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For the full 90. No.

However that opening period of 10-15 I thought that was some of the best football we have played all season, even when Hughes was in charge.

What I don't like is teams having long periods where they dominate us and put us right on the back foot where we have to defend like hell to not allow a goal. This was right after halftime today and a better team would have scored against us.

Overall I'm very happy with the way Mancini has gone about things but I think the real test is those three games at the end of the month vs Liverpool/Chelsea/Spurs.

I'm more worried by the defending than lack of attacking
how many times are there 4 or 5 blue shirts crowded round the ball in our box lashing out at it to get us out of danger
seen that somewhere before
But I can't say I'm unhappy.
We're "fifth with a game in hand" (heard something like that before too)
Abstain

I'm not just happy but extremely delighted that we won. Winning is first and foremost thing for me. If I go watch games as a neutral, I hope to be entertained but City games are about getting a result first and foremost.

There are no prizes for entertainment you know?

We did enough to win, I'm happy.

I thought we were appalling yesterday to be honest.

Part of me is comforted by the fact that we played badly and won but I was tearing my hair out at that performance as it was largely a horror show to watch. I was dismayed when I saw the teamsheet and lining up with Barry, De Jong and Vieira but the opening 10 minutes were quite bright, we were knocking it around well and looked decent. Then Bolton found their feet and came at us (I was, btw, really impressed with the change in them that Coyle has brought about in such a short time....i think watching them with Weiss and Wilshire playing will be very entertaining) and we went utterly to shit.

There were some horrible performances from individuals, sloppy passing, not enough bite in midfield and keystone cops defending again. Three sky blue shirts surrounding a Bolton player in our area on more than one occasion and no-one getting a clean foot on it....or if they did, then clearing it straight to a Bolton shirt. Given I thought was horrid last night (the punch he made straight out to a Bolton player when under ZERO pressure being the worst example), bad distribution, cowardly positioning and a reluctance to move his arse to the ball. Toure was poor, I was glad he got injured. What in hell's name he thought he was playing at when they should have had a penalty when he was trying to shepherd the ball to Shay and then just rugby tackled their striker...well I have no idea but it was beyond amateur hour. Barry was horrific...he passed the ball (again under minimal pressure) straight to the opposition umpteen times. Shaun was crap when he came on too....laughable that I expected him to be going to South Africa this summer. No chance he will be on that plane.

That match gave me my first doubts as to Mancini's capabilities if I am honest. Not impressed by what he put out nor how he marshalled/changed it.

Positives....Tevez and Adebayor certainly have their shooting boots even if their combined all-round play doesn't look exactly seamless at the moment. Vieira I thought was pretty good, concerns as to pace/legs but quality is still there. Zabaleta was exceptional. Bridgey was ok, Vincent ok, Nigel his normal self and Lescott looked alright.

Does anybody remember when Peter Reid was in charge? We were playing ugly but getting results. Some fans weren't happy with this even though we finished in our highest league position for years under him.. twice!

In the end he got sacked for 'having no rapport with the fans' - Maybe we should learn from this and decide what our priorities are.

King Kev wrote:Does anybody remember when Peter Reid was in charge? We were playing ugly but getting results. Some fans weren't happy with this even though we finished in our highest league position for years under him.. twice!

In the end he got sacked for 'having no rapport with the fans' - Maybe we should learn from this and decide what our priorities are.

You know what mate, I was thinking EXACTLY the same this morning. That said, I've said few times over the years how much time I have for Reidy because of the results he got for us and been absolutely hammered by some corners.

I honestly believe that deep down some people (not going to name anyone as I think there are plenty) are missing the "likeable losers" and "everyone's second team" tags and turning into side that constantly gets results despite not putting a ballet show, scares the hell out of people. Truth is, I loved Keegan style win or bust football as much as the next man but the new era, the aim for the very top, don't come without a cost. Generally very few REALLY top teams (Arsenal of early-00's and Barcelona of today excluded) are great to watch. Chelsea are booring most of the time, rags as well (how many times have we rued when they've had YET ANOTHER undeserved win?), ditto Inter and Bayern.

