Mancini critism of Hughes

[Project]

I've been saying we lack central midfielders for the longest time and felt it was our absolute priority in the transfer window, only for people to go on about Kompany, Zabaleta etc, and that due to our injury situation we needed central defenders. They are not good enough in that position for where we want to be. And that our defensive problems were only ever going to be short term, with Toure, Lescott and Bridge all now back we have an abundance of choice.

Vinny and Zab as backup? Sure. It's nice to have that versatility. But you need 4 top natural central midfielders these days to win the big prizes. I think both De Jong and Barry belong in that bracket, but the former only in a midfield 3 and the latter is in dire need of a rest and an operation. Vieira and Mariga would have solved both of those issues. As it stands we are kind of hoping that Vieira once fit has the legs to cope with the Premier League. If so Barry can get the break he requires.

This summer I can see us going in for another two central midfielders. That, with a hopefully returning Johnson will see us well stacked in that department to hopefully cope with the addition of at least 10 Champions League games. We could easily have 60 games next season and with most of the squad not having a break due to the World Cup it's a vital position to get sorted.

 

[gelly]

Vinny and Zab as backup? Sure. It's nice to have that versatility. But you need 4 top natural central midfielders these days to win the big prizes.

Agreed, and the 4 CMs is needed, and they have to have different qualities too, 2 need to be the distributors of the ball and 2 need to be the type that break up play and win balls, all four need to be semi-decent in the other role too.

 

[mcfc_die_hard]

Mancini states in the Guardian

. "But it is strange for me that we only had three central midfielders – Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong and Stephen Ireland. It is impossible to play a whole season using just three central midfielders. Impossible."

Which just goes to show he doesn't even understand his own squad, what is Kompany, he is a fucking midfielder covering at centre half until his injury. Excuse's excuse's.

mancini is right. how can we play the season with just 3 central midfielders. Kompany is a center half

 

[BurnCK]

Vinnie has always been a Centre Back first....but even if he was a midfielder I still wouldn't agree with the OP. We only have 2 true midfielders who can actually create in Vieira and Ireland. Vieira is more of a central midfielder with Ireland more of an attacking midfielder. That's it...that's all we have. The others are more defensive midfielders, so Mancini is right when he says we are lacking in that area which is why he went for Mariga and then turned his attention to Gago.

That's why we are missing the creativity going forward. Nothing to do with Mancini....it's the fact that Hughes left us short in that area.

 

[bluem0ng]

And you know more than Mancini?

Sorry to say yes it appears so, i have identified another central midfielder for him. Look we have got a better fucking midfield than 95% of the premiership, what a shit excuse, if he really thought that he should of got his skates on in the ttransfer window.

Kompany is shite in midfield and Mancini has obviously realised this very quickly.

What the fuck is your problem anyway? City being in their best position in the PL ever? Mancini having a higher points per game average than Hughes? We not drawing enough games?

My username is what other fans call this forum, exactly because of threads like yours.

 

[bluem0ng]

Stop fucking knit picking, Kompany is a spare Defensive midfielder who can also play centre half. Why the fuck did we buy Toure and Lescott if we were going to play Kompany at centre half, stop making excuses like Mancini's miscalculation of midfielders at the club. Robinho has started making excuses now about how its all our fault that hes a lazy cnut.

Hughes has gone. Get over it rag

 

[MANCIO4EVER]

I think Mancini is spot on.

Hughes had 18 months and pretty much unlimited funds to assemble a quality 'team,' and I am afraid it looks far to disjointed. Our defence was an absolute shambles under Hughes which is why Mancini has had to overcompensate with defensive midfield players. Unfortunately the ones we have cannot pass-it is ridiculous. De jong is a great tackler nothing more, he can pass the ball back to given but against Hull on several occassions he tried to make simple 5-10 yard passes and they ALL got intercepted! Barry was a good player at Villa but for us he never seems to do anything with the ball. Yes, he wins lots of tackles but he never comes out with the ball, which defeats the whole point of tackling, and I do not know whether there is anything wrong with his ears but he can never stay on his feat, at times he seem utterly hopeless! If he is carrying an injury as many on here have speculated than fair enough but most of his performances thus far have been very very poor. Ireland and SWP are good players but out of form. the whole point of the midfield is to help out the defence, breaking up opposition play and then releasing the forward players. We cannot pass the ball from midfield to attack let alone rely on our midfielders to create stuff or score goals (that is where we miss elano, yes he was moody but that does not mean he is a bad player, he just needs good management and like all Brazilians he needs to feel wanted (look at Ronaldinho's renaissance under Leonardo after being shunned by Ancelotti).

If we can get 2 quality central midfield players in the summer I think we will be a very strong team. The top central midfield players are the likes of diego, de rossi, xavi, iniesta, fabregas, kaka, alonso, essien. Unfortunately we do not have the slightest hope of signing any of those but Mascherano, yaya toure, and javi martinez are also good options (at least they know how to pass the ball forward)! One thing Mancini has shown in his time in Italy is that he is able to spot talent and if he is here in the summer I would back him to buy some excellent players.

Despite all my criticism I still think that this squad is good enough for the top 4 (especially since the usual suspects have been far from there best) and would be really disappointed if we did not get that this season.

This! A mastermind which highlights all what I tried to spot on several posts of mine too. Of course, in obvious far better language I can even ever imagine to use.

Just a slight point of disagree: I would delete Diego from the top quality, because he is a good one, but the massive failure at Juventus have proven him not to be a top neither a leader. Aside, I won't be all that surprised if one of those "insignable" will decide to join a City on Cl stage.
An heartedly thanks, hbruz80.

 

[bluemanc]

Is it safe to say that from a squad "that any decent manager could get into the chumps league " we now have a squad that is unbalanced & wont,bit of a turnround that innit.

 

[GStar]

Midfield was our deepest squad section under Hughes; it hasn't suddenly become a weak area. There is a lack of creativity in CM but whilst Mancini set us up 10 men behind the keeper, i'm not really sure what he's moaning about... Its never been an area mentioned on here by many for strengthening.

 

[Anonymous]

Midfield was our deepest squad section under Hughes; it hasn't suddenly become a weak area. There is a lack of creativity in CM but whilst Mancini set us up 10 men behind the keeper, i'm not really sure what he's moaning about... Its never been an area mentioned on here by many for strengthening.

But then no one on here has played at the top level for 20 years and won 3 italian leagues and all the cups have they?

Just because no one has mentioned it on here or Hughes didn't see it as a problem doesn't mean it isn't.