Mancini

[Marvin]

The story is not about managerial failure but injury to Aguero, the sale of Balotelli, and the affect of rumour on the strikers that remain.

From being the best converter of chances we are now here.

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

I don't buy this 'sum of its parts' nonsense. It's the same type of logic that led Didsbury Dave to imply Kenny Dalglish, Paul Lambert, Brendon Rogers and Alan Pardew would be preferable to Mancini; because they at least produced teams that perform better than the sum of their parts last season - though not so much this season. I'd rather have evidence that managers can win trophies with their parts. Mancini's won trophies with four clubs so he's done that.

Yes, there's been some regression this year, but there's been regression in our squad too. Last season, Balotelli and Johnson scored 19 goals and 3 assists between them in the league. They haven't been replaced as Sinclair has 0 goals and 0 assists. Meanwhile, the rags have outspent us and bought Van Persie, which undoubtedly strengthened their squad, and did so early on in the window. Unfortunately, that has had the effect of regression. You have to remember anyway, that progression isn't linear. We've had two and a half years of progress, which I have every expectation will resume next season if Mancini is given the chance. You have your good years and your bad years. Have the rags been in constant decline since the treble? Well, no. They've had decline years in which they won nothing, including a trophyless season last year, and including a period where they went without a title for three years on the bounce, and they've had progression years, where they won the title consecutively and added another Champions League. This is a decline year for us, but I'm confident we can bounce back. A poor season, in which we might still win an FA Cup, is not sufficient reason to warrant sacking him when he's had his squad weakened. He deserves another season in which Mancini hasn't been pissed about like he was last summer and this January. Let him make a few marquee signings i.e. the players we were supposedly going for last summer, and failed to sign, and don't make those signings in the last week of the window so he doesn't have pre-season to find out how he can best utilise those players. If he still fails to make progress then, alright, he's got to go.

Excellent analysis

Yep - couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[George Hannah]

Get rid of Bobby Manc and lets become Chelsea please! Then with some luck, we may get Rafa in 4 years time!
You fugging morons! i can remember Taggart being 1 game away from the sack after 6years having won nothing and nobody before him for about 20 years.
You are such greedy bastards if you think FAcup followed by Prem league is not good enough!
Lets get Mourhino in and play boring footy and then when we come second in about 2 or 3 years time,sack him cos we came second!!!!!!!!
It is as pathetic as that!!!
Our team are fantastic.we had a bad day yesterday, sadly only second and in semi final of cup!
Dont anyone mention money spent cos its not yours cos I was spending not much less when I saw us not score a goal at home from jan 1st for rest of season under psycho!!!
Get real !!!!!

Bang on the fucking money.

There's some proper short memories from some proper mard arses on here.

There are two kinds of posters on here, apologists and bedwetters. I am pleased dn's trousers are now perfectly dry ;-)

 

[The Future's Blue]

The story is not about managerial failure but injury to Aguero, the sale of Balotelli, and the affect of rumour on the strikers that remain.

From being the best converter of chances we are now here.

There have been many factors but that pic at least clears up any doubt.

Just wanted to point that out.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I agree. I wonder if City getting caught on the counter a few times last season made Mancini revert to a more cautious approach?

The same thing happened last season after the QPR game. He reverted to a more cautious formation and we turned a comfortable 5 point lead into an 8 point deficit.

And we won the league

Only once we reverted to a more attacking mentality.

 

[Marvin]

It is still possible to construct an argument to blame Mancini for the poor performance of the strikers but the simple explanations are probably right:-

1) Aguero injuries
2) Sale of the 4th striker
3) Dzeko unsettled by move talk
4) Poor form with no alternatives - Tevez recently went through a period of a couple of months when he didn't score and we had to keep playing him because there was no one else

 

[Claytop]

The same thing happened last season after the QPR game. He reverted to a more cautious formation and we turned a comfortable 5 point lead into an 8 point deficit.

And we won the league

Only once we reverted to a more attacking mentality.

This is the point that gets me, have teams found us out and learnt how to stop us or is it Mancini's cautious tactics that has stopped us playing the football we did at the start of last season?

 

[waspish]

And we won the league

Only once we reverted to a more attacking mentality.

This is the point that gets me, have teams found us out and learnt how to stop us or is it Mancini's cautious tactics that has stopped us playing the football we did at the start of last season?

Mancini wants our team to control the game tactically even when the opposition are a lot weaker than us, when having the game more open would benefit us more with our players

 

[Marvin]

And we won the league

Only once we reverted to a more attacking mentality.

This is the point that gets me, have teams found us out and learnt how to stop us or is it Mancini's cautious tactics that has stopped us playing the football we did at the start of last season?

We're creating the chances, just not taking them.

I can't say if that goes for every game, and explains every defeat, but the deterioration in the strikers performance was there for all to see at the start of the season, and it's got even worse now.

This is what City need to address.

It can be solved in the transfer market, and in injury prevention. And maybe we can be a smarter about the futures of players like Dzeko. I am sure he has been unsettled by what he has read

 

[Paulmcfc2703]

The story is not about managerial failure but injury to Aguero, the sale of Balotelli, and the affect of rumour on the strikers that remain.

From being the best converter of chances we are now here.

So looking at that what was the point in QPR sacking Mark Hughes. If the strikers took their chances they would be comfortably safe.