Helped on their way by yet another officiating cock-up for their first goal.Mr Ed (The Stables) said:Ray78 said:The home game against Burnley.
That was exactly it. 2-0 up at home at HT. Then battered by a team that will be in the Championship this time come September.
steviemc said:The manager has to man-manage the players. This role is as important as coaching/team selection/tactics etc. If certain players decided that they weren't willing to play for Mancini then the club is simply left with a 'him' or 'them' decision. The same scenario could again be repeating itself with Pellegrini.
Amongst other problems, we have a few players showing a distinct loss of form, which is unfortunate but hopefully temporary, and a few players that regularly offer unacceptable levels of motivation, effort and passion. The latter problem is far from temporary and unless it's sorted once and for all it's likely we'll never see consistency from one season to the next. Although there's not a gulf of difference between the ages of the players in our squad there's certainly a huge difference in the maturity and mentality on show. We have those players that let emotions control their input and motivation, and then we have the real class acts that understand the importance of remaining focused and simply work harder to overcome any loss of confidence or form.
I honestly don't know what the solution is but I'm ruling out tactical formation, fitness or the introduction of a couple more players as any kind of 'holy grail' fix to the problem. Formation doesn't make you be 2nd to almost every 50/50 ball, It doesn't make the team slow down unnecessarily when attacking and it doesn't stop some of the taller players from winning aerial duels and corners against far smaller men. Until we get commitment and passion from the complete squad anything else (tactics/formation/squad rotation/fitness etc.) will be of secondary importance.
It may well be that we haven't yet found the right man to handle some of the attitudes/egos within our squad, however I do have a modicum of sympathy with Pellegrini when he said after the derby 'I don't understand why a team plays so well in the first 20 minutes'. I can't disagree with that comment, as we didn't go a man down, we had scored the opening goal and looked like we were going to steamroller them. I didn't notice any huge tactical change made by the rags to suddenly shift the balance of power. Baffling indeed...
That was definitely a game that showed up the attitudes of some of the players and how up for a fight they were. Nasri and Yaya stand out in particular for their apparent refusal to give a single fuck about the team. Still not sure how Yaya is ever allowed to captain our teamStoned Rose said:It all started to go wrong (visibly) away at CSKA imo.
That was an utterly shambolic 'performance' in which the 'I really just can't be arsed-ness' first appeared.
The home leg only served to cement it.
Bluekiwi said:steviemc said:The manager has to man-manage the players. This role is as important as coaching/team selection/tactics etc. If certain players decided that they weren't willing to play for Mancini then the club is simply left with a 'him' or 'them' decision. The same scenario could again be repeating itself with Pellegrini.
Amongst other problems, we have a few players showing a distinct loss of form, which is unfortunate but hopefully temporary, and a few players that regularly offer unacceptable levels of motivation, effort and passion. The latter problem is far from temporary and unless it's sorted once and for all it's likely we'll never see consistency from one season to the next. Although there's not a gulf of difference between the ages of the players in our squad there's certainly a huge difference in the maturity and mentality on show. We have those players that let emotions control their input and motivation, and then we have the real class acts that understand the importance of remaining focused and simply work harder to overcome any loss of confidence or form.
I honestly don't know what the solution is but I'm ruling out tactical formation, fitness or the introduction of a couple more players as any kind of 'holy grail' fix to the problem. Formation doesn't make you be 2nd to almost every 50/50 ball, It doesn't make the team slow down unnecessarily when attacking and it doesn't stop some of the taller players from winning aerial duels and corners against far smaller men. Until we get commitment and passion from the complete squad anything else (tactics/formation/squad rotation/fitness etc.) will be of secondary importance.
It may well be that we haven't yet found the right man to handle some of the attitudes/egos within our squad, however I do have a modicum of sympathy with Pellegrini when he said after the derby 'I don't understand why a team plays so well in the first 20 minutes'. I can't disagree with that comment, as we didn't go a man down, we had scored the opening goal and looked like we were going to steamroller them. I didn't notice any huge tactical change made by the rags to suddenly shift the balance of power. Baffling indeed...
They didn't make a tactical change. Their equaliser came from a long clearance by De Gea, a slip on the greasy surface by Zabba against two men, and a lucky bounce between Young's legs. The players probably thought "Oh no, not again, the stuffy bastards have got a soft goal" and heads dropped a bit. But they are professionals and should have just rolled up their sleeves and put that incident behind them and tried harder to get the lead again. But the fighting spirit has deserted them unfortunately. If we had a manager that was constantly in his technical area barking instructions then the attitude on the pitch would be a lot different.
city2 said:The day Mancini was sacked, the defence has gradually gone worse with almost every game all this chopping and changing with players does not work. Mancini was the man who stopped the clock and I for one will never forget that, so you city fans now slagging him off should hang your heads in shame, you all have a very short memory, have you forgotten about going in work on a Monday morning and some rag is giving you shit, well Mancini stopped all that and even fucked off whisky nose.