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

[Prestwich_Blue]

This is the team that won the CL last season:

Cech, Cole, Luiz, Bosingwa, Cahill, Bertrand (Malouda - 73' ), Lampard, Mikel, Mata, Drogba, Kalou (Torres - 84').

How many "not good enough" players in there? Luiz, Bosingwa, Cahill, Bertrand, Mikel, Kalou certainly and you can make a case for adding Lampard and Torres on last season's form.

Don't tell me that even with Barry, Milner and Lescott in the team we're not better than them.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

This is the team that won the CL last season:

Cech, Cole, Luiz, Bosingwa, Cahill, Bertrand (Malouda - 73' ), Lampard, Mikel, Mata, Drogba, Kalou (Torres - 84').

How many "not good enough" players in there? Luiz, Bosingwa, Cahill, Bertrand, Mikel, Kalou certainly and you can make a case for adding Lampard and Torres on last season's form.

Don't tell me that even with Barry, Milner and Lescott in the team we're not better than them.

You can't tell me that Chelsea won the CL on anything other than a fluke and by battening down the hatches.

And they still had an easy group to get out of.

 

[Cobwebcat]

There is no difference in Europe. There are good and bad teams in the Premiership and Europe. We have played very good teams in Europe but it's not like that means we would have struggled in United's group.

If there were a difference what makes people think that a good CL Manager would necessarily get us there in the first place...perhaps he won't understand Stoke?!

It's nonsense.

Mancini is a great Manager even taking into account money spent as this shows:

http://transferpriceindex.com/2012/...all-time-best-managers-versus-the-mxir-model/

Mancini's detractors are entitled to their opinion and I suspect the maths won't change them.

If we got rid of Mancini there would be no shortage of takers in top European clubs.

Luckily he isn't going anywhere so the posters pointing to 4/9 European defeats in the last 2 years (2 against Real Madrid and Real Madrid) need a dose of reality.

 

[John.des]

Why we think this hard group excuse is only for us?
I'm sure when we were watching the draw we knew the team we have to avoid from Pot 4 was Dortmund and from Pot3 was Juventus.

But all the others teams wanted to avoid a certain team from Pot2 even the Pot 1 teams and it was Man City, big surprise.

What could Ajax think when the draw ended? Probably they hoped for a group when there will be one strong team from Pot1 anyway and two other they can beat maybe at home to be able to sneak trough from the group somehow.

When they saw it is Madrid/City/Dortmund they were probably laughing and crying the same time.

I still remember Ribery's reaction from last year when he found out City will be with them in the group. He was unhappy to say at least.

These world class players rate City's squad and potential very high. But when they or even the not world class teams like Napoli/Ajax meat us they dont have as much problem as they were imagined they would have.

Even they wait a lot more fight, skills, quality from City that is why they fear from getting City in the draws...

If Macini continues his clueless tactics in Europe we will be the team they will want in the end.
Stay focused, press them every time, make them starting to pass the ball back to their goalkeeper who cant make a kickoff to City player anyway and the worst thing you get against them is a draw.

It is not overly hard to beat City in the CL. Our current opponents are struggling in their league. They find it harder to win matches there than against City. We are talking about Heracles, Zwolle, Hamburg, Franfurt etc...
Ajax-Dortmund can only get a draw against these teams. We got dominated big time against both of them.

Do they raise their game? Maybe. While we do exactly what? Trying to play like it would against Norwich?

 

[Dodge MCFC]

I truely cant believe how fickle "some" fans are !

The team we have supported all our lives beat United 6-1 at Old Trafford last season , we won the league title , we won the FA cup the year before that , we are better than Man United , we have a better squad , we can tell them to be quiet , we are the top dogs, top class ........ the best team in the country who every supporter who supports any other team envy,s ........ yes we are Man City ....... HOW FAR HAVE WE COME ! Thank you Bobby Manc , thank you Sheik Manc i never ever thought it would happen and it has happened in my lifetime . Thank you , you have made me and my family proud and its fantastic long may it continue but please fuck that back 3 right off ! Thanks again

City 6 Swansea 0

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Why we think this hard group excuse is only for us?
I'm sure when we were watching the draw we knew the team we have to avoid from Pot 4 was Dortmund and from Pot3 was Juventus.

But all the others teams wanted to avoid a certain team from Pot2 even the Pot 1 teams and it was Man City, big surprise.

What could Ajax think when the draw ended? Probably they hoped for a group when there will be one strong team from Pot1 anyway and two other they can beat maybe at home to be able to sneak trough from the group somehow.

When they saw it is Madrid/City/Dortmund they were probably laughing and crying the same time.

I still remember Ribery's reaction from last year when he found out City will be with them in the group. He was unhappy to say at least.

