Mancini

[Fish111]

He is doing his job which i fully expect him to do. I never in a million years thought we would be playing attacking expansive football under Bobby Manc and i expected us to be very hard to beat as we will be more defensive most of the time which has also come true. I am more than happy with the way we are playing and as long as it brings a CL place or a trophy in the next two years i will be buzzin! Keep it up i say and more of the same. Leave the beautiful football to Arsenal who haven't won anything for nearly 6 years now.

[Dubaimancityfan]

I really really like him the person and manager "character"

I have yet to see evidence that he is the mastermind some would have us believe

However I am honestly

praying to got

that he gets this right.

I don't think that I, or others are "slagging" him but it is pretty understandable why lots of people (esp mid-matches like today) get pretty frustrated at how he has us playing in parts.

Johnson did indeed change the game, the flip side of that is that if he had either started Johnson or brought him on (say) at HT then the game might not have needed "changing" (I would term it "rescuing") and we may have been home and dry 80 mins in rather than frantically searching for something and then trying to panic our way to the finish.

Antoine,
Is this some ancient Egyptian god you are praying to. It might help, you never know !

On topic, Mancini is doing a good job and we have nothing to complain about so far (apart from the WBA match, maybe). However, I like others on this thread don't understand why he does not start with AJ who is in top form and obviously wants to start every match. On current form, I would start with AJ over Milner who so far has been very average and dissappointing (I know can be much better).
The other thing which has also been mentioned is the 3 DM's at home matches against weak/weaker teams. We were playing with Nige only for a good part of the match before PV came in and I didn't see any big difference in our defensive play. So I hope this will convince Bobby that the 3rd DM is a waste of space in many matches and that Ade should start instead .

[Bingo Lewis]

2nd in the table is fantastic. But the table does not reflect how we are playing. at all. Bob needs to make hay while the sun shines, coz if we keep playing like we are the bad times aren't too far away. Feel like a spoilt bastard for moaning when we're in the position we're in, but Mancini is not impressing me much at the minute.

[david yearsley]

Lol. Look, if the players he selected had played better in the first half, after they crossed the white line, we would have been out of sight. 3 times, 3 fucking times, we had an easy pass across the box for a tap in, all in the space of 10 minutes. Milner blew one, Barry horribly another and I forget the third, so awful was it. City could and should have had 4 in that first half. I mean, the Barry one, please someone explain what crossed his mind?

OK, so it became turgid and Mancio changed it. Kudos for that. He waited only 5 minutes in to the second half and that was pretty decisive in my book.

The team he picked should have had it all sown up by half-time.

Tend to agree with this - we dicked them on numerous occasions down the left and failed to nail the chances - this allowed them to build confidence and we lost it for 20 mins up to HT - Mancini changed it and it was much better as we took control - we need to be more relaxed, calm and clinical when we break through high back 4s and that comes with time
Jury will be out for me on BM however as it´s only fair he gets at least the same time as MH - I´ll be more definitive come May

[Beefymcfc]

I mentioned this in Sunday's Preview and thought it was quite relevant. There's been a lot of chat about Mancio's tactics and the way we should approach the lesser teams, as they say. I predicted a win for us by the odd goal if we played similar to what we had played previously, and a bag full if we played with 2 up front. What I predicted sort of came to fruition, and this is the part I can't understand; 'Why won't he change his tactics?'.

Someone rightly said that we can't complain with the results, and that Mancio's changes secured us the points, but what I'd like to know is how we'd have got on with a more attacking side. The way I seen it from the stands, we had a great start and could've been a few up rather than one, then started to slide as Newcastle got more confident due to our formation and it was then that they brought the game to us. At that point the singing mellowed and The Geordies came out in full voice, turning the singing section into a bit of a morgue. This carried on into the 2nd half until Mancio made the change and brought Ade on. Then things seem to change and Newcastle dropped deeper to protect the space behind them knowing that there was more than just Carlos to deal with. This gave us momentum and the crowd picked up and got back into full voice, the change was made for Johnno and we were back in front. Johnno & Co had a few more attacking runs then the Barcodes started to push, until eventually Carlos was taken off and Paddy brought to sure it up. The End.

The points I'll expand on there is that under the 4-5-1/4-3-3/Christmas Tree formation (whichever you want to call it), after the first 20 we never really seemed to cut through their defence and due to them holding a high line, made the formation look a bit backwards. It was only when we introduced Ade that they realised there was a real threat and gave us the respect that our players have earned. The intro of Johnno, another speedy attacking player made sure they were on the back foot, and with Ade and Carlos making more and more space, the game opened up for us. And then, once Paddy was brought on, the pressure was on again until the final whistle.

