Mancini Interview BBC

[goalmole]

Mancini's title-winning team would beat the current team.

Better defensively but just as good going forward.

I'm a big fan of Mancini but i don't know about that. Negrado is one hell of a player and for the team does far more than either Balo or Tevez ever did.

Tevez? He's one of the best players I've seen in a blue shirt. Tho we were without him for much of the PL-winning season anyway.

We scored some brilliant team goals and at this point in the season (or at least a couple of weeks ago when I saw the stat) had scored just as many in the PL. I remember our play being praised at the time and even being compared to Barca, who themselves were in their pomp. Obviously we weren't as good as Barca then, neither is our current team. but the point is that I don't see a big difference in terms of attacking threat and 'positive/negative' football back then to now.

Although we did have a good offensive capability under Mancini, the biggest difference this year is that the urgency to attack is evident from the first kick of the ball to the final whistle. Teams used to be all over us for the first twenty minutes of the game, and then we used to go into a defensive mode when we went in front, to try and defend the lead. This season we seem to be relentless in our attacks right up until the final whistle, thereby not giving teams any chance of regrouping in an attempt to get at us. This trait was evident in the away matches that we lost at the beginning of this season and, which seems largely to have been ironed out.
This change in attitude and mentality is one of the things that Pellegrini has brought to the club.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Mancini being compared to Shankly has gone into my Bluemoon Top Ten Comedy moments. That's two great entries this year with the "Ghostbusters" David Silva song.

It's a definite contender David, but I think most folk would agree that you yourself set the bar unfeasibly high with 'Zabaleta - get rid - he isn't good enough'.
Closely followed by your 'My mate says Platt calls the substitutions, not Mancini'.
The only real competition is for third place.

Haha. Andy Capp pops up on a football thread. Third time in five years. No opinions obviously, but some good old Cellar-style teenage insults.

I look forward to the day you join in a football thread with an actual football opinion mate, but I won't hold my breath. At least you've given away that you read them. It s a real mystery why you don't join in, honest...

Now off you pop back to your little Footsoldiers down the Cellar. Someone's put up some nice cleavage this morning. There might even be someone you can call a ****. Brilliant.

 

[jimharri]

Just watched the interview on Football Focus. He's not shy on taking the credit for how we're playing now.

 

[BucksBlue]

Hartson on Football Focus stated in error that Mancini brought Kompany to City when it was in fact the best thing Mark Hughes did in his tenure.
Lawrenson was positive and respectful of Manuel's running of the club.

Happy days

Forza Mancini
Forza Pellegrini

City 4 Watford 0
Lopes and Jovetic to score

 

[SWP's back]

Only due to our start with a new tactical system.

Next season should be interesting as we won't be giving our rivals a ten point start.

The same also applies to Chelsea though. Mourinho traditionally has his best season in his second season at a club. At Porto, Inter, Chelsea and Real Madrid his best season was his second season. I think we have a better chance this season than next. Given the progress Mourinho's Chelsea have started to make towards the point grinding machines he builds I think it will hold true again next season. Good news is that he usually drops off in the third season e.g. Chelsea, Real Madrid.

Sorry buddy but I couldn't disagree more strongly. It is far easier to gain points as a good team destroying (as Pellegrini is fond of saying) than playing expansive football, yet we were behind Chelsea before we got our act together and have accumulated more points since then.

I think this team will garner 90+ points next season and nothing I have seen makes me think they could not achieve a record points haul. They are simply much better than all the opposition now all have bought into the tactical ethos.

I think our chances simply increase next season, especially with the marquee signing in the summer to come.<br /><br />-- Sat Jan 25, 2014 1:51 pm --<br /><br />

I prefer this one but I still don't prefer the manager.

The players do though.

 

[decmancity]

I think Mancini can take some credit for the way the team is at the moment.

