Mancini (The Ted Hughes and BBS thread)

[Mike J]

since he has been in the job, there have been very few occasions where we have played well. last night was just appaling.

lose against west brom and i think his time might be up. i do have a bad feeling we are gonna get beat by them as well.

[El_Quince]

Before this current run we'd lost one game in the league away to a penalty and a Carling Cup game. It's not time to panic yet.

It's telling that Mancini stated: "the owners have asked me to qualify for the Champions League". That is therefore his priority - not to win the Carling Cup or the UEFA Cup.

I'm still confident we'll come away with at least 4 points from the next two league games.

[avoidconfusion]

Mancini needs to put out his strongest team and stop fucking around with the defense on Sunday.

He has to get 3 points, if he does not, that will put another dampener on confidence and I think the snowball effect would be that we would lose to United in the derby as well and I think that could be enough for our owners to pull the trigger.

[gaudy]

ive been thinking about it and i really dont know what he should do,there is so so much wrong and as much as id like to write off these last 3 performances i know full well theres going to be plenty more thru out the season.
we can look at it that before these run of results mancini had lost only 1,
we can look at it that we have never played very well and ever looked really comfortable.
playing players out of position
not dropping players that are constantly not pulling their weight
not having our squad fully fit isnt helping.
i want to blame someone but i dont know who.......manager and backroom staff or players.....or the whole fucking lot.?

[Ted Hughes]

Last night was a great opportunity imo for Bob to go into full 'bore us to death' mode & grind out & 1-0. Nobody would have complained about that, away from home, with 2 important games coming. The more I think about it, the less I understand why he didn't. We were caught out of position constantly well before the goal. We've lined up more solidly in most of our home games since Bob came & even all these hours later, I'm really strugglig to figure out what we were supposed to be trying to do last night.

Coming straight after the Wolves game, the lack of direction is worrying me more than the result tbh.

[avoidconfusion]

I think it is starting be the whole fucking lot.

The players need a right bollocking and Mancini needs to have a look at his decision making and his strategy too.

[brite blu sky]

I think the selection for last night was such a gamble. That said we could have been 3 up after 15 mins.

For me the midfield was just too much of an experiment, not so bad on paper but as they haven't played games like that it was really asking for trouble if anyone didn't live up to what was needed. I think PV provided that weak link and the rest suffered from it.
I respect PV contribution to the dressing room etc, but unfortunately he is a liability to have to rely on as one of the 25. Another player roughly with the ability and attitude of Zabba in there instead of PV and i dont think we would have struggled as much at all and possible not lost the initiative time and again. Add to PV's immobility the lack of cover from SWP and AJ and it looked like we were going to be tested by quick attacks.
With hindsight and even with the same players i would have put Milner at the back and PV as the forward distribution pivot.

less need for PV to have to run about and cover and Milner to add that grit further back.

Oh well.

[Wooders]

zab is not a defensive midfielder - he didn't have a clue what to do

a chelsea, arsenal, man utd or tottenham wouldn't have come away with that result - something is rotten in denmark and the buck stops with mancini


who's out there though? O'Neill? I'd rather not
Hiddink? Couldn't get one of the best russian teams ever into the world cup, but has great club history... could be a shout
Maradonna - hésus no..
Scolari - see above...
Redknapp - would he realistically leave spurs? Even if we throw a fortune at him? He would be the answer for me, can't stand the bloke but you can't argue he knows where to play players and get them going

who else?
I think its only worth sackin mancini if we have a better replacement coming in, this was my problem with the hughes sacking, was mancini really not a gamble? Course he was...

[The Man In Blue]

Maradona's a great shout, we're fucking made for each other.

[Blue Since 76]

Dead


Man



Walking

Unless he turns it around, very quickly, he'll be gone as soon as they find a replacement. Winning the odd game doesn't provide security - see Hughes last season for proof. The question is the replacement. O'Neill was mentioned this morning, which would be a disaster if true. Rijkaard is still available though and, with his previous experience of (not doing well at) Barca, he might be seen as the ideal candidate to sell shirts, sorry make us winners.

[superkev8705]

Patrick Vieira cannot play a full game for Man City. 45 Mins to an hour is all he should be getting. I cannot remember how many times i shouted to get Barry on.

