25+ games) and both of Munich's goals were scored with Kolo being within 3 yards of the scorer.

Apologies, this has now become the rant I said I would not do - but my point is Mancini has gone as far as he can. But like much of the squad, is happy to carry on taking the £7m a year, sign an extended contract (remember what Capello did before the last world cup?!) and not take the responsibility for his actions. Great managers know when their time is up (look at Guardiola and Mourinio as recent examples) and are prepared to look elsewhere for where they are best suited. Mancini, I thank you from the bottom of my pain ridden footballing heart for the gift of being the Permiership champions and you will always be a legend at City, but the time has come to move on. Just do it with some grace.

 

[WNRH]

For me after today and a culmination of all this season, he has to win the league or he should go.

This project is 5 years in the running and now we should be expecting the best and if Mancini cannot win us the league with his squad because Van Persie is carrying United then he deserves to go.

 

[mancityscot]

In answer to the OP. I'd say yes

 

[BUDTHEWISER]

In answer to the OP. I'd say yes

In answer to your addition to the thread fuck off back to the golf course

 

[toutmaster]

This is.the same manager that also said he would sort our european problems its almost like panic mangement I honestly believe he has no backup plans we have one of the best squads in world football the man should do better with the options available to him.