Mancini Learnt Something Tonight

[Freestyler]

First of all, not a thread having ago at Mancini or any players...

Started with three at the back, against Madrid it's a disaster if we give it away in midfield. First 20 minutes we could have been out the game, luckily they fluffed the chances. One shocking piece of defending and were 1-0 down.

Everyone around me an myself included said drop to a back 4, were open and were gonna get hammered. 2 minutes later Mancini made this decision and acted upon it, instantly we looked more solid and organised and took the game to Madrid.

This is exactly the point me and other have made on here for so long, Mancini hasn't really help us in Europe. He's played a shocking formation which if were honest has probably cost us alot, tonight he did something for a change for the right reasons.

Tonight we played Premiership football in Europe, just like Spurs did. No chopping and changing, it was just like Villa Saturday. What happened? we competed, we haven't competed throughout before tonight and we've Joe Hart to thank. Goal difference could have been -25 realistically.

How many shots did Hart save tonight? he wasn't very busy. All because we played a proper formation to the strengths of our players, did anyone look uncomfortable? not one bit. We dominated Real Madrid tonight and kept the ball and knocked it around really well and our possession statistics are through the roof, we made THEM work for a change. Maybe we could have even took all 3 points...

We would have beat Ajax both home and away if we set up like we did tonight. That point tonight could have been priceless and one more for the total to put us through, we've left it to late. All i asked for was us to compete against these teams, tonight we did that for the very first time.

IMO If we played a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 in every game in this Champions League campaign we would of had a real go. I'm disappointed it's took so long for us to actually look like we should be in this competition. Has Mancini learnt from his own correct tactical awareness tonight? will he be here next season to continue and maybe try the usual approach? who knows.

I've been skeptical of Mancini in Europe, Ajax away was a farce. But tonight he made the RIGHT decision, the point of all this is it's very disappointing he's acknowledged something so obvious, but 3 months to late.

 

[iamdamienl]

First of all, not a thread having ago at Mancini or any players...

Started with three at the back, against Madrid it's a disaster if we give it away in midfield. First 20 minutes we could have been out the game, luckily they fluffed the chances. One shocking piece of defending and were 1-0 down.

Everyone around me an myself included said drop to a back 4, were open and were gonna get hammered. 2 minutes later Mancini made this decision and acted upon it, instantly we looked more solid and organised and took the game to Madrid.

This is exactly the point me and other have made on here for so long, Mancini hasn't really help us in Europe. He's played a shocking formation which if were honest has probably cost us alot, tonight he did something for a change for the right reasons.

Tonight we played Premiership football in Europe, just like Spurs did. No chopping and changing, it was just like Villa Saturday. What happened? we competed, we haven't competed throughout before tonight and we've Joe Hart to thank. Goal difference could have been -25 realistically.

How many shots did Hart save tonight? he wasn't very busy. All because we played a proper formation to the strengths of our players, did anyone look uncomfortable? not one bit. We dominated Real Madrid tonight and kept the ball and knocked it around really well and our possession statistics are through the roof, we made THEM work for a change. Maybe we could have even took all 3 points...

We would have beat Ajax both home and away if we set up like we did tonight. That point tonight could have been priceless and one more for the total to put us through, we've left it to late. All i asked for was us to compete against these teams, tonight we did that for the very first time.

IMO If we played a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1 in every game in this Champions League campaign we would of had a real go. I'm disappointed it's took so long for us to actually look like we should be in this competition. Has Mancini learnt from his own correct tactical awareness tonight? will he be here next season to continue and maybe try the usual approach? who knows.

I've been skeptical of Mancini in Europe, Ajax away was a farce. But tonight he made the RIGHT decision, the point of all this is it's very disappointing he's acknowledged something so obvious, but 3 months to late.

Very well said, champions league is a learning experience for Manchester City

 

[teddykgb]

I'm sorry, I respect your post and you put some real thought into it, but I just don't agree. We've setup in 4-2-3-1 and other 4 at the back variants countless times in Europe. We've previously changed to 3 in the back due to the ineffectiveness of our more traditional setup.

I agree with you that we weren't overwhelmed and really took it to Real Madrid tonight, although I do wonder if Madrid played us more like a Prem team does as opposed to some of our previous opponents. The problems against Dortmund and Ajax were not simply tactical. Our midfield was pretty consistently overwhelmed and we struggled to maintain possession and shape, regardless of formation. I hope the team has figured some of this out and tonight is a sign that we're learning how to adapt our game to Europe, but I don't think it's as simple as playing a particular formation, our problems have been much much deeper than that in Europe thus far imo.

 

[buckshot]

Great post. As far as CL goes though, I didn't expect too much this year and to expend crazy amounts of energy when you're in the toughest group would be domestic suicide IMO. Next year they'll hopefully be in a manageable group and progress while keeping themselves on point in the league.

 

[Damanino]

Dont think Mancini learned anything in CL.

From his Inter times (4 seasons in CL) he clearly did not learn something he could use for City's advantage here. He started to be hopeless for the 3rd time, then 4th time he did fail again. (Yeah only a 1/16 finals was a fail at Inter those times with one of biggest wage bill amongst football clubs in the world)

Last year he could learn a lot about City's European/CL mistakes, what went wrong vs Bayern or in the two Napoli matches.

Now basically he added 5 more matches to learn from and now there are even more things to learn. The players did huge mistakes, Mancini made huge tactical/formation/starting 11 mistakes as well.

But what I saw from Mancini in CL he always struggled against better teams even against teams with equal strength at Inter.

Dont know who is equally strong as us now because If I say the teams that have spent as much on their squad or paying as big wages right now they are lot better team.
If I say Ajax someone say they are far ahead of us even if they have inexperienced players in CL level. and can be said the same about their manager.

