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I'm glad of the teams we play at the start of the campaign as it will give me an early insight into my second biggest concern over Mancini - that of being scared stiff of playing the teams at the top end of the table.

If he has a different mentality to last year's "9 men in our 18 yard box and Tevez on the half way line" tactic then I'll be much happier.

We play a good mixture of top teams and poor teams which will tell us after 6 games if the mentality has changed:

• Spurs - (I actually want to beat Spurs more than any other team this year by a long way)
• Liverpool
• Sunderland
• Blackburn
• Wigan
• Chelsea

Last season versus the top teams:

• Everton - Lost 2-0
• Liverpool - Drew 0-0
• Chelsea - Won 2-4
• Everton - Lost 0-2
• United - Lost 0-1
• Arsenal - Drew 0-0
• Villa - Won 3-1
• Spurs - Lost 0-1

We didn't score in 6 out of 8 games due to the overally cautious tactics.

I'm looking forward to watching his players attack and look to try and dominate the midfield (Yaya please do the job!) in all of those 6 opening games and not just against Sunderland and Blackburn. Whether we win them is another matter but I hope we at least try to and for that I would be happy.

good post mate.

said something similar when i saw the first two games - which for any team in the prem would be a tough couple of opening fixtures - it will be nice to have a big test right from the off. iirc last season we started with blackburn away (shite), wolves home (shite) and portsmouth away (shite). there's nowhere to hide this time round and i am glad of that.

put it this way - if the first few games go the same as last year's results wise we will be fucking laughing and i also believe results against two top sides (well one top side and the dippers), right from the off, will go a long way towards getting the team to gel and building some spirit.

To be honest, I can see us having a slow start as the team work to gel. I also think Bobby has seen our main fault as being giving away soft goals, so I think he'll be cautious at first trying from to make sure we don't present gifts to the opposition. Once the defence is sorted I expact us to have a more attacking mindset albeit from a strong defensive platform.

I don't think he has a choice to be attacking against the top sides last year. We won at Chelsea because we were excellent in defence and then broke 4 times. We didn't win against the other sides because that tactic didn't come off.

This year will be different, anyone who saw his Inter sides will see he wasn't the typical stereotypical italian manager and his signings this year comfirm that.

This is one of my biggest fears of him being at the helm, too. We could, potentially, be rooted near the bottom of the table with one point after 3 games. On the other hand, we could have a 100% record, and be at least 3 points ahead of two of our perceived 'direct competitors'.

Mancini hasn't impressed me on this front in all honesty. Yes, he can get results against the lower clubs which we weren't getting under Hughes at times, but he also stifles the team when we're ahead, and plays over-cautiously against the 'big boys' (the reason we both scored only one and also conceded one in 14 minutes against a 9-man Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last season).

Here's my opinions of potential results, Mancini-style (first) and squad potential (second). City scores first.

• Spurs 0-1, 3-1
• Liverpool 0-0, 4-1
• Sunderland 1-0, 4-0
• Blackburn 2-1, 5-0
• Wigan 1-0, 2-0
• Chelsea 0-2, 2-1

On paper, I think we could win all 6. I reckon, though, we'll be on 10 points after 6 games if Mancini adopts the same attitude as last season.

Lev Bronstein wrote:I also think Bobby has seen our main fault as being giving away soft goals, so I think he'll be cautious at first trying from to make sure we don't present gifts to the opposition.

surely that's down to the individual players though? and looking at the fact that our three main centre halves from last season (Kolo, Vinnie, Lescott) are all looking like keeping their spots in the squad how do you propose this problem is addressed? we can work at defending as a unit all we want but it all goes out the fucking window when kolo has one of his "moments".

Lev Bronstein wrote:To be honest, I can see us having a slow start as the team work to gel. I also think Bobby has seen our main fault as being giving away soft goals, so I think he'll be cautious at first trying from to make sure we don't present gifts to the opposition. Once the defence is sorted I expact us to have a more attacking mindset albeit from a strong defensive platform.

I agree.

It's something of a myth that winning titles is the spawn of scoring lots of goals when it's actually borne of conceding few.
For the record, I believe that Mancini's team will eventually play attacking football and score plenty, but that will come only after he is absolutely convinced we can defend well.

Kladze wrote:

Lev Bronstein wrote:To be honest, I can see us having a slow start as the team work to gel. I also think Bobby has seen our main fault as being giving away soft goals, so I think he'll be cautious at first trying from to make sure we don't present gifts to the opposition. Once the defence is sorted I expact us to have a more attacking mindset albeit from a strong defensive platform.

I agree.

