Crossie wrote:Doug, did Mancini do anything visibly different in training on Sat/Sun? He said last night it was all his fault and he didnt prepare us properly the 2 days prior to the game.
He is either talking about training, or something done indoors, or the team selection. We played like a bunch of kids who had fallen our just before kick off, did you/do you see anything to suggest some players are in cliches or generally look like they hate each other?!!?
We've hear rumours about the players not rating Dzeko, but that must mainly come from training where they can see him in all his glory, do they applaud him when he scores? Do they pass to him like any other player?
On Dzeko I have said i think he will be quality at City and I stick by that even though he is having such a bad time at the moment.In training to start off I thought he looked pretty good and at times he has been superb in his finishing.As time has gone on though his opportunities in the team have been limited and when he has played the team around him have shown very little idea of how to play to his strengths.Maybe as a result of that I feel his performances in training havent been as good as they were and that's probably down to confidence as much as anything else. At no time have I seen any signs that the players don't rate him as maybe I might have seen with another striker.
The players don't really applaud others when they score from what I can recall with the exception of the keepers.Both Joe and Stu regularly shout out approval of others.
On training recently I cannot recall any work done on specifics preparing for a particular game or at least very little.I think when I left on Saturday ( I wasnt there on Sunday) they might just have been going to do a little work on corners with Carroll in mind.Getting Lescott to try to man mark him with the rest on zonal duty.There has mostly been nothing more than warm ups and a "football game" of some sort.
I think Mancini's comments must be about his team selection and maybe also the tactics he sent them out with.I assume there were some tactics/plan?City's strength/best players are down the middle with Joe,Vinnie,Nigel,Silva and Tevez.2 of those were rested,tevez got injured and the other 2 had below par games.
Tactically I have no clue what the plan was.Contrary to other opinions I would have changed the side from last weekend and it would have been to leave out mario and bring in Milner and approach the game with caution.I would not have had a problem with a defensive approach and try to win it on the break.Instead we did what we did and it was nothing. We didn't fully defend and certainly didnt defend well as a team but equally we didn't attack with any real positivity and aggression.I wa squite baffled at the approach and I felt the team were as well.