What concerned me was how defensive we went when he brought Kompany on for Milner, and yet we conceded two goals.

Surely it was worth taking a Vieira or a Pab Zab off and putting Jo or Balo on to chase the game. Then if we would of got beat it would have been a bit easier to take.

[Original Dub]

The signs have been worrying for some time now, because even when we won lately, I felt we robbed the opposition... some felt "everything was going great".

Its not time to get rid, but it CAN'T continue for long. Two games, two losses....

Two fingers IMO.

[john68]

Beefy,
Sorry mate but I think I may not have explained my view/opinion correctly. As the final whistle blew, it was apparent that the gamble mancini had taken had failed and your point is bang on the line mate.
My point was that as we had equalised, meaning the momentum should have switched our way and the fact that Silva was on the pitch and we there was every reason to think we would create more opening, Mancini could have expected that removing Milner to save his legs for the more important game against WBA on Sunday was only a small gamble to take.
If we look at last nights game, I agree that a win would almost ensure our qualification but to lose it wouldn't be calamitous. Whereas a loss to WBA on Sunday, considering the derby follows it, would be a major catastrphe.

My point was that when he made those decisions, they were relatively reasonable.
A knackered Milner on Sunday was a much bigger risk for much bigger stakes.
Hope that clarifies it mate.

[Tokyo Blue]

Mancini needs to put out his strongest team and stop fucking around with the defense on Sunday.

He has to get 3 points, if he does not, that will put another dampener on confidence and I think the snowball effect would be that we would lose to United in the derby as well and I think that could be enough for our owners to pull the trigger.

I don't think so. I believe they'll show some patience with their man.

And if we lose four on the trot going in to the derby, we will fucking batter the red bastards. You can see it coming a mile off.

[Ted Hughes]

zab is not a defensive midfielder - he didn't have a clue what to do

a chelsea, arsenal, man utd or tottenham wouldn't have come away with that result - something is rotten in denmark and the buck stops with mancini


who's out there though? O'Neill? I'd rather not
Hiddink? Couldn't get one of the best russian teams ever into the world cup, but has great club history... could be a shout
Maradonna - hésus no..
Scolari - see above...
Redknapp - would he realistically leave spurs? Even if we throw a fortune at him? He would be the answer for me, can't stand the bloke but you can't argue he knows where to play players and get them going

who else?
I think its only worth sackin mancini if we have a better replacement coming in, this was my problem with the hughes sacking, was mancini really not a gamble? Course he was...

I think Zabba can play there but not just with Vieira. No problem seeing him there as part of a 3 but 2? When one is as old as Vieira? Silly. For an away game like that, with that 11, it would have made more sense to have Milner stay back there as well & just have a wall in front of the back 4. Let SWP Johnson & Ade play on the break. Some occasions Poznan had 4 v 4 in that position & caught us on the break instead.

We can't sack Bob without even seeing his 1st 11 play! The idea is just ridiculous. If the worst comes to the worst & Bob has a nervous breakdown or something, a new manager wouldn't need the transfer window anyway so there's no reason Bob can't be left to sort it out, even if we lose a few games. Obviously there's a limit to how far it can go but with 3 points for a win, we could easily pull back a bad spell (as we could have when MH was unfairly sacked). I just hope we keep our heads & don't repeat last season's mistake.

[Wooders]

problem is ted, I don't think mancini has it tactically - as you say, if someone new comes in they won't need new players that is for sure.
We need someone like redknapp who knows how and where to play players to get the best out of them

[Beeks]

We need someone like redknapp who knows how and where to play players to get the best out of them

Never in my lifetime thought id see the day...Harry Redknapp? I'd rather fucking Harry Houdini

[Ted Hughes]

I just can't accept that Harry is more tactically astute than Bob. I just think he's keeping it more simple & atm it's working due almost entirely to Bale & Crouch. Swap Ade & SWP for those two & we would have won last night, even amongst the shambles.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

zab is not a defensive midfielder - he didn't have a clue what to do

a chelsea, arsenal, man utd or tottenham wouldn't have come away with that result - something is rotten in denmark and the buck stops with mancini


who's out there though? O'Neill? I'd rather not
Hiddink? Couldn't get one of the best russian teams ever into the world cup, but has great club history... could be a shout
Maradonna - hésus no..
Scolari - see above...
Redknapp - would he realistically leave spurs? Even if we throw a fortune at him? He would be the answer for me, can't stand the bloke but you can't argue he knows where to play players and get them going

who else?
I think its only worth sackin mancini if we have a better replacement coming in, this was my problem with the hughes sacking, was mancini really not a gamble? Course he was...