The style might come in time. Or don't. Put winning is everything for owners and that's how the things are right now.

Don't worry though, I have strange feeling we haven't seen last of "typical City" and "cups for cock ups". I just wish I'd get to see period of genuine competitiveness before that.

Svensational wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:I'm not just happy but extremely delighted that we won. Winning is first and foremost thing for me. If I go watch games as a neutral, I hope to be entertained but City games are about getting a result first and foremost.

There are no prizes for entertainment you know?

I like to see you go and watch City in freezing temperatures to play that type of football? Regardless of the result you'd be pretty unhappy.

Im not saying im not happy with winning, because at the end of the day 3 points is 3 points and like Alex said we are 5th with a game in hand.

I've seen City in freezing temperatures. If we win, I'm happy; if we don't I'm not. Weather has got little to do with it (I've seen more football games in sub zero conditions than probably anyone here). But generally watching football means different things to different people. Some people put more emphasis on being entertained and there's nothing wrong with that. I'd always take crap performance and win than cavaliar performance or draw or loss though.

No. we were fucking shite for good parts of that game, if Bolton had scored in the second half we could have lost. we just can't seem to control games atm against any sort of opposition.

very happy with the result and in particular AJ but as i said in another thread, if we play like that against spurs or Scouse1 we will get hammered.

i can't say i'm happy with the performance. Of course the result is perfect. Can't argue with 3 pts. If we managed to play like that and beat a Top 4 side then i would be happy, but that won't happen unfortunately.

The formation, lineup and tactics have really sucked donkey balls as of late, and i'm struggling with it. I don't think Mancini is a tool...i think he knows his shit. if he didn't have the players he wanted in Jan then i hope he wans't too accommodating about trying to get the results we need with the players he has, because we certainly didn't do much in the way of coverage in Jan. Jinky looks fantastic. Vieira looks like he should be playing in Serie A. Or maybe riding the bench there i suppose.

Not at all "happy" but contented we grabbed the 3 pts after Hull. We really needed this. Hope Mancini can keep eeking out results because i don't really want a managerial switch this summer and i'd like to see what he can offer over a few years.

cheers

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote: Some people put more emphasis on being entertained and there's nothing wrong with that. I'd always take crap performance and win than cavaliar performance or draw or loss though.

I think many of the City crowd place quite some emphasis on being entertained.....see the decline in attendances under Stuart Pearce if you need further evidence of that.

You are actually allowed to criticise City under Mancini you know mate. Just because you campaigned long and hard for Roberto and he is your chosen one, you are still allowed to see faults. In fact I'd put a lot more store in your opinions if you did so.

At the moment you are coming across as some kind of fucking Moonie who is incapable of seeing the blatantly obvious as you seek to validate the fact that you were right and that Mancini is indeed the man for the job. It's ok mate, we're supporting him, we are not going to start a Mancini OUT campaign....you chose well but we were fucking pap last night.....that you can't see that or refuse to acknowledge it is, frankly, laughable

ant london wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote: Some people put more emphasis on being entertained and there's nothing wrong with that. I'd always take crap performance and win than cavaliar performance or draw or loss though.

I think many of the City crowd place quite some emphasis on being entertained.....see the decline in attendances under Stuart Pearce if you need further evidence of that.

You are actually allowed to criticise City under Mancini you know mate. Just because you campaigned long and hard for Roberto and he is your chosen one, you are still allowed to see faults. In fact I'd put a lot more store in your opinions if you did so.

