walmai wrote:By way of caveat, I didn't see the match against Ajax, although I've read more than one account of it, on here and in the paper.
Trust could perhaps be said to be something arising out of sense of both discipline and reliability. For example, you'd probably have said that last year Swansea's squad trusted Brendan Rogers. They had spent time as a squad being coached in a fairly precise manner, could rely on his methods - especially when they led to good results - and understood their individual roles (and that they forged the team spirit).
I detect two things as an outside observer for City, Mancini and his squad.
1. Some players may have stayed silent at the time, but would have expected their coach to be true to his word that (paraphrasing) Tevez was finished at the club. If the despised Taggart said that, there's no way he would let events contradict him. It shows weakness. I know you'll be thinking that Rooney sailed close to the wind in that regard, but Taggart never made such a bold declaration. Actions speak louder than words. Tevez back in the fold imo leaves Mancini on shaky ground.
2. Mancini is not ice-cool in times of crisis. A bit of old-fashioned panic may have arisen on Weds, if the reports of the constant chopping and changing of positions/roles for the players is accurate. Again, if a player - or, worse still, a whole team - is confused as to what is expected, he will lose trust in the person giving the orders.
This season will prove harder for Mancini than the last, or the one before that. If this board on Weds is anything to go by, he now has a heavy weight of the expectation of continued, even expanded, success on his shoulders. However, saying that, I still see you as only really getting going domestically. It would still in most neutrals eyes represent a success for Mancini if he repeated his title-winning exploits this time around, even if he doesn't go any further in Europe*. Its just that he needs the trust of his biggest performers in order to have a good shot at that.
*On that point, I reckon he'd privately prefer to come 4th in the CL group than face the Thurs trek on the Europa for the rest of the season.
That was very much the case on Wednesday.
Taking Lescott off for Kolarov was a very strange decision. If he wanted to play 3-5-2 and push the team up, we would have been much better off just pushing Clichy up the pitch or swapping him straight off for Kolarov, leaving us a back three of Kompany, Lescott and Richard. My theory is that he hoped for a set-pieces wonder from kolarov to save the day (once again). And that's ot even mentioning the idiocy of switching to 3-5-2 in the first place.
Playing with Tevez, Dzeko, Balo and Aguero for so long was pure panic as well and not a very wise move. We had all these forwards on the pitch, but no one to give them the ball. the back 3 was stuck passing the ball side ways with no midfielders to collect the ball.