In the end we get there we have to get an Anderlecht/Dinamo Zagreb/Otelul Galati group to comfortably go trough... (All from Pot 4:D)

And if we fail we say ohh Anderlecht was in CL already in 1996 and 2003 but we couldnt really say a player from them apart from Jovanovic who was a flop at Pool 2-3 years ago.
(Like Ajax's Babel, Poulsen...)

 

[CityCTID]

Dont think Mancini learned anything in CL.

From his Inter times (4 seasons in CL) he clearly did not learn something he could use for City's advantage here. He started to be hopeless for the 3rd time, then 4th time he did fail again. (Yeah only a 1/16 finals was a fail at Inter those times with one of biggest wage bill amongst football clubs in the world)

Last year he could learn a lot about City's European/CL mistakes, what went wrong vs Bayern or in the two Napoli matches.

Now basically he added 5 more matches to learn from and now there are even more things to learn. The players did huge mistakes, Mancini made huge tactical/formation/starting 11 mistakes as well.

But what I saw from Mancini in CL he always struggled against better teams even against teams with equal strength at Inter.

Dont know who is equally strong as us now because If I say the teams that have spent as much on their squad or paying as big wages right now they are lot better team.
If I say Ajax someone say they are far ahead of us even if they have inexperienced players in CL level. and can be said the same about their manager.

In the end we get there we have to get an Anderlecht/Dinamo Zagreb/Otelul Galati group to comfortably go trough... (All from Pot 4:D)

And if we fail we say ohh Anderlecht was in CL already in 1996 and 2003 but we couldnt really say a player from them apart from Jovanovic who was a flop at Pool 2-3 years ago.
(Like Ajax's Babel, Poulsen...)

YOU WANNA BE OUR FATASS NEW MANGER;)?

 

[burnagelane]

.
I'II have to say what I saw tonight..........I'm sorry......
drawing with Real, is not to be sneezed at

I see so much changing of the team on a game by game basis......I realize Villa is no Real Madrid..but I saw a gelling in that selection, and I gave City a very good chance of accounting for Real. City change the team make up more than anyone else in the EPL. I can never see a City side settling into a team that can read the other players.
I would have four at the back, Maicon/Zabaleta Kompany Nastajic Clichy
Although he had a very bad game v Real YY Toure ......... Barry
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Nasri Silva
......................................................Tevez Aguero.
By all means add other players, but only one at a time.
This team would win. Mancini is still fooling with the Tevez selection, and it's costing City.
Kolarov? Garcia?. De Jong is missed, to release Toure. Use Milner more before Garcia.
The way City are directed to play across the ground, would only be successful if the goalposts were on the front of the Penalty area, lateral passing ensures high possession, linear passing means goals, City can win the EPL, but with these methods, no CL.

Very disappointed again.

 

[Neville Kneville]

He makes some kind of tactical 'tweak' to the team before just about every single European game. The thing most of these 'tweak' s have in common, is that the players aren't quite used to it, & the opposition exploit it.

He either stops doing this & starts playing our strongest team, in a system which the players feel comfortable with & can best do their jobs, or he will be looking for employment.

 

[gazinho]

Being fair to him he obviously went 3 at the back for a reason, Madrid almost exclusively play 4-2-3-1 if they would have played this last night in my opinion the 3 at the back would have worked in the fact that Kompany would have been assigned to Benzema (before you start I understand Benzema isnt just going to stand up front in the middle letting Vinny mark him) and Zaba and Nasty would have been able to slot across to help the wingbacks deal with Ronaldo and Di Maria.

As it happens we were up against one of the greatest coaches in the world who must have realised we were going to go with the 3 and he himself went 3 at the back with Di Maria and Coentrao as wing backs to nullify our threat down the flanks.

After 15/20 minutes of domination from Madrid Bobby quite rightly changed to 4 at the back and from that moment on we were probably the more dominant side possesion wise and possibly created the more clear cut chances especially in the second half.

I do believe we'll learn from the experience and in my own opinion we contributed to much of our own downfall especialy in the previous games by simply playing 2 up front or the 4-2-3-1 with Aguero on the left, anyway thats for another thread onwards and upwards MCFC

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Dont think Mancini learned anything in CL.

From his Inter times (4 seasons in CL) he clearly did not learn something he could use for City's advantage here. He started to be hopeless for the 3rd time, then 4th time he did fail again. (Yeah only a 1/16 finals was a fail at Inter those times with one of biggest wage bill amongst football clubs in the world)

Last year he could learn a lot about City's European/CL mistakes, what went wrong vs Bayern or in the two Napoli matches.

Now basically he added 5 more matches to learn from and now there are even more things to learn. The players did huge mistakes, Mancini made huge tactical/formation/starting 11 mistakes as well.

But what I saw from Mancini in CL he always struggled against better teams even against teams with equal strength at Inter.

Dont know who is equally strong as us now because If I say the teams that have spent as much on their squad or paying as big wages right now they are lot better team.
If I say Ajax someone say they are far ahead of us even if they have inexperienced players in CL level. and can be said the same about their manager.

In the end we get there we have to get an Anderlecht/Dinamo Zagreb/Otelul Galati group to comfortably go trough... (All from Pot 4:D)

And if we fail we say ohh Anderlecht was in CL already in 1996 and 2003 but we couldnt really say a player from them apart from Jovanovic who was a flop at Pool 2-3 years ago.
(Like Ajax's Babel, Poulsen...)

YOU WANNA BE OUR FATASS NEW MANGER;)?

I get the impression from some of these posts that Mancini is running off his arse all over the pitch and the starting eleven are sitting on the bench chomping on a stick of celery!