leighton said:
At times with Mancini some of his decisions are baffling. Away from home in the champions league knowing a positive result will give us a great chance of getting to the knockouts. His rotating of the back 4 was just stupid. The 2 fullbacks should of started in Richards and Clichy we are more of a force with these 2 in the team.
Every other area of the pitch I couldnt complain midfield were solid for most of the game and held onto the ball well. Up front Mario and Dzeko just didnt gel. Dzeko was poor tonight didnt get any chances and his overall display was just not there.
Mancini subs. Again a baffling decision to only put Kun on with the final 10 minutes to go. He should of been on earlier in the game. When he came on he was lively and causing problems. Our first champions league appearance and we are it seems heading out tatics tonight wasnt right by Mancini. This is were Mancini has failed in the past his record in the Champions league is shit in recent years. It was the reason Inter got rid of him in the first place it wouldnt be a surpise if the same thing was to happen at City if the team doesnt progress in the Champions league next season.
For all of bobby mancs decision making in the past, the way he has put this team together, had total faith in their ability to bring it together, get the defense working first and then build forward followed by unleashing the kind of mesmeric footie we have been playing this season, for what ever reason, he totally bottles it in the Champions and Europa leagues.
Perhaps someone can confirm why Micah was not even on the bench, but based on how Napoli have played ALL of their champions league games, they rely on coming out - at speed - on the break (similar to spurs) and hurling it down the wings. So who on earth does Bobby think that Kolarov and Zab are going to be able to deal with that kind of pace! Don't get be wrong, I like both those players, but they are only suited to certain types of opposition but certainly not against the kind of pace that Napoli so obviously have.
For me, Clichy should have been a dead cert to start - great pace going forward and back and not afraid to get stuck in (can anyone let me know if Kolarov has ever made a successful tackle?).
Then, with being down 2-1 so quickly, why did he leave it until the 80th minute to bring on Kun and the 86th minute to bring on AJ? For that last 10 minutes, we battered them and also had some incredible luck ourselves not to go down another 2 goals. But, like in Munich, when he wanted to make changes and bring on CT at the 60th minute on the basis that there was still 30 minutes to make a difference, apart from Nasri who is a mirror for Silva, how did he really expect to draw one back, let alone try and win.
OK, so Yaya, Dzeko and Milner were not up to their usual standards, but we can surely forgive them for such a rare under performance. I beleive they were roundly hampered by a poor selection in the first place and more importantly, to bring in Zab (who cannot be fully match fit at the moment) and Kolarov who might have the mightiest left foot but can't run for shit - against total atheletes of the Napoli strike force, was the foundation of almost certain failure.
But, time and time again, Bobby keeps on making the most strange decisions in the european games with both selection and then leaving it until less than 9 minutes to go to bring on replacement strikers.............................dumfounded blue!