These world class players rate City's squad and potential very high. But when they or even the not world class teams like Napoli/Ajax meat us they dont have as much problem as they were imagined they would have.

Even they wait a lot more fight, skills, quality from City that is why they fear from getting City in the draws...

If Macini continues his clueless tactics in Europe we will be the team they will want in the end.
Stay focused, press them every time, make them starting to pass the ball back to their goalkeeper who cant make a kickoff to City player anyway and the worst thing you get against them is a draw.

It is not overly hard to beat City in the CL. Our current opponents are struggling in their league. They find it harder to win matches there than against City. We are talking about Heracles, Zwolle, Hamburg, Franfurt etc...
Ajax-Dortmund can only get a draw against these teams. We got dominated big time against both of them.

Do they raise their game? Maybe. While we do exactly what? Trying to play like it would against Norwich?

no, we do the opposite and retreat into our shell and let them dominate the ball.

 

[Matty]

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s time to address Mancini’s tenure, however it’s certainly time for Mancini’s to take a long, hard look at his tactical approach, and man management approach to see where he can fix the problems that clearly exist. Domestically, in the main, he’s fine. An FA Cup followed by a Premiership title are testimony to that. However in Europe, in every season since Mancini became our manager, he’s underperformed. In his first full season we limped through the Europa League until we met a mediocre Dynamo Kiev, and got knocked out. In last season’s Champion’s League we failed to get out of a tough group, although it was equally as tough for Napoli on their first Champion’s League campaign and they managed to qualify. We then failed in the Europa League to another mediocre side in Sporting Lisbon. This season we’ve, in everything but mathematics, been knocked out of the Champion’s League again. Yes it’s another tough group, but Ajax are nothing special, they’d lost to both Dortmund (1-0 away) and Madrid (4-1 home) previously so a 3-1 defeat to them was catastrophic, and unacceptable.

Mancini’s tactics in Europe seem to be to slow the game to a crawl, attempt to dominate the possession, although not in dangerous areas of the pitch (dangerous to the opposition I mean, as proven by the Dortmund goal we insist on dominating possession in areas dangerous to us should we make a mistake) and try and take the few chances we create. This categorically isn’t working in the way Mancini would hope. The lack of pace or impetus is allowing the opposition to gain confidence and to attack us with the pace we seem to lack. 3-5-2 may well work very well for certain sides, but it needs the right players in the right positions. 3-5-2 with Gael Clichy as a centre half is stupendously idiotic a plan. Clichy is a short, fairly quick fullback/wing back, he is completely unsuited to the centre half role, and looks lost when asked to play there.

City seem to be crying out for a more direct style of play in Europe. By direct I don’t mean Sam Allardyce football, what I do mean is instead of playing 15 sideways passes between the 4 defenders and 2 holding midfielders (the sum total of which is the ball is exactly where it started, with our defenders who have 11 opponents in front of them) perhaps, on occasion, we try and beat a man, or we play the ball forward to the feet of a striker and support the man. We’ve got a squad filled with quality, and goalscorers throughout, our strength is our ability to score goals, and lots of them, and it’s easier to achieve this in the final third of the pitch than it is on the halfway line.

 

[bartinbarca]

Mancini should not do press confrences...

 

[cibaman]

Mancini should not do press confrences...

Certainly not immediately after defeats. But if you judge managers solely on the quality of their press conferences after defeats, Mancini would be fighting it out with Wenger for a job in the Conference.

I just dont understand why we're not doing it in the CL. Last season we won 5 games out of 6 against the teams that finished just behind us. Are United, Arsenal & Spurs an easier "group" than Bayern, Villareal & Napoli? Or Real, Dortmond & Ajax? Despite our defeat at Stamford Bridge we were clearly far superior to Chelsea who finished 5th but won the CL.

Is CL football that much different to PL top of the table clashes that players need to get used to it?

 

[John.des]

That is the whole point of Mancini. He is more than OK in domestic level. He was at Inter he is at City.

I have a lot of critique for him but always said on domestic level he is good for us. I he would stay for his contract now (5 years) I am sure he would win 2 or 3 more league titles in those 5 years. It is a good ratio, right?
No one could win 5 out of 5 probably...

It is the Europen level where he fails miserably. (Dont tell me he had good result at Inter. Every year they told him to improve CL performances and he couldnt do it year after year. They fired him for this.) That's why I said that not really the supporters but the owners have to make the decision how important is Europen result. Is it part of the big plan being the biggest club in the world or they couldnt give a shit.

Lets say Mancini stays, we get a little bit easier group and he doesnt fail. Then we get a Dortmund or even stronger team in the 1/16 finals. And he fails again.
We are not really that much ahead with either. (At least we dont lose out 10 m pounds like last year, this year which adds up slowly in the end a 20-30m player what Mancini wants all time.)