Mancini's Three Amigos

[johnny crossan]

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Roberto Mancini tells Manchester City's fans not to expect all their big-name strikers to start together
Carlos Tévez, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko all started last night's 3-0 win over Aris Salonika but Roberto Mancini does not expect to repeat the attacking selection in the future.
Cautious: Mancini does not plan to start many games with all three of Tevez, Dzeko and Balotelli
By Telegraph staff and agencies 8:06AM GMT 25 Feb 2011
With David Silva involved as well, it provided a fearsome forward line the Greeks were incapable of resisting. As City took their tally to 19 goals in their last five home games, Dzeko took the honours with a double inside the first 12 minutes.
However Mancini does not think he can go for broke all the time. "I thought we did well and in the first half I was very pleased," said the Italian.
"The problem comes when we don't have the ball. If we don't close down every situation, it could be difficult for us.
"We can play this formation but not often, unless we improve."
Dzeko's efforts doubled his previous tally since a £27 million move from Wolfsburg last month.
The Bosnian should have had a hat-trick too after being sent through by Silva in the final minutes of the first half.
However, the chance went begging when Michail Sifakis robbed him as Dzeko attempted to go around the Aris goalkeeper, and it was left to Yaya Toure to complete the scoring with a deflected effort 15 minutes from time.
Aris coach Ioannis Michalitsios was refreshingly honest as he assessed his side's downfall, even though the Greek outfit had gone into the tie level after the first leg on home soil.
"We lost to a better team," he said.
"We found ourselves two down in the first few minutes, which obviously knocked us back. Given what happened, the eventual outcome could have been a lot worse.
"In order to knock Manchester City out we needed a perfect performance and for City to make a lot of errors. That did not happen.
"City are a better team that most in Europe and the favourites to win the Europa League this season."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... ether.html?

[bigblue]

I can see his point because even though we were playing great, there were a few slightly worrying times that we lost the ball and Aris made 2 passes and took out our whole midfield.

[john68]

We must also remember that our midfield enforcer Nigel was also missing.
But that forward line will frighten a few.