Mancini you are gutless

[SWP's back]

Um, okay, it seemed as though you had already taken a view, that he will do no more than 'scrape' 4th, and that this will barely be acceptable.

In my opinion, and based on the evidence before me, I think this season is going to be about a chase for 4th spot, like last season. Which would represent no progress.

He might turn it around and get us winning every week of course. But I feel less hopeful of this now than I did a few weeks ago.

Would you agree that we are closer to 2nd and 3rd than 5th is to us?

Given that, please explain your comments given the teams we have faced compared to, let's say, them teams Utd have played? They have 1 win against top half opposition for a start.

 

[AustinBlue]

That's where a lot of peoples fears stem from though. Last season the same excuses about results being more important than performances were trotted out. In the end we fell short...

This season, although we are 4th, we still seem to be dropping the same kind of points. The word trajectory springs to mind. Two steps forward one step back isn't going to lead to us comfortably finishing 4th IMO....it's going to lead to us doing battle with someone like Spurs or Liverpool in the last third of the season for that spot as we did last season...

Really?

This season Last season

Spurs a - 1pt 0pt
Liverpool - 3pts 1pt
Sunderland a - 0pt 1pt
Blackburn - 1pt 3pts
Wigan a - 3pts 1pt
Chelsea - 3pts 3pts
Newcastle (Burnley)- 3pts 1pt
Blackpool a (Hull) 3pts 0pts
Arsenal 0pt 3pts
Wolves a 0pt 3pts
West Brom (pompy)a 3pts 3pts
uts 1pt 0pt

22 18
So it's close but I put it a 4 points better than this time last season (with similar teams and I have been more than fair with the relegated teams but its not perfect).

So 4 points better with 12 games played (would equate to approx 12 points better if the trend continued for the whole season).

Considering we missed out on champs by 3 pts last season, I would say the trajectory is more than adequate.

What do you reckon?

Exactly!

 

[gio's side step]

In my opinion, and based on the evidence before me, I think this season is going to be about a chase for 4th spot, like last season. Which would represent no progress.

He might turn it around and get us winning every week of course. But I feel less hopeful of this now than I did a few weeks ago.

Would you agree that we are closer to 2nd and 3rd than 5th is to us?

Given that, please explain your comments given the teams we have faced compared to, let's say, them teams Utd have played? They have 1 win against top half opposition for a start.

Because we aren't scoring enough goals against other sides and are heavily reliant on Tevez in such a narrow cautious formation. The league table doesn't lie to date. That is true. But we do need to start creating more chances in games to sustain it over the whole season, no matter who we are playing.

 

[Balti]

Would you agree that we are closer to 2nd and 3rd than 5th is to us?

Given that, please explain your comments given the teams we have faced compared to, let's say, them teams Utd have played? They have 1 win against top half opposition for a start.

Because we aren't scoring enough goals against other sides and are heavily reliant on Tevez in such a narrow cautious formation. The league table doesn't lie to date. That is true. But we do need to start creating more chances in games to sustain it over the whole season, no matter who we are playing.

Balo is clearly the missing ingredient here. Ade hasn't really impressed when given his chances yet. RSC/ Jo still need replacing.

Balo back and add more firepower in January ready for the run-in = :-)

 

[SWP's back]

Because we aren't scoring enough goals against other sides and are heavily reliant on Tevez in such a narrow cautious formation. The league table doesn't lie to date. That is true. But we do need to start creating more chances in games to sustain it over the whole season, no matter who we are playing.

Balo is clearly the missing ingredient here. Ade hasn't really impressed when given his chances yet. RSC/ Jo still need replacing.

Balo back and add more firepower in January ready for the run-in = :-)

No point me adding to that as you answered perfectly.

 

[gio's side step]

Balo is clearly the missing ingredient here. Ade hasn't really impressed when given his chances yet. RSC/ Jo still need replacing.

Balo back and add more firepower in January ready for the run-in = :-)

No point me adding to that as you answered perfectly.