At the moment you are coming across as some kind of fucking Moonie who is incapable of seeing the blatantly obvious as you seek to validate the fact that you were right and that Mancini is indeed the man for the job. It's ok mate, we're supporting him, we are not going to start a Mancini OUT campaign....you chose well but we were fucking pap last night.....that you can't see that or refuse to acknowledge it is, frankly, laughable

not sure NQDP specifically wanted RM, just wanted Hiughes out. Now Socrates, he very specifically named Mancini as his man. Been quiet, but no doubt being patient like we should all be.
Let's not give "credit" where it might not be due

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:
I've seen City in freezing temperatures. Weather has got little to do with it (I've seen more football games in sub zero conditions than probably anyone here).

Twice?
oh yeah.... and MEGA.

Performances haven't been great but how many experts say the sign of a good team is when they win without playing well. Given where we are in the league at the moment i would have snapped your hands off if you had offered me that at the beginning of the season. 5th with a game in hand & 5 points off 3rd will do me. Some big games coming up though which will define our season imo.

Fish111 wrote:Performances haven't been great but how many experts say the sign of a good team is when they win without playing well. Given where we are in the league at the moment i would have snapped your hands off if you had offered me that at the beginning of the season. 5th with a game in hand & 5 points off 3rd will do me. Some big games coming up though which will define our season imo.

Dear Mr Fish

I recommend a new fangled craze....it's called "reading". Give it a go and then let us know what your answer is..... ;-)

"Im not talking about the result. This is just based only on our performance yesterday.

Whos happy to play like that for the rest of the season?"

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote: I'd always take crap performance and win than cavaliar performance or draw or loss though.

I'd love a Caviar performance
I'd settle for a cavalier performance
I hate and take next to no pleasure from crap performances
I prefer wins to draws and draws to losses
I speculate however that we'd have more common ground on here if instead of a shit victory against Bolton and the Hull disaster, we'd drawn both.
But then the lickers would be up in arms.
Or am I just being mischievous

edoit: bad maths corrected twice

As the performance goes, no, I'm not totally happy. We allowed Bolton too much space for parts of the game, and they put us under big pressure, like at the start of the second half. We started well in the first 10 minutes or so, but then progressively retired deep in front of our box and found it hard to come out from there as our passes have often lacked precision, so Boltonn kept getting the ball back, and attacking again. A plus that can be found is that even then, we didn't concede. However, we need to get better at passing the ball in midfield, and not leave Tevez, Johnson and Adebayor isolated up front. At least one of the CMs should go forward and support the attacks, and in yesterday's line up it should probably have been Barry.

This said, in a football game you can't take the result completely out of the picture, and for me this sums it up well:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Winning is first and foremost thing for me. If I go watch games as a neutral, I hope to be entertained but City games are about getting a result first and foremost.

I'm not sure which way I stand on the idea of performances. We're either not playing brilliantly yet grinding out results or we're not playing brilliantly and will get nowhere against top notch sides who don't fall as easily as Pompey or Bolton do.

ant london wrote:

Fish111 wrote:Performances haven't been great but how many experts say the sign of a good team is when they win without playing well. Given where we are in the league at the moment i would have snapped your hands off if you had offered me that at the beginning of the season. 5th with a game in hand & 5 points off 3rd will do me. Some big games coming up though which will define our season imo.

Dear Mr Fish

I recommend a new fangled craze....it's called "reading". Give it a go and then let us know what your answer is..... ;-)

"Im not talking about the result. This is just based only on our performance yesterday.

Whos happy to play like that for the rest of the season?"

Being a right smart-arse this morning aren't we ant? I would be more than happy playing like that if we keep getting the results to get us into a CL spot. imo you cannot seperate the performances and results as they go hand in hand. We played shit last night but we won, not pretty i know but the three points are in the bag and that's all that matters. If we play like that against Chelsea, liverpool & Villa and get 7 points i'll be more than happy.

Fish111 wrote: If we play like that against Chelsea, liverpool & Villa and get 7 points i'll be more than happy.

do you think if we play like that we'll get 7 points?

I am happy we got 3 points in the bank and they never once really looked like scoring now if we could only take that on the road.