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Does Mancini intend to keep playing this style of football when he has his own choice of players?
I want stability at the club, so I'm in favour of letting Bob carry this on, as long as he doesn't intend do do what I said above.
If he is promising attack football that is exciting to watch once he's had a summer window to get his own players then I'm willing to get behind him and look forward to seeing what he can do.
If this is how he feels footy should be played, and wants to buy more defenders, more defensive midfielders, and Luca Toni so we can carry on lumping to a big man, then I feel we should part company.

im not happy at all but we have to give him to the end of the season. i dont undersrtand it though, when he first came in we were attacking (the match against wolves springs to mind) so why has it stopped!? were the players still in the mindset of hughes tactics or something?!

ive never seen a team just swtitch off attacking intent like in the past few weeks we have. its bizzare.

Mike J wrote:im not happy at all but we have to give him to the end of the season. i dont undersrtand it though, when he first came in we were attacking (the match against wolves springs to mind) so why has it stopped!? were the players still in the mindset of hughes tactics or something?!

ive never seen a team just swtitch off attacking intent like in the past few weeks we have. its bizzare.

Yeah, I meant at the end of the season mate.

What I'm hearing apart from some the views Italians who don't seem to like him personally, is that Mourinho is a more attacking (& better) manager than Mancini. I thought Mancini's Inter team was dull & not that good but only saw it occasionally. The only evidence I can go on though, is that he seems to be steering us the same way & I think a lot of us may be disappointed with what Mancini produces if he stays.

Do you ever think that he is just using this first season to get our defence sorted?

Defence was shite..

He sorts that out, so our defence is solid...

He can then "build from the back" and sort out the attacking aspect.

Kind of like, not letting them attack until they can defend properly. Is it a long term view? This season is the sacrifice?

Or am I just making excuses?

MARKMAKAVELI wrote:Do you ever think that he is just using this first season to get our defence sorted?

Defence was shite..

He sorts that out, so our defence is solid...

He can then "build from the back" and sort out the attacking aspect.

Kind of like, not letting them attack until they can defend properly. Is it a long term view?

Or am I just making excuses?

If I was sure that was the case & that we'd turn into an entertaining side I'd be perfectly happy for him to stay as I hate sacking managers but I can't find any evidence that he can produce anything vastly different.

MARKMAKAVELI wrote:Do you ever think that he is just using this first season to get our defence sorted?

Defence was shite..

He sorts that out, so our defence is solid...

He can then "build from the back" and sort out the attacking aspect.

Kind of like, not letting them attack until they can defend properly. Is it a long term view? This season is the sacrifice?

Or am I just making excuses?

Thats exactly the question I'm asking.
Is he doing this for a purpose, or is this what we will see from him permanently.
If its just temporary until he feels we are sorted defensively, and then concentrates on free flowing footy up top, then I'm willing to see how he goes.

Bingo Lewis wrote:Does Mancini intend to keep playing this style of football when he has his own choice of players?
I want stability at the club, so I'm in favour of letting Bob carry this on, as long as he doesn't intend do do what I said above.
If he is promising attack football that is exciting to watch once he's had a summer window to get his own players then I'm willing to get behind him and look forward to seeing what he can do.
If this is how he feels footy should be played, and wants to buy more defenders, more defensive midfielders, and Luca Toni so we can carry on lumping to a big man, then I feel we should part company.

The way I see It now Bingo is we're in a catch 22 situation

If we don't make the Top 4 we'll lose out on some of the "better targets" he may have in mind. However the way things are going with some of the squad voicing their oppinions, we may alienate them and see a number leaving in the Summer simply due to our current style of football.

Ha ha Mancini is sorting out the defence.

Were leaking goals for fun,Losing games,look clueless going forward.

Scary shit.

MARKMAKAVELI wrote:Do you ever think that he is just using this first season to get our defence sorted?

Defence was shite..

He sorts that out, so our defence is solid...

He can then "build from the back" and sort out the attacking aspect.

Kind of like, not letting them attack until they can defend properly. Is it a long term view? This season is the sacrifice?

Or am I just making excuses?

I think you are just making excuses. No doubt at all that the defence needed sorting but it wasn't that bad in the first place imo. That might sound a crazy thing to say but it was more silly individual mistakes than overall bad defending as a team that was costing us. Trouble is we saw that come back last night as individual mistakes really cost all 3 goals. If you make silly mistakes you lose goals and games and that can happen if you play 10 at the back.

But for sure Mancini has to get a better balance between attack and defence. It looked a bit better last night but we forgot to put the ball away when we had the chances. Good to see Barry in their box and he had 2 presentable chances too. One thing that worries me though is the intent he sends the team out with most games lately but I will watch and see how that changes.

