Mancini you are gutless

[hoggee]

Firevercity, you are CLUELESS.

Mancini has ended the rot against United, in case you have forgotten before last night they beat us 4 times in a row in the league, yes we were cautious, but let's not forget United barely worked our goalkeeper in 90 minutes, how many teams will be able to say that at the end of the season?.

I also suspect if our box to box midfielder Yaya Toure hadn't played like a complete cabbage we would of offered a lot more going forward. Never the less we could have nicked it from Carlos' free-kick or Zaba at the end.

They couldn't break us down, the first step on the ladder to becoming better than them.

exactly this
yaya toure was a disgrace last night, i thought hed been improving recently but last night was embarrassing. after 70 mins he just gave up and started walking round the pitch. and whilst he makes good runs forward hes got no vision so he doesnt use the chance well and ends up wasting it

united have been scoring freely in nearly every game this year, they barely troubled hart once yet people are still complaining? it was a defensive masterclass by both sides. one criticism of mancini last night was that he should have took yaya off, moved milner into CM and brought johnson on around 50/60 min mark.

we got a point against united, considering we lost both times last year im happy with that. i think we all should be, some of the people on here still wouldnt be happy with mancini if we'd won 6-0 last night, its a joke

 

[Didsbury Dave]

No. My mate has for 12 months been saying "I still think he'll get it right" and last night admitted he's lost faith.

What was his opinion after Sundays game or did you not speak to him? Just interested if he thought he was getting it right based on that one or was it a matter of wait and see at that point?

I went to WEst Brom with him. We were both very happy with the performance. That's it. It isn't complicated.

 

[gafferdanny]

OK, i'll humour you.

Give me a tactical explanation on what Mancini is doing wrong, and what he can do to put it right.

yaya toure in the advanced role. PLAINLY isnt working.

Mancini got the result he wanted. So he must of done something right. I wanted to win too. I was disappointed we didn't go for it also. On Toure - he isn't match fit in any role. The system was fine. He prevented from happening what happened last year which was a late embarrasment. He does need to be as confident as the fans are of our strength and ability.

They were going for it, but it was clear it wasn't working. Bacon face had to swap Berba for Hernandez to freshen it up, so Mancini must of done something right. But maybe he should of gone one further. If they weren't going to win, then it shouldn't of stopped us perhaps?

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Terrorising ??
Been watching to many Spooks episodes dumbass.
My post ratio shows that I have 11 a day !! On this thread alone I guess you`ve had 25+,so who`s the nob now ??
Please don`t move the goalposts and put the blame onto other fans,who at least are not hypocrites,like ypurself and only support the manager when it suits them ie,singing his allegiance at away games.
How sad is that,if you don`t like the guy ? Twofaced hypocrite of the highest order little boy.

Why are you so hostile and aggressive towards fellow fans?

FC is allowed an opinion as it's a forum, you know, for opinions.

Aggression and cliches are the only tools the majority of these stepford wives have.

 

[wayne71]

FFS I cannot believe the overreaction to getting a point against a team that hasn't lost for god knows how many months, we've probably lost more games in the last couple of weeks than the rags have lost this year*

*I haven't checked this is factually correct, I'm sure someone will if I'm wrong.

 

[Equidistant Blue]

I've heard a lot of negative reaction today to the 0-0 draw against United last night. And this 'gutless Mancini' rubbish is one of the worst, most ill-informed examples.

Starting with Nigel 'I played in the worst City team ever and still couldn't keep my place' Cleghorn and his constant criticism of Roberto Mancini and right through to City fans on a variety of forums, there is a constant inane clamour for 'attacking football' of the type City are supposedly famous for.

First of all let us remember that that very attacking football without an ounce of tactical awareness is pretty much the reason we have won absolutely nothing, zilch, zero for most of our lifetimes.

Secondly, please remember that we have lost the last four Premier League derby matches against United, almost always miserably in the last minute of Fergie-time.

We may laugh and joke about how they are finished and we have overtaken them, but please, please let's not start actually believing our own hype about either them or us We are a work in progress and will be for some time to come. They are undefeated in all competitions since before the World Cup.

The most laughable of the comments from City fans is the 'I'd rather draw 4-4 than 0-0' nonsense in the Evening News today. Yes my poor foolish friend, but that choice only exists in your undersized, deluded head. In the real world the choice at this moment in time is as follows:

Working hard and grinding out a point against a United side that is the only unbeaten team in the Premier League, looking for an opening and perhaps - as we did against Chelsea - grabbing a narrow victory.

Going out gung-ho, winning one derby in twenty-four as we did between 1981 and 2001. Ooooh, but that game was 5-1 to us. Yes, and before we won again in 2002, we lost eleven derbies, including that 5-0 drubbing in 1994.

Also, United really meant it in those days when they said they didn't take us seriously. Now they do and last night showed it.

So it's probably time for us all to grow up and, if we must insist on singing 'We're not really here', then think for a nanosecond about what that actually means.

