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"In the first half we didn't play very well. Hull were more aggressive and put us under pressure. In the second half we played very well, for me. When we brought on Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson, the game changed. If we play like we did in the second half, we can arrive in the top four - but not if we play like we did in the first."

Hmmm, I'm not convinced that our second half performance was worthy of a top 4 place!

Hmmmmmmmm,Mancini.

Oh dear! If he thinks that was playing very well then we have serious serious problems.

Tried to change things up second half and make us more attacking by switching bridge out did the best he could the starting lineup should have been enough quality to finish Hull off to be fair.

Vhero wrote:Tried to change things up second half and make us more attacking by switching bridge out did the best he could the starting lineup should have been enough quality to finish Hull off to be fair.

Bridge came off on the 85th minute Vhero? A little late to finally decide to play with balance and width dont you think?

Kiss_The_Goat wrote:Oh dear! If he thinks that was playing very well then we have serious serious problems.

It seems to have escaped him, that based solely on the second half, it would still have been a 1-1 draw.

For a top 4 team, these are the games you absolutely have to win, draws are not good enough - so sorry Bobby, I think you are completely wrong.

King Kev wrote:

"In the first half we didn't play very well. Hull were more aggressive and put us under pressure. In the second half we played very well, for me. When we brought on Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson, the game changed. If we play like we did in the second half, we can arrive in the top four - but not if we play like we did in the first."

Hmmm, I'm not convinced that our second half performance was worthy of a top 4 place!

The last 30 I thought we looked more like the 'old' City tbf & it gave me some hope after 2 soul destroying unimaginitive games.

We have now lost as many in the league under Mancini as we did under the previous management. Gutless performance Roberto and don't dress it up as lamb when it is quite clearly mutton. Much improvement needed and unfortunately there is little improvement seen since he has taken over.

We were fucking shite whole 90 minutes. Simple as that.

Just put Khaldoon as manager.

No matter what he say's we were shit end of.

Oh Dear

I will buy him some glasses to match the nice scarf!

Bottom 4 both halves!

Roberto Mancini berated his players for the slow start they made in the defeat at Hull but still fancies them to mount a strong top four challenge.

The Italian was a dismayed spectator as the relegation threatened home side built a two-goal lead and then withstood his side’s late charge.

“We started too slowly,” he exclaimed. “We have to learn to fight right from the start. If we had done that then we would not have lost. We had to show more commitment from the first whistle.



It is the same size pitch at home as it is away but we do not start with the same aggression this is something that we have to learn to do. We moved too slowly and we passed too slowly and we didn’t challenge quickly enough either

...Roberto Mancini

But Mancini was adamant that no irreparable harm has been done to the Blues chase to make the Champions League next season.

“It was a big game for us today because if we had won we would have been in a great position and would still have had our two games in hand over the sides above us and the chance to move into the top four,” he noted.

“Now we have lost ground but we are still in the race. Tuesday’s game against Bolton is vital to us and we must play for ninety minutes.

“I thought in the second half at Hull we played well and we had three or four chances to make it 2-2 but we didn’t. As bad as we were in the first half we have to give Hull some credit they played very well. They tackled hard and began with good tempo that we didn’t match but should have done. My compliments go to them.”

Mancini was happy that Wayne Bridge was able to return after a long injury absence and that his two new January signings both got some game time.

“I think Wayne did well even though he was bound to have some difficulty having been out for so long. He will get better I am sure,” declared the boss.

“The Hull fans chants at him were not nice and perhaps Wayne deserves some more respect but he is ok and he will be happy to have the match under his belt. He has not had many training sessions

“I thought Adam Johnson did well too and the minutes will have done him and Patrick Vieira good.”


Actually think what he says when read in full is spot on as we wouldn't of lost if we started like we played second half but it's how he sorts it out that im interested in not saying the truth after games.

johnpb78 wrote:

Kiss_The_Goat wrote:Oh dear! If he thinks that was playing very well then we have serious serious problems.

It seems to have escaped him, that based solely on the second half, it would still have been a 1-1 draw.

For a top 4 team, these are the games you absolutely have to win, draws are not good enough - so sorry Bobby, I think you are completely wrong.

Chelsea only got a draw there, I reckon they will finish in the top 4.

King Kev wrote:

johnpb78 wrote:

Kiss_The_Goat wrote:Oh dear! If he thinks that was playing very well then we have serious serious problems.

It seems to have escaped him, that based solely on the second half, it would still have been a 1-1 draw.

For a top 4 team, these are the games you absolutely have to win, draws are not good enough - so sorry Bobby, I think you are completely wrong.

Chelsea only got a draw there, I reckon they will finish in the top 4.

You just love a bit of devils advocate don't you ;-)

King Kev wrote:

johnpb78 wrote:

Kiss_The_Goat wrote:Oh dear! If he thinks that was playing very well then we have serious serious problems.

It seems to have escaped him, that based solely on the second half, it would still have been a 1-1 draw.

For a top 4 team, these are the games you absolutely have to win, draws are not good enough - so sorry Bobby, I think you are completely wrong.

Chelsea only got a draw there, I reckon they will finish in the top 4.

Chelsea have had "slips" against Hull, Wigan and a draw away at West Ham - which realistically they could say they are disappointed about. Vitally, they beat their nearest rivals in all the games they have played this season, United at home, Arsenal away.

Last season, they beat all the "lesser" teams, but didnt win once against their rivals - they ended 3rd.

Whilst they can't "afford" to drop points at these places, they have made it right by winning ALL crucial games against their rivals this season. When we start to do that, I will be happy to drop points in the odd "off" day, as it is we have beaten none of our rivals for 4th spot - AND have started to put in Hughes-esque insipid away displays.

Having this Italian in charge has been a bit of fresh air. He has brought us Zonal Marking, quite a few youth prospects through, made us all believed that Benjani was back then flogged him to Sunderland, binned our most expensive player, and made us all buy scarves. The honeymoon is over.

Yet another case of motivation beats skill.

And yet another case of an experienced manager,versus a non experienced one.

I guess any manager will have to spin any result to take some positives from it. Mancini started very well and I liked his team selections, his substitutions and the way he could change the game when the team was not playing well.
But that has disappeard lately starting with probably the Everton match. Some of the things that I didn't like /didn't make sense to me today:
1. He is relying too much on Boyata and ignoring Nedum who should have been on today, if not for Boyata then certainly for Zabba.
Boyata is good, no doubt, but I think he's been put under a lot of pressure too early, like playing him in the 2 Cup matches against the rags.
2. Playing players out of position; Ireland on the right when we had SWP and Petrov on the bench !!! Ireland hasn't shown anything this season that justifies a start ahead of SWP and Petrov.
In other matches Petrov was played on the right and today when our new Johnson (a left sided midfielder supossedly) came on , he was promptly sent to the right side of the field !!
3. When we were 2-0 or 2-1 down, he brought on Vieira for Bellers, so we had 3 DM's on the field when we were chasing the match, even though Paddy did better than expected going forward. Petrov's introduction was way too late and I wud have preffered Sweep instead with Johnson going to the his right position on the left.
We have a great squad of individual players but we still don't have a team that plays well as a unit. I guess with the introduction of Vieira and Johnson, the experimenting will go on for a while but that's the challenge that Bobby has to prove himself as a top notch manager in the EPL and to mould a team worthy of a top 4 spot. I still think he can even though he seems to have lost his way a bit lately.