Strange considering the attacking weakness we are showing that Robinho was allowed to go ( Mancini deciding he couldnt manage him) Weiss was allowed to go ( one look at him in a match and away he went) Benjani was looked at and allowed to go and of course the best of the lot Jo was released by Everton but we didn't fancy him back. Not saying they should all have been kept around but maybe at least 1 would have been better than none.

lets all have a disco wrote:Ha ha Mancini is sorting out the defence.

Were leaking goals for fun,Losing games,look clueless going forward.

Scary shit.

before last night we'd conceded 4 in 6 games, hardly leaking.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

MARKMAKAVELI wrote:Do you ever think that he is just using this first season to get our defence sorted?

Defence was shite..

He sorts that out, so our defence is solid...

He can then "build from the back" and sort out the attacking aspect.

Kind of like, not letting them attack until they can defend properly. Is it a long term view? This season is the sacrifice?

Or am I just making excuses?

I think you are just making excuses. No doubt at all that the defence needed sorting but it wasn't that bad in the first place imo. That might sound a crazy thing to say but it was more silly individual mistakes than overall bad defending as a team that was costing us. Trouble is we saw that come back last night as individual mistakes really cost all 3 goals. If you make silly mistakes you lose goals and games and that can happen if you play 10 at the back.

But for sure Mancini has to get a better balance between attack and defence. It looked a bit better last night but we forgot to put the ball away when we had the chances. Good to see Barry in their box and he had 2 presentable chances too. One thing that worries me though is the intent he sends the team out with most games lately but I will watch and see how that changes.

Strange considering the attacking weakness we are showing that Robinho was allowed to go ( Mancini deciding he couldnt manage him) Weiss was allowed to go ( one look at him in a match and away he went) Benjani was looked at and allowed to go and of course the best of the lot Jo was released by Everton but we didn't fancy him back. Not saying they should all have been kept around but maybe at least 1 would have been better than none.

There's the problem, no matter how much practice you do, if people make individual mistakes you struggle. Over time top players cut down on the mistakes but in the short term even the best tend to make them. If you score goals at the other end, they may not be as costly.

In the 2nd half last night, we barely strung 2 passes together & rarely looked like scoring so any incident going against us was likely to cost us the game.

I hate the excuse "needs to get his own players in". Its the easy get out clause for any new manager. We have a squad that can play attacking football and defend well and we cant do either. Hes answer to our defensive woes was PV. I thought he might be past it but thought Mancini obv knows alot better than me............fact is hes past it.

I hope Mancini proves me wrong I really do, but his tactics and ability to motivate the squad seem absolutely wank.

bobadji wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Ha ha Mancini is sorting out the defence.

Were leaking goals for fun,Losing games,look clueless going forward.

Scary shit.

before last night we'd conceded 4 in 6 games, hardly leaking.

Well weve conceeded 5,yes five goals in 3 games to Stoke.


16 against.

25 scored.

So plus 9 goals. 8 of those scored against Blackburn and Scunny. WOW.

MARKMAKAVELI wrote:Do you ever think that he is just using this first season to get our defence sorted?

Defence was shite..

He sorts that out, so our defence is solid...

He can then "build from the back" and sort out the attacking aspect.

Kind of like, not letting them attack until they can defend properly. Is it a long term view? This season is the sacrifice?

Or am I just making excuses?

I can really see this being an issue, the thing that concerns me is there is a difference between sorting out the defence and playing more defenders. Sorting out teh defence means getting teh back 4 supported by 1 or 2 DM keeping clean sheets.

Maybe his biggest problem is the way he was employed. By getting rid of Hughes mid season claiming we were not on the correct trajectory really makes it look like Mancini was employed for instant turn around. All the indicators point to this (6 month get out clause etc). All the noises being made were Top 4 this season or out. If that is still the case then this season cannot be a sacrifice.

The club got a lot of bad press when they were claiming top 6 was the target and then fired Hughes even though we were on target. If Mancini delivers top 6 and is then fired we are going to look even more stupid because then everyone will be asking why we went through a midseason change to employ someone who didn't make much of a difference. My main fear is actually that Mancini doesn't hit his target and is fired, we are going to look so bad in the press.

Bingo Lewis wrote:Does Mancini intend to keep playing this style of football when he has his own choice of players?
I want stability at the club, so I'm in favour of letting Bob carry this on, as long as he doesn't intend do do what I said above.
If he is promising attack football that is exciting to watch once he's had a summer window to get his own players then I'm willing to get behind him and look forward to seeing what he can do.
If this is how he feels footy should be played, and wants to buy more defenders, more defensive midfielders, and Luca Toni so we can carry on lumping to a big man, then I feel we should part company.

