Zonal marking? Hughes used zonal marking thats a fact Bowen confirmed this on a number of occasions (usually after we had lost, or thrown away a lead), the thing is rather than surrounding himself with no mark, talentless toadies and yes men, Mancini, has most of the team that have been with him when he's won his 7, or so trophies. 7 more than Hughes will ever win, if he continues to be a pension provider for that vile bunch of welsh *******. However, I would rather we could have added fulham, liverpool away, hull at home, and Burnley at home to the win column, with Hughes still in charge with us almost there already. The thing is Hughes was always clinging to the top 6 bollocks while liverpool were, are ,falling apart. You could add, Bolton, Birmingham and Wigan away to that list and RSC instead of Eto'o and its clear Hughes hadn't grasped the situtation in the same way that everyone else had, that the 4th place was up for grabs. Sven had half a preseason to do things. Hughes had 2 full pre-seasons and 3 transfer windows, yet still we have no recognised right back, nor do we have anyone to challenge bridge. Elano was jettisoned, when its clear he would have been an assett for us this season. We have ignored the need for another Barry type (Scott Parker comes to mind), I feel Mancini, moved to slow in the last window. Having said that, he has had the balls to blood Boyota, give Garrido some game time and slip Kompany into defence with some great results. He has really tried to rotate his squad (which I feel is woefully thin), actually planning for games down the line. Take Burnley, after Wigan, who would have started Veira? He did because he knew De Jong would likely pick up a yellow in 90. He played Sly instead of Garrido, because Birmingham will be more of a test and Garrido has better pace. Yes Everton away and Hull have been desperate, Everton at home was a game that we deserved at least a point from, a different ref would have seen us get that point. If we don't get in the top 4 the season has been a failure, but Mancini has come in half way through a season, with the robbie situation to sort out and a team leaking goals and low on confidence and not forgetting the fact that unlike the previous manager he had no managerial experiance in the Premiership.
Mancini has the intelligence to know he doesn't know it all and has surrounded himself as quickly as he could with people that aren't simply friends from his playing and golfing days, but people that can truly assist him with the job in hand.
Mancini has the intelligence to know he doesn't know it all and has surrounded himself as quickly as he could with people that aren't simply friends from his playing and golfing days, but people that can truly assist him with the job in hand.