I am more concerned with 'creating' chances than scoring, because we don't do the latter without the former. So I accept Balotelli (on evidence against West Brom) will offer us something else, but even last night without him, by playing Johnson instead of Milner, we would have been in an opportunity from the start to potentially create more chances, even if that were only 3 or 4.

 

[SWP's back]

No point me adding to that as you answered perfectly.

I am more concerned with 'creating' chances than scoring, because we don't do the latter without the former. So I accept Balotelli (on evidence against West Brom) will offer us something else, but even last night without him, by playing Johnson instead of Milner, we would have been in an opportunity from the start to potentially create more chances, even if that were only 3 or 4.

My take is that kolarov and boating will offer width as attacking full backs.

Looneytelli can also act as a target man creating space and stopping tevez being closed off.

Just my take on it

 

[cleavers]

But behind the scenes, I believe he was told, and agreed, that the challenge was to push the front runners. All his interviews early this season, and that of the club staff, confirmed that.

Have to pick you up on that one, because as far as I can see we are doing just that, so far we've won 1, drawn 1, and lost 1, against those 3, admittedly all at home, and got a point at White Hart Lane.

3 points off second, a number of players still bedding into this league, and still to play our first choice 11 at once in any game.

As per usual the real story lies somewhere in the middle of useless and brilliant.

No Mancini fan can be happy with last night if they're honest, we didn't play well, we were outplayed in midfield, and we could have won, but also we could have lost so I'm happy to take the point and move on. Lose on Saturday and its a poor point, win and it looks good, but with 7 months of the season to go, drawing with united is not a crisis.

 

[SWP's back]

But behind the scenes, I believe he was told, and agreed, that the challenge was to push the front runners. All his interviews early this season, and that of the club staff, confirmed that.

Have to pick you up on that one, because as far as I can see we are doing just that, so far we've won 1, drawn 1, and lost 1, against those 3, admittedly all at home, and got a point at White Hart Lane.

3 points off second, a number of players still bedding into this league, and still to play our first choice 11 at once in any game.

As per usual the real story lies somewhere in the middle of useless and brilliant.

No Mancini fan can be happy with last night if they're honest, we didn't play well, we were outplayed in midfield, and we could have won, but also we could have lost so I'm happy to take the point and move on. Lose on Saturday and its a poor point, win and it looks good, but with 7 months of the season to go, drawing with united is not a crisis.

Well said

 

[persvenality cult]

Um, okay, it seemed as though you had already taken a view, that he will do no more than 'scrape' 4th, and that this will barely be acceptable.

In my opinion, and based on the evidence before me, I think this season is going to be about a chase for 4th spot, like last season. Which would represent no progress.

He might turn it around and get us winning every week of course. But I feel less hopeful of this now than I did a few weeks ago.

At the start of last season, I gave us fifty/fifty for finishing in fourth. Despite the money spent, there was no way we could guarantee that we would overtake all the other established competitors. What mattered to me was that we really fought for it. Flattering to deceive, being seventh for most of the season, finishing fifth but six points behind, or only having got within a win of the team in fourth on the final day, would not have been acceptable.

This year, I would give us eighty/twenty to finish fourth. What would not be acceptable, would be finishing fourth, having spent the season competing with those beneath us. We have to put clear water between ourselves and them, and start the battle with those above.

I'm not being elastic; those were honestly my criteria at the start of this season and last.

There is a big difference between 'scraping' fourth, and 'walking' fourth, finishing more than two wins ahead of Liverpool/Spurs, within a win of the teams above us. The former would be a bit of a debacle, the latter would be progress.

You seem to think we're on course for the former; I think we're on for the latter.

The real goal is to finish ahead of Utd, or maybe Arsenal.

There is potentially an opportunity there. We have to go for it. Last night was a forced stalemate, perhaps Mancini feels he couldn't risk losing that opportunity at this stage, couldn't risk his players relieving last year's nightmares.

We are three points behind them, with a great run of fixtures coming up. It's still very much there for the taking.