Questions from yesterday

[charvet_wonderland]

Irritatingly magnanimous yes, they're still proper pissed off though. I've been careful not to push it too far

[Kladze]

Irritatingly magnanimous yes, they're still proper pissed off though. I've been careful not to push it too far

Definitely seems to be a tactic on the part of many of them. I decided to take it in my stride and not gloat TOO much, because then I can gloat for a much longer period of time - let's say, until April at least.

[s1ty m]

Good to see some opinions Doug.. you should stay up more often, either that or City should win by .. oh hang on.

Good points as usual and tbh we all want to read as much as possible on all things City for some reason!

I am drawn to the comments on free roles for players. It has been highly interesting watching Mancini since arrival, shoring things up and never being deflected in carrying out a process. He comes across as a man with a definite plan and methods worked out to back it up. I thought last season he had a horrendous time with the strikers, injured or not performing/not carrying out instructions and as a result substantially hindering the overall aim.... which gets to the point of roles.

My take on your illumination of Bob's technique in training to position everyone.. each day every day to drill in the both the importance and the practice; read it at face value though and it might seem like tight control of the players. imo that's missing the point entirely, failing to see Mancini's methods show someone who has broken down the nature of football discipline to see what constituent parts are required to be known by the players as second nature. Not leaving that to chance but taking whatever time is necessary to instill it in the players.
Together with bringing in intelligent players, imo he has instilled the basic structure that allows a unit to operate without thinking and be in the right places. Putting that together with clever inspired footballers and then giving them the responsibility to dynamically choose how they then organise to play in any one moment results in what we are now seeing.

As players know what they have to do in responsibility terms not just for one rigid position but all the positions relative to where they are on the pitch. In other words they are trained to know what basic structure and shape is required by the manager for any game, but then are encouraged to move at will to create opportunities but super aware of what everyone is doing so that pretty much at all times the basics are covered. Barry is good at this, Milner is good at this, Balo is good at it and Yaya is good at it, Nasri should be good at it, Micah is good at it... Clichy.... etc etc and Silva.. he IS it.

Abstractly; this is a system of utter simplicity that allows for serious complexity.

I don't think as yet there are any pundits that have quite understood this but they are kind of waking up now they are actually looking at what City do. The only pundit i have heard get anywhere close was Dean? Sturridge co-commenting on the BB game, responding to the usual ' they were so defensive last season' he immediately says No, Mancini was evidently building from the back to create a solid framework, we are now seeing what that produces.

I am really seriously amazed by the lack of analysis of Bob's methods and when it dawns on all these fuckers as I have already posted before they will start to say he should be asked to manage the Engerlanders. <sigh>

As far as i am aware Cruyff installed Barca with the same kind of discipline of means to an end and ten years later Spanish football adopted it en masse in youth academies. The idea is basically the same learn to do something till it second nature then build on that. Barca are like robots, the national side less so but still with a drill so natural to them it is almost scary compared to the trad English style.
The football pundits lack of intelligence to see that there is need for an intrinsic discipline behind any creativity is mind boggling. Perhaps even though they admired Arsenal they still saw and thought that the rags 'way' was still the better, perhaps 'english style'.
But basically the UK has pretty much determinedly ignored any re-assessment of footballing basics... until the end of this season perhaps?

Can anyone really say that watching Micah hare down the wing a few years ago and then.. er look for someone to pass it to, although exciting, was better than him interchanging passes with Silva, Yaya, Milner, Balo and surging forward that way with support and the confidence that he wont be isolated or run into a dead end. It is a non argument and as you can see with Micah a player that is well capable of playing football is fucking loving it.

We will now go through a period of re-assessment of Mancini in the press and the punditry as they shed their bias and start to really observe. The really great thing in Mancini and City's favour in relation to the press and fans of other clubs is the attractiveness of the football, get that right and football fans are like putty. quite rightly too.

Fucking hell, that is post of the year. Brilliant.

[mcfc1632]

Irritatingly magnanimous yes, they're still proper pissed off though. I've been careful not to push it too far

Definitely seems to be a tactic on the part of many of them. I decided to take it in my stride and not gloat TOO much, because then I can gloat for a much longer period of time - let's say, until April at least.

I have spent some time on the forums of other clubs to see how the reaction is- the hatred of Spurs fans towards CITY is quite staggering - clearly jealousy / frustration because they had thought that they were on track for the top 4 and we have just flashed past them.

But the following quote from sadcafe I thought should be shared as it typifies for me the 'quality' of scum fans.

"was gonna go up to this game today, about the only positive thats come from today, thank fuck i didnt waste my money. I wont be watching the everton game nxt weekend either until they start sorting themselves out fuck it, i just feel so sorry for any fans that went to the game today, I hope u play holy fucking hell and demand a refund. Utid but somehow today is the lowest ive ever felt. Even if we do win the league well still have those cunts giving us shit about today so itll never be forgotten nor will anything this season make it go away, apart from beating them 7-1 away. We need a top quality playmaker that can get the most from rooney, maybe even 2. Time to take out the trash. Weve started to get more youth in the side well clear out the rubbish and replace them or its gonna be a season to forget. "

[Avalon]

Good to see some opinions Doug.. you should stay up more often, either that or City should win by .. oh hang on.