Agreed if Zaba is played in midfield it should be part of a 3 and with Vieira not being one of them. Same to a point for if we play Vieira he needs to play with 2 others with legs! Mancini took a gamble and it failed. There were times that the City attack was isolated as the 2 midfielders just hadnt got up but also times ( too many) where they had got up but were caught out and too slow getting back.

Mancini has made it pretty clear that the chumps league is his priority and he is picking teams which reflect that without thinking that winning games by picking close to the strongest side all the time and getting good results might actually breed confidence ( and a winning mentality) which would get the 4th place minimum anyway.

As for alternative managers I would say anybody and I mean anybody bar Jose M would be a gamble.

I think Zabba can play there but not just with Vieira. No problem seeing him there as part of a 3 but 2? When one is as old as Vieira? Silly. For an away game like that, with that 11, it would have made more sense to have Milner stay back there as well & just have a wall in front of the back 4. Let SWP Johnson & Ade play on the break. Some occasions Poznan had 4 v 4 in that position & caught us on the break instead.

We can't sack Bob without even seeing his 1st 11 play! The idea is just ridiculous. If the worst comes to the worst & Bob has a nervous breakdown or something, a new manager wouldn't need the transfer window anyway so there's no reason Bob can't be left to sort it out, even if we lose a few games. Obviously there's a limit to how far it can go but with 3 points for a win, we could easily pull back a bad spell (as we could have when MH was unfairly sacked). I just hope we keep our heads & don't repeat last season's mistake.

[john68]

Like just about every other Blue, I went into last night's game with high expectations that we would get the win and almost guarantee our qualification to the last 32. Like every other Blue, I was gutted by both our failure and our performance. When i saw the team Mancini had picked, I was of the opinion that it was right to leave certain players out and that we were strong enough to beat Poznan. I settled down to be disappointed.....As I was aginst Wolves.

I think it is very easy to consider the last 2 failures in isolation and easy to react that it is all going tits up and we are going backwards. But we still need to consider the much bigger picture.

Two losses in the League with WBa (A) followed by the rags (H) mean that we need to ensure we don't lose touch by risking losing any more League points (4 losses on the bounce would severely harm our chances and increase pressure on the club too much). We HAVE to maximise points in our next 2 games. Considering that, last night's game was one we hoped to win but a loss wasn't catastrophic.

Considering the squad that Mancini inherited, then added to in the summer, we have a very strong squad and one that on paper should be able to compete with anyone. A squad that should be able to give us 2 teams strong enough to compete in any competition and one that should be strong enough to withstand injury and suspension losses. Sadly we don't play on paper. That squad may have the personel in place but as yet is missing other factors necessary for ultimate success.

Vieira was brought in to do a job of adding a more mature and successful mentality on the pitch, in the dressing room and on the training pitch. His job was only ever going to be temporary and he will go. RSC, SWP, Bridge, Ade, Jo and several others will be moved on and their positions strengthened by other (hopefully better) players. Our youngsters; both Johnnos, Boyata, Weiss, Richards and others will either be brought on or shipped out. The like of Kollarov, Silva, Ballotelli and Boateng will eventually settle down This present squad is still in a massive state of change and we are nowhere near the levels that we will eventually be. We are still very much in a state of huge changes and those changes will continue for some considerable time.

Add to the above, that it is unlikely that all of those changes will be successful and that some bought players will probably need to be themselves replaced and it becomes quite obvious that this project is going to take the time we were told it would by the club, Hughes and now Mancini.
CL qualification is the holy grail...(like it or not) even at the expense of other more accessible trophies. It is a long journey to the very top....and we must remember that the big picture will always be the important one.