Blue Since 76 wrote:
Maybe the cup defeats are the problem for Mancini, just as the draws were for Hughes, as statistically he's doing better, but, much as I didn't like Hughes, Mancini is boring me to tears.
Not disregarding the stats you posted, which by the way seem to prove what I was saying at least for the goals conceded part, while I agree we lost much of our scoring ability so that does raise some worries, I wanted to comment on this.
Mancini is boring
now but I don't believe we are the finished article under him, meaning there's still space for improvement upfront, and to be honest I've seen glimpses of this in the last few games, against Stoke on Weds we could (and should) have been out of sight in the first half with better finishing, and that is not down to the manager but to the players. Hughes had a season and a half to settle the defence, but he never got around to doing that, going for the "let's score one more than the opposition" approach, which, if you watch the big teams all across Europe, none of them use, basing their success on a tight defence first of all.
So this is the difference, I didn't feel Hughes would manage to steady the backline even in another three seasons, while with Mancini I still feel we can improve from where we are now.