Good points as usual and tbh we all want to read as much as possible on all things City for some reason!

I am drawn to the comments on free roles for players. It has been highly interesting watching Mancini since arrival, shoring things up and never being deflected in carrying out a process. He comes across as a man with a definite plan and methods worked out to back it up. I thought last season he had a horrendous time with the strikers, injured or not performing/not carrying out instructions and as a result substantially hindering the overall aim.... which gets to the point of roles.

My take on your illumination of Bob's technique in training to position everyone.. each day every day to drill in the both the importance and the practice; read it at face value though and it might seem like tight control of the players. imo that's missing the point entirely, failing to see Mancini's methods show someone who has broken down the nature of football discipline to see what constituent parts are required to be known by the players as second nature. Not leaving that to chance but taking whatever time is necessary to instill it in the players.
Together with bringing in intelligent players, imo he has instilled the basic structure that allows a unit to operate without thinking and be in the right places. Putting that together with clever inspired footballers and then giving them the responsibility to dynamically choose how they then organise to play in any one moment results in what we are now seeing.

As players know what they have to do in responsibility terms not just for one rigid position but all the positions relative to where they are on the pitch. In other words they are trained to know what basic structure and shape is required by the manager for any game, but then are encouraged to move at will to create opportunities but super aware of what everyone is doing so that pretty much at all times the basics are covered. Barry is good at this, Milner is good at this, Balo is good at it and Yaya is good at it, Nasri should be good at it, Micah is good at it... Clichy.... etc etc and Silva.. he IS it.

Abstractly; this is a system of utter simplicity that allows for serious complexity.

I don't think as yet there are any pundits that have quite understood this but they are kind of waking up now they are actually looking at what City do. The only pundit i have heard get anywhere close was Dean? Sturridge co-commenting on the BB game, responding to the usual ' they were so defensive last season' he immediately says No, Mancini was evidently building from the back to create a solid framework, we are now seeing what that produces.

I am really seriously amazed by the lack of analysis of Bob's methods and when it dawns on all these fuckers as I have already posted before they will start to say he should be asked to manage the Engerlanders. <sigh>

As far as i am aware Cruyff installed Barca with the same kind of discipline of means to an end and ten years later Spanish football adopted it en masse in youth academies. The idea is basically the same learn to do something till it second nature then build on that. Barca are like robots, the national side less so but still with a drill so natural to them it is almost scary compared to the trad English style.
The football pundits lack of intelligence to see that there is need for an intrinsic discipline behind any creativity is mind boggling. Perhaps even though they admired Arsenal they still saw and thought that the rags 'way' was still the better, perhaps 'english style'.
But basically the UK has pretty much determinedly ignored any re-assessment of footballing basics... until the end of this season perhaps?

Can anyone really say that watching Micah hare down the wing a few years ago and then.. er look for someone to pass it to, although exciting, was better than him interchanging passes with Silva, Yaya, Milner, Balo and surging forward that way with support and the confidence that he wont be isolated or run into a dead end. It is a non argument and as you can see with Micah a player that is well capable of playing football is fucking loving it.

We will now go through a period of re-assessment of Mancini in the press and the punditry as they shed their bias and start to really observe. The really great thing in Mancini and City's favour in relation to the press and fans of other clubs is the attractiveness of the football, get that right and football fans are like putty. quite rightly too.

Fucking hell, that is post of the year. Brilliant.

Another thing to add is the fact that Mancini never slates a team in front of the camera and he is always friendly towards whomever is interviewing him. Luvley fella

[Mikhail Chigorin]

Great post Doug.

Imagine how good we could be if we actually had "team spirit" and the players didnt all hate each other, and weren't just at City "for the money" and actually really wanted to go to Utd instead!!!

Was in London yesterday for the NFL Game at Wembley and watched the match in The Green Man Pub. There were maybe 10-15 cheering for Man U, but the rest of the packed Pub were cheering wildly as each City goal went in, and from my viewpoint yesterday the neutrals and fans of other clubs loved us stuffing it to them.

Same here. Even the Chelsea fans were giddy. A lot of pent up hate was released yesterday by fans of many clubs. Tbf thoug the rag fans at the pub were actually pretty gracious and well impressed with our play.

Played at an 'Open-Mic' night, last night and before we performed the first song, I told the joke about Colonel Gadaffi and Man Utd getting slaughtered in their own back yards. It seemed as though everyone in the pub was cheering and stomping their feet although I suspect the fact that the majority of the audience were Leeds fans might have had something to do with it.