As I said in another thread, if you expect the same football we played under Hughes, he probably won't deliver that. I think what he will try to deliver is a midway between that football and the one we are playing now. I think to suit his style we miss midfield players that can link the backline to the attack, the only one we have is Ireland and he isn't at his top this season.

CityFanFromRome wrote:

Bingo Lewis wrote:Does Mancini intend to keep playing this style of football when he has his own choice of players?
I want stability at the club, so I'm in favour of letting Bob carry this on, as long as he doesn't intend do do what I said above.
If he is promising attack football that is exciting to watch once he's had a summer window to get his own players then I'm willing to get behind him and look forward to seeing what he can do.
If this is how he feels footy should be played, and wants to buy more defenders, more defensive midfielders, and Luca Toni so we can carry on lumping to a big man, then I feel we should part company.

As I said in another thread, if you expect the same football we played under Hughes, he probably won't deliver that. I think what he will try to deliver is a midway between that football and the one we are playing now. I think to suit his style we miss midfield players that can link the backline to the attack, the only one we have is Ireland and he isn't at his top this season.

It has been mentioned he had SIX weeks to identify a player to do this and sign him.

CityFanFromRome wrote:

Bingo Lewis wrote:Does Mancini intend to keep playing this style of football when he has his own choice of players?
I want stability at the club, so I'm in favour of letting Bob carry this on, as long as he doesn't intend do do what I said above.
If he is promising attack football that is exciting to watch once he's had a summer window to get his own players then I'm willing to get behind him and look forward to seeing what he can do.
If this is how he feels footy should be played, and wants to buy more defenders, more defensive midfielders, and Luca Toni so we can carry on lumping to a big man, then I feel we should part company.

As I said in another thread, if you expect the same football we played under Hughes, he probably won't deliver that. I think what he will try to deliver is a midway between that football and the one we are playing now. I think to suit his style we miss midfield players that can link the backline to the attack, the only one we have is Ireland and he isn't at his top this season.

Can he deliver that in the PL though or is that what he's tried to do since day one & we've been making excuses by saying it's purely down to him concentrating on defence? Will we just end up looking like we do now a year down the line?

Each report I hear coming from Italy suggests that Mourinho's side is considerably more pleasing on the eye than Mancini's & he was hardly the most entertaining of managers over here.

Ted Hughes wrote:
Can he deliver that in the PL though or is that what he's tried to do since day one & we've been making excuses by saying it's purely down to him concentrating on defence? Will we just end up looking like we do now a year down the line?

Each report I hear coming from Italy suggests that Mourinho's side is considerably more pleasing on the eye than Mancini's & he was hardly the most entertaining of managers over here.

I can't give you an answer on that, to be honest. I guess we will just have to wait and see, that is if he stays at the end of the season.

However, I have to comment on the second part. Last season Mourinho's Inter was boring as fuck, not an improvement on Mancini at all. This year, they are a better because they have bought some players they needed to make the style Mourinho wanted work, most of all Sneijder to act as a link between the backline/midfield and the forwards, and a striker who can be much more dangerous in the box than Ibrahimovic was, especially against the big teams, which is Milito.

I actually don't think their styles are that different, both like to play with a diamond 4-4-2, one out and out DM, two CMs that help covering the back line and then go forward when needed, an attacking mid behind the strikers to feed them. The forwards are one fast and one tall and strong, so they can vary the kind of balls feeded to them.

But Mancini lacked the true attacking mid to make this work at Inter, or, better, he thought Stankovic and Figo could do that job so he never bothered buying a real one. This season shows how wrong he was, because Sneijder is miles better at doing that.

Now, coming to us, we have Ireland who could play there in the hole, but that's it and if he doesn't work we are fucked because we don't have any link with the forwards if not the long balls hoofed to Adebayor (and Santa Cruz when he's on the pitch).

So far Mancini has mostly reverted to a sort of flat 4-4-2 because of Ireland playing badly and not having an alternative for the role, but if the two CMs are Barry and De Jong then it won't work. His selections on the wings have been a bit iffy to be honest so that hasn't helped, too.

I think, with the personnel we have, the best option would be to go 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 but I don't think he will do that anytime soon.

None of it matters. He has got big part of crowd against him and I've never seen City manager come back from that. Ever. He is gone at very latest next november. Most likely in the end of the season.

He isn't going to be here long term. Then when we fail to get Mourinho we'll be stuck with Avram Grant or Sam Allardyce or someone like that. Ah well, at least the arguing will end.