Also, I have noticed that the fans seem to lose the will as the match moved on. I was singing my heart out without a care in the world but after a while it just seemed to drain the life out of me, knowing that every move would be near enough the same - pass it, pass it, pass it, and then................pass it. It was only when he introduced a second striker that my heart rose again. At that point I knew we would do something different and actually get them on the back foot.

Now, this may seem negative but as I've said for a long time, I'm willing to live with this style of play as I believe in Mancini and that he can get us into the Champs League and get us a trophy. However, the concern I have is that he isn't playing our team to it's full potential and some of them may get a little dejected. Carlos, up front alone, works his nads off like no-one else, but during the game you can see him getting really frustrated with our kind of play, knowing that if he doesn't put the effort in then there's nothing going to open up - massive pressure. Also, I personally feel that the team we have, regardless of time together, should put these lesser teams to the sword. Now, that may sound arrogant but from where I see it, we have a team of top quality, highly paid stars. who on their day could put any team to the sword whether they be managed by Roberto Mancini or Dot Cotton.

Only time will tell on how the team gets on in the future, but I do hope we start to set the tactics for the team in front of us rather than treating every team like Chelsea.

Edit: Fuck, I didn't think it was that long, I'll keep to the one-liners in future ;-)

[Ted Hughes]

You're right about it making the atmosphere even worse. I noticed it even from last season in the cup semi. City fans respond to attacking football. He tried to do it v Newcastle though, eventually.

Let's see what happens when Kolarov & Balotelli are both fully fit.

[One cap Whitey]

You're right about it making the atmosphere even worse. I noticed it even from last season in the cup semi. City fans respond to attacking football. He tried to do it v Newcastle though, eventually.

Let's see what happens when Kolarov & Balotelli are both fully fit.

Lescott had so much of the ball, he almost had the freedom of the park. If that had been Kolarov I'm sure we'd have created more chances/situations and maybe we would've looked more adventurous.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

You're right about it making the atmosphere even worse. I noticed it even from last season in the cup semi. City fans respond to attacking football. He tried to do it v Newcastle though, eventually.

Let's see what happens when Kolarov & Balotelli are both fully fit.

Lescott had so much of the ball, he almost had the freedom of the park. If that had been Kolarov I'm sure we'd have created more chances/situations and maybe we would've looked more adventurous.

It's all well and good to think that with everybody fit we will see a team committed to attacking but I just don't see it working like that. But surely what should be happening is that we should play the Mancini way whatever the team is. If he is intent on attacking with flying full backs in a 4.3.3 formation then lets do it now with Boateng and Zabba or whoever.If the only way to do it is to have 1 team off 11 players but not if any one of those is missing them we might never ever see it.

Lescott to me is a decent full back but not if a major part of his role is bombing up and down the wing. He can get forward but more when the ball is on the other side and he comes into the box as an extra attacker.Cunnigham I think is actually a decent attacking full back but not all that great defensively. The reality is that Mancini so far has just played the cautious game and simply doesnt go for too many getting forward.

We are 2nd!!!!!!!

[Ted Hughes]

You're right about it making the atmosphere even worse. I noticed it even from last season in the cup semi. City fans respond to attacking football. He tried to do it v Newcastle though, eventually.

Let's see what happens when Kolarov & Balotelli are both fully fit.

Lescott had so much of the ball, he almost had the freedom of the park. If that had been Kolarov I'm sure we'd have created more chances/situations and maybe we would've looked more adventurous.

It's all well and good to think that with everybody fit we will see a team committed to attacking but I just don't see it working like that. But surely what should be happening is that we should play the Mancini way whatever the team is. If he is intent on attacking with flying full backs in a 4.3.3 formation then lets do it now with Boateng and Zabba or whoever.If the only way to do it is to have 1 team off 11 players but not if any one of those is missing them we might never ever see it.

Lescott to me is a decent full back but not if a major part of his role is bombing up and down the wing. He can get forward but more when the ball is on the other side and he comes into the box as an extra attacker.Cunnigham I think is actually a decent attacking full back but not all that great defensively. The reality is that Mancini so far has just played the cautious game and simply doesnt go for too many getting forward.

We are 2nd!!!!!!!

Agree with all of that including the 'we are 2nd' bit but I think we did play a very attacking game 2nd half; we just aren't that good at it anymore as a team. We have the players & half of them played some exhillarating attacking stuff at times under Hughes, so if the intent is there, it can't take long before the attack starts to function as it did. Mancini knows it's something we need to improve on & if he doesn't, Tevez will moan like buggery until he does it anyway!

[Renato_CTID]

Happy for today news from the (rag)Sun and the Guardian! Two bad characters - Mancio and Tevez - will give us a lot of titles and cups very early!

[CitizenYank]

If they aren't saying bad things about you, chances are you aren't winning!!