Ted Hughes wrote:Douglas Higginbottom wrote:It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next months if we do get a fully fit squad. I do believe Mancini will have realised that he needs to be a little more commited to attacking and the Tevez incident will have really stressed the need to do so but more than anything it could well be the reason why he has come out and said something now.
I think we all know by nature Mancini is a cautious thinking coach and it isn't just having a few injuries that have tailored his approach to games.We still wait to see what his team and set up will be when everyone is available. We expect to see 2 full backs marauding down the wings but ,if it's 4.3.3, what will the team be? Will he leave Tevez in the middle up front or is that where Balotelli fits in? Will there be just one holding player in the middle or will he still play Nigel with either Yaya or Barry?
The bottom line is that he will have options and change things to suit the opposition but the key to it all is what Mancini tells the players to do in terms of attacking ambition.We can play all the attacking players we want or indeed all the defensive players in a line up but if the manager tells them to be cautious and that the most important thing is not to concede then we might not see much change.If he releases the shackles a little and lets players get forward and run beyond the " strikers" then we will see a real difference.
If the fullbacks do get forward successfully, his 3 so called 'defensive' midfielders then make sense because he could play 3 attackers, 2 attacking fullbacks & have the 3 man midfield behind the ball peotecting & joining in by making late runs rather than leading the charge. He could also put Silva in there to join the front 3 & have 2 sitting giving us 6 attacking players on the counter.
Imo our biggest problem isn't personel or formations atm though, it's a lack of cohesive purpose & final ball. One example being; players don't go into the 6 yard box because the ball never comes, therefore the ball never goes in because there's nobody there to get on the end of it. We have no Bellamy for counter attacking so we need to have more purpose & togetherness in other attacking areas. We can't just rely on Balotelli & fullbacks as they could all strruggle in their 1st season. (I don't think they will struggle mind you, I think Balotelli in particular will be fucking fantastic once 100% fit) They could get injured again.
We need plans B, C, & D not just plan A.
Personally i feel that enough has been said by Mancini to indicate that he has been aware of the need for attacking intent, before he came out and clarified this. He mentioned the possibility of 3 strikers, that he wants attacking football, he bought 2 forward thinking FBs and Balotelli, Silva, Milner and even Yaya. Imo all the evidence points the same way... forward.
I really dont think he imagined Adebayor to disappear like he did and it has given him a slight problem. So no wonder tempers frayed when he was criticised.
It is all well and good us lot stating that he should attack as the best form of defence and just tell the players to get forward more, but he is out to secure the title if he can.. and first and foremost that means defensive discipline. I dont think that he is wrong to insist on maintaining that and looking instead for an evolution towards better attacking play and formations as and when we have the players he sees as delivering that fit and able.
He is cautious, at least so far. Bear in mind though that he is also learning still about the prem and the teams we face. For all we know he may have had a game plan to bring on Adebayor and AJ against NC all along, as they began to lose energy. If so it is a good strategy against a team he has never played before. Bear in mind he got burnt last season by a couple of sides and is not prepared for that to happen again. I think he will continue to play it fairly safe until he can both field the sides he wants to and then see how they go on, tweak it and go from there.
Even if he is a cautious man it doesn't directly mean that he will play cautious football.. perhaps not leave things to chance but always playing defensive minded football no, there is no direct link to that, despite the evidence of what we have seen in games this season.
Imo he will not let the team go gung-ho for fear of them losing the defensive discipline.. both in any one particular game and generally over time. Ted suggests that with the FBs overlapping we can eventually field 3 up front and have the 3 midfielders in flexible roles, winning the ball back and picking up loose balls, also running in and joining the strikers.
That system not only requires the players fit to do it, it will also require a fair amount of work to get right and a fair amount of games to see who excels at it. When at that stage the rest of the squad and players like Micah can learn to try and emulate what is required, because they have seen it in action and been a part of it in training.
Just think for a minute that the Owners and the Club want to be challenging for not only the Prem but to seriously have the ability to win the CL. Mancini has been brought in to achieve that, he has to have a plan to do so. not just wishful thinking. The system that Ted describes is similar to Barca.. they are still without doubt the best footballing side around, that means if things go to plan we will be expecting to play them and have the ability to beat them.
The Club have fast-tracked their investment to build a team able to do that, the expectation therefore is that the players we have are going to be more or less the players that are expected to pull that off. imo the only spending will come if players like Ade dont fulfill their promise.
It is still very much early days, especially so as Bobby has hardly had the chance to field the players he really wants to. There is so much to come from this squad we wont believe it when it happens.
I would also like to say that a team that can deal with the English Prem and play a formation akin to Barca will be almost unstoppable. Mancini has to learn how to break down and beat teams like Stoke. It is my opinion that if Barca played in the Prem they would get regularly beaten by Stoke type teams or Prem defensive set ups. Why, because as we saw in the CL final they simply do not have as Ted is concerned about... a plan B, never mind C or D.
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