I've noticed a weird thing about the squad that we have currently.
We don't seem to have many 'jack of all trades' players in it, compared to the rest of the top four. Our squad is entirely composed of players who are brilliant at ONE thing, but their all round game isn't brilliant.
Given has his shot stopping, Bridge/Richards have their wing play, Toure passing out of defence, Lescott in the air. Barry is managing the pace of the game, Ireland is deft touches, De Jong is hard tackling. Tevez is workrate and pressuring defenders, Adebayor is goals.
Outside of them, Petrov is brilliant crossing/shooting, SWP is great at playing a more defensive winger's game, Johnson is tricky, RSC will hold up the play well, Zab will give complete commitment, Kompany will read attackers well and cut out their play, etc.
My point over this, is that if you try and interchange those names, it doesn't work. For example, Toure is good in the air, and Lescott can pass it out of defence? Ireland a hard tackler, De Jong can control a game and Barry gives deft touches? Maybe there's a point with Ade/Tevez.
Everybody seems to be good at one thing, and one thing alone, their basic overall game is quite poor. I think that one of our problems is getting a tactic correct whereby everybody only has one job to do. We have bought players who are extremely talented at the job that they were bought for, but now Mancini has other plans for them, they are struggling. Yes, Hughes was drawing a lot, but the team seemed to have a bit more about it back then. Not organisation, more like that everybody knew who would be doing that one task and that they needn't bother. Under Mancini, players are expected to cover each other's roles much more - look at Ireland for an example. Hughes team was great because it was simple, Mancini's is more complex tactically. Neither one of these approaches is better or worse than the other, just different.
Hughes relied on the players to express themselves as talented individuals and bought with this in mind, i.e. "I need someone who will score goals - Ade is the best at that, I'll buy him", "I need someone who is good in the air at CB - Lescott is the best at that, I'll grab him".
Mancini seems to expect the players to play his game, rather than relying on their particular one talent. He expects them to all be able to pass well, to shoot, to defend, to do their job; it's a bit more of a Total Football approach, and it isn't working. I'm expecting huge scale changes in the summer.
That's the thing, they aren't bad players, they are excellent in their roles; Mancini just expects them to be good all round players and looking through the squad, we don't have many of them. We have players who don't have a basic level of talent in all areas, they are one dimensional.
Viera is actually a good signing, and Gago would have also being brilliant. Even if you forget the age of Viera and the experience, he can win a ball well, he can break down the play, he can boss the midfield, he can pass efficiently, he even has some good vision and can split a defence every now and again. Basically, he can do the job's of Barry, De Jong and Ireland (though worse than all of them, but better all round). Gago can actually play as a defensive hard tackling midfielder in the De Jong role, or can play behind the strikers and create as Ireland did.
I'm not saying that we need a team full of utility players, just that we need players who have a better 'basic' talent than the ones we have, more than players who have one individual brilliance. Perhaps what is actually missing, is just some of these players who can fill in some roles, and then we will be a great team, or maybe we need to rebuild from scratch. I don't know, I'm not a manager and don't know Mancini's mind.
People talk of buying the Villa's of the world, but we will have the same problem again. In my view, we need to start picking up players that aren't the best in the world but are just good at everything. They won't cost £50m because they aren't brilliant at everything, but they are good enough at all to allow other players to be brilliant, if that makes sense.
We don't seem to have many 'jack of all trades' players in it, compared to the rest of the top four. Our squad is entirely composed of players who are brilliant at ONE thing, but their all round game isn't brilliant.
Given has his shot stopping, Bridge/Richards have their wing play, Toure passing out of defence, Lescott in the air. Barry is managing the pace of the game, Ireland is deft touches, De Jong is hard tackling. Tevez is workrate and pressuring defenders, Adebayor is goals.
Outside of them, Petrov is brilliant crossing/shooting, SWP is great at playing a more defensive winger's game, Johnson is tricky, RSC will hold up the play well, Zab will give complete commitment, Kompany will read attackers well and cut out their play, etc.
My point over this, is that if you try and interchange those names, it doesn't work. For example, Toure is good in the air, and Lescott can pass it out of defence? Ireland a hard tackler, De Jong can control a game and Barry gives deft touches? Maybe there's a point with Ade/Tevez.
Everybody seems to be good at one thing, and one thing alone, their basic overall game is quite poor. I think that one of our problems is getting a tactic correct whereby everybody only has one job to do. We have bought players who are extremely talented at the job that they were bought for, but now Mancini has other plans for them, they are struggling. Yes, Hughes was drawing a lot, but the team seemed to have a bit more about it back then. Not organisation, more like that everybody knew who would be doing that one task and that they needn't bother. Under Mancini, players are expected to cover each other's roles much more - look at Ireland for an example. Hughes team was great because it was simple, Mancini's is more complex tactically. Neither one of these approaches is better or worse than the other, just different.
Hughes relied on the players to express themselves as talented individuals and bought with this in mind, i.e. "I need someone who will score goals - Ade is the best at that, I'll buy him", "I need someone who is good in the air at CB - Lescott is the best at that, I'll grab him".
Mancini seems to expect the players to play his game, rather than relying on their particular one talent. He expects them to all be able to pass well, to shoot, to defend, to do their job; it's a bit more of a Total Football approach, and it isn't working. I'm expecting huge scale changes in the summer.
That's the thing, they aren't bad players, they are excellent in their roles; Mancini just expects them to be good all round players and looking through the squad, we don't have many of them. We have players who don't have a basic level of talent in all areas, they are one dimensional.
Viera is actually a good signing, and Gago would have also being brilliant. Even if you forget the age of Viera and the experience, he can win a ball well, he can break down the play, he can boss the midfield, he can pass efficiently, he even has some good vision and can split a defence every now and again. Basically, he can do the job's of Barry, De Jong and Ireland (though worse than all of them, but better all round). Gago can actually play as a defensive hard tackling midfielder in the De Jong role, or can play behind the strikers and create as Ireland did.
I'm not saying that we need a team full of utility players, just that we need players who have a better 'basic' talent than the ones we have, more than players who have one individual brilliance. Perhaps what is actually missing, is just some of these players who can fill in some roles, and then we will be a great team, or maybe we need to rebuild from scratch. I don't know, I'm not a manager and don't know Mancini's mind.
People talk of buying the Villa's of the world, but we will have the same problem again. In my view, we need to start picking up players that aren't the best in the world but are just good at everything. They won't cost £50m because they aren't brilliant at everything, but they are good enough at all to allow other players to be brilliant, if that makes sense.