If anything, that is 'blimey, twelve games in and we are in the top four, four points clear of our nearest competitors. That's great, we're not really here are we, because it's the highest position for thirty five years at this point in the season.'

 

[halpo123]

What was his opinion after Sundays game or did you not speak to him? Just interested if he thought he was getting it right based on that one or was it a matter of wait and see at that point?

I went to WEst Brom with him. We were both very happy with the performance. That's it. It isn't complicated.

so you and your friend went to west brom and were very happy yet we draw o-o to utd and your mates lost faith ?that sounds complicated to me mate

 

[Patientman63]

Just posted this on another topic, but it will fit in here as well:

A reality check is needed.

Why everyone thought we were going put a cricket score up against the rags is a bit odd when you factor in our average performance over the last half dozen games. It seems the baggies win got a few people quite giddy!

Yes it was dull, and yes it was disappointing in some respects, but it WAS NOT as disappointing as last season’s home tie with the redandwhiteshite. We just took a point against the second placed side in the prem, the third placed side beat us three nil not so long ago, so in all honesty I will take the point, put it in the bag, then go after three more from Brum. It’s a shame we couldn’t have snatched a winner like we did against Chelski, but certainly from last night’s performances, the rags defence is better than Chelskis.

Although we will never know, I suspect it would have been a different game with Super Mario playing.

 

[cleavers]

Our setup was exactly the same GStar. The only difference was that Uniteds midfield doesn't have the legs of Chelsea's, so there were very few gaps to exploit as by and large Scholes and Carrick just sit and form an effective shield. Chelsea only had Mikel doing that. Plus, United had Park tuck in to effectively make it 4 vs 3 in their favour. That's why we couldn't dominate the midfield the way we did vs Chelsea.

If you note the first 25-30 minutes Park stayed in his usual widish position, and we had all of the ball. I thought we were going to crush them. To be fair to Fergie he solved that problem, and thus requiring us to change our system to counter it, which Mancini wasn't prepared to do. whereas Ancelotti was 1-0 down at that point so gambled by throwing on more forward players, which plays into our hands as it leaves Carlos and Silva less isolated.

In short we set out exactly the same way, but the circumstances of the goal dictated how the rest of the game played out.

Mancini for me plays by percentages. He knows that that team can see out a game regardless of the opposition.

After 45 minutes he was probably 80% sure of getting a point if we were happy with that. If we went all out, chances of winning jump to 50-60% but chances of a loss increase from 20% to 40-50%. Given the stakes and how far behind we would be if we lost, I understand the reasoning.

Great post, agree with it all.

But....

I'm a big fan of Mancini, but I have to say that we could have just upped the tempo a little last night, and they were there for the taking, had we at any point got in front they had no way back, which is why Johnson should have started, and had he, and had we got an early goal we may well have been second this morning.

I don't think he's gutless as forever points out, but he did miss a trick last night, that is the worst united side I've watched since the early 80's probably, but they still managed to be the better side, we didn't attack enough, and taking off Milner (again) and not Toure was a mistake, it was kind of like for like, I'd have stuck Milner in the middle and Johnson right, and we could have exploited them more.


Overall I'm not unhappy with a point, in fact it could be a very important point gained come next May, and at least we now seem to have the defence sorted out again, but I was unhappy with how we played, to think that we beat a much much better united with the likes of Goater, Benjani, Sinclair, Weikens, even Stephen Jordan playing (not all at once before some pedant points it out), it does make you wonder why the talent we had out there last night couldn't beat them, and it probably was because we really didn't go for the win.

Gutless no, but disappointing yes.

 

[gio's side step]

yaya toure in the advanced role. PLAINLY isnt working.

Mancini got the result he wanted. So he must of done something right. I wanted to win too. I was disappointed we didn't go for it also. On Toure - he isn't match fit in any role. The system was fine. He prevented from happening what happened last year which was a late embarrasment. He does need to be as confident as the fans are of our strength and ability.

They were going for it, but it was clear it wasn't working. Bacon face had to swap Berba for Hernandez to freshen it up, so Mancini must of done something right. But maybe he should of gone one further. If they weren't going to win, then it shouldn't of stopped us perhaps?

It's the players utilised in the system that's the problem. Against West Brom it worked because we had more shape and width. Last night we resorted back to being 'narrow city' again. To repeat, Milner is the problem. I'm not blaming him, because he's what we knew he was. An honest pro. Versatile. But he doesnt nail down a position. He's played centre forward, right wing, central midfield, box to box at various stages of his career. Now he's come to City, and he's playing as a 'sort of' wide player, who will try and support should we break or counter attack. Against West Brom, the Tevez - Silva - Balotelli fluid shape worked. It was simple. Play Silva where Balotelli played, and bring in Johnson to play where Silva played. Instead, he reverted to the Milner problem. And I FEAR again, he will do this on Saturday, at home against Birmingham