Yes in the final few months of his tenure it started coming apart as a whole but in the two years prior to that he built a solid cup winning team that had its way of playing and utilizing the vast talent we have within the squad.

He won the cup and the prem so we are forever grateful but it was time to go and Pellegrini has inherited Mancini's team and taken it to the next level. Mancini put the team to a good level for Pellegrini to lead from and I can't thank him enough for that.

 

[SWP's back]

Pellegrini gets the best out of the available staff, making ordinary players good and good players great.

Which players in the current team would you describe as 'ordinary'?
I'd say that our strongest starting eleven is possibly the best team the Premiership has ever seen.
I doubt we have room for 'ordinary' players anymore.

Kolarov was pretty ordinary before but I would have him start ahead of Clichy now every time.<br /><br />-- Sat Jan 25, 2014 1:53 pm --<br /><br />

Which players in the current team would you describe as 'ordinary'?
I'd say that our strongest starting eleven is possibly the best team the Premiership has ever seen.
I doubt we have room for 'ordinary' players anymore.

I strongly suspect it means Kolarov, but Kolarov's attacking stats are exactly the same as they've been in the previous two seasons. Some people are seeing a Miracle of Kolarov that facts do not substantiate.

But now he defends better.

Are you honestly saying you don't think he has improved?

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

Mancini being compared to Shankly has gone into my Bluemoon Top Ten Comedy moments. That's two great entries this year with the "Ghostbusters" David Silva song.

It's a definite contender David, but I think most folk would agree that you yourself set the bar unfeasibly high with 'Zabaleta - get rid - he isn't good enough'.
Closely followed by your 'My mate says Platt calls the substitutions, not Mancini'.
The only real competition is for third place.

Haha. Andy Capp pops up on a football thread. Third time in five years. No opinions obviously, but some good old Cellar-style teenage insults.

I look forward to the day you join in a football thread with an actual football opinion mate, but I won't hold my breath. At least you've given away that you read them. It s a real mystery why you don't join in, honest...

Now off you pop back to your little Footsoldiers down the Cellar. Someone's put up some nice cleavage this morning. There might even be someone you can call a ****. Brilliant.

Oh, I see - so it's alright for a pompous, smug pillock like you to take the piss out of others on an hourly basis, but you don't like it when folk point out how fucking daft you are?
There wasn't a single insult in that post - just an accurate observation that you made and can't defend.
I'll add hypocrite to the ever-growing list of your virtues.
If you can't handle it back, then don't give it out, as you will end up simply looking foolish.
As usual.

 

[SWP's back]

Mancini's title-winning team would beat the current team.

Better defensively but just as good going forward.

It's hard to see how you've come to that conclusion. City under Mancini struggled the most against teams like this season's City. ie. a team that's technically very gifted, that plays with a high defensive line, a high press, and has both pace and power.

The current team would not win the league if it contained Mancinis City team.

That same team played last season and finished a very distant 2nd as teams worked out the fatal floor of not being able to break down a massed defence.

 

[Skashion]

Sorry buddy but I couldn't disagree more strongly. It is far easier to gain points as a good team destroying (as Pellegrini is fond of saying) than playing expansive football, yet we were behind Chelsea before we got our act together and have accumulated more points since then.

I think this team will garner 90+ points next season and nothing I have seen makes me think they could not achieve a record points haul. They are simply much better than all the opposition now all have bought into the tactical ethos.

I think our chances simply increase next season, especially with the marquee signing in the summer to come.

-- Sat Jan 25, 2014 1:51 pm --

I prefer this one but I still don't prefer the manager.

The players do though.

Disagree away my friend.

I accept that, I don't know how many more ways I can say MANCINI HAD TO GO.<br /><br />-- Sat Jan 25, 2014 12:59 pm --<br /><br />

But now he defends better.

Are you honestly saying you don't think he has improved?

Pretty much, yep. The fact that we're conceding more than we have for years doesn't exactly make a ringing endorsement for us being better defensively.