It's something of a myth that winning titles is the spawn of scoring lots of goals when it's actually borne of conceding few.
For the record, I believe that Mancini's team will eventually play attacking football and score plenty, but that will come only after he is absolutely convinced we can defend well.

I'm absolutely positive about this.

Svensational wrote:

MaineRoadMemories wrote:Last season versus the top teams:

• Everton - Lost 2-0
• Liverpool - Drew 0-0
• Chelsea - Won 2-4
• Everton - Lost 0-2
• U***d - Lost 0-1
• Arsenal - Drew 0-0
• Villa - Won 3-1
• Spurs - Lost 0-1

You've put on both Everton results home and away but not the rest?

They were Mancini's results, he left out Hughes contribution.

I don't think we will kick off the season with, what, 5 wins in a row like we did last season. I think the start will be very slow as there was literally almost no time to work with the full team so far.

I hope to god though that Mancini, now that he has HIS players in, changes the way he approaches games because I got quite sick of this over cautious approach which got us nothing.

I wouldn't mind playing cautious if it meant we win, but last season we didn't win most of the time.

Svensational wrote:

Slim wrote:

Svensational wrote:

MaineRoadMemories wrote:Last season versus the top teams:

• Everton - Lost 2-0
• Liverpool - Drew 0-0
• Chelsea - Won 2-4
• Everton - Lost 0-2
• U***d - Lost 0-1
• Arsenal - Drew 0-0
• Villa - Won 3-1
• Spurs - Lost 0-1

You've put on both Everton results home and away but not the rest?

They were Mancini's results, he left out Hughes contribution.

Ah of course. Long time no speak Slimithy x

Yeah mate, I have been keeping up via Mum on your Ellie though, she is gorgeous, obviously she took most of the Ranson genes in that department.

Slim wrote:

Svensational wrote:

Slim wrote:

Svensational wrote:

MaineRoadMemories wrote:Last season versus the top teams:

• Everton - Lost 2-0
• Liverpool - Drew 0-0
• Chelsea - Won 2-4
• Everton - Lost 0-2
• U***d - Lost 0-1
• Arsenal - Drew 0-0
• Villa - Won 3-1
• Spurs - Lost 0-1

You've put on both Everton results home and away but not the rest?

They were Mancini's results, he left out Hughes contribution.

Ah of course. Long time no speak Slimithy x

Yeah mate, I have been keeping up via Mum on your Ellie though, she is gorgeous, obviously she took most of the Ranson genes in that department.

finally...i thought you'd softened up/got bored, etc.

related to the topic...i think Yaya is our key to balance this season. he can do a lot of things which can help defensively and press forward as well and i believe as he goes, we'll go. Excited to see how the setup is for Spurs. i think we'll still see De Jong in the midfield as well, which i'm cool with too.

i think Grob has it right in the other thread about who the starting XI are...it's pretty much the starting squad from Valencia bar injuries or some last minute "something." And i think that would be a positive side to send out to show our attacking intent, whilst also hedging our bets a little bit with Dejong, Barry and Yaya with Silva at the top of a midfield diamond.

Good times.

cheers

I would expect us to be fairly cautious v Spurs as we've not bothered to do much work on organising the defence in the pre season games, so may have to protect it. I'd be happy with a point. If we're also cautious v Liverpool though, I expect us to lose probably via Torres at a set piece.

After the 1st couple of games we need to be starting to attack or we'll lose ground in the same way as we did with the draws last season & will be in danger of wasting two seasons. Also if we play too much boring football from early in the season we wil lose the 'feelgood factor' fom the supporters & the atmosphere will disappear. We need to be positive as soon as possible to set down a marker & give the fans something to believe in.

When Milner gets here, with him and Yaya we will have much stronger options in midfield. Yayas pressence inparticular will add a whole new dimension.

I think away from home we should build the team around Yaya and Carlos and at home, build it around Carlos and Silva.

Stick with those principles and I think we'll see results and some pretty good football both home and away.

Well one game down; five to go. But playing Tevez up front on his own again has annoyed me.

Game fact: Spurs had 8 Shots on Target City had just 2 :-(

Lets destroy Liverpool a week on Monday City and play to win!

MaineRoadMemories wrote:Well one game down; five to go. But playing Tevez up front on his own again has annoyed me.

Game fact: Spurs had 8 Shots on Target City had just 2 :-(

Lets destroy Liverpool a week on Monday City and play to win!

Mancini aired on the side of caution due to the team being far from the cohesive unit they will be after playing together for a few weeks.

Spurs are a good team too you know, on their own patch they are to be respected. Remember what happened last season?