Mancini

[BobbyJ1956]

There's one thing that would have had City ten points clear by now and there's another that would probably still win us the league. The first would have been signing Van Persie as Mancini wanted, the second would be getting Mourinho. But I can't abide either of them, RVP's a nasty twat, Mourinho's an egomaniac, and you don't have to be Colin Shindler to think that City need to keep a bit of their soul. Getting RVP would have been like signing Rooney, the only thing more unpalatable than Mourinho taking over would be having Ferguson in charge.

[ross.mcfc]

This current side has in this season at no point looked like a league winning side. Even if we had not won the league last year, I would have always viewed it as a league we lost and not United winning.

We need to stop all this 8 points with 6 to play chat. United added a player who makes them a much better side. We added useless squad players who add nothing to us and we let go of a key squad player in NJD for a pathetic price just to make a point. Last season Yaya, Silva, Kompany were on fire and this year they all seem to be going through the motions. A seven point gap at to the top is just about what we deserve at the moment.

[Manx Blue]

Can we please please stop comparing last season's 8 point make up over 6 games ... simply because we are not up against last year's United team ... they have improved and that is showing ... we have deteriorated instead and that too shows ...

Last year we were neck on neck at half way, we are already 7 points behind ... don't expect them to go to Wigan and lose and draw with Everton at home 4-4 after being at 4-2 with seven mins to go ... just wont happen again, and today's games are a clear example ... Where we should have won and they could possibly drop points (even a draw if not a loss outright) ... didn't happen, they sneaked in a late winner and instead we dropped all three points.

7 points now mean 3 game results going wrong for them ... Tell me which ones they will be (and where we won't slip further either) ...

If Mancini stays on, we need massive signings in January, if we don't, that's a clear signal he'll be off end of season ... a trophy less season!

I wasn't comparing seasons per se. Just that their lead isn't insurmountable at present. I don't think we will win the league.

However, I do think this defeat is a better wake up call / kick up the arse than the United game, where it could have gone either way.

[carl_feedthegoat]

I hope we get Pep

What do you do if he says no?

Moyes
Mourinho

In fact I honestly reckon there are many more managers out there that can use the players we have better than Mancini can.

[Chinners]

Jeez ... time to log off and go back down the pub after reading all this thread ...

[sidSmith]

Seems he'll always be a tinkering bottler. He just can't help himself.

[sheblue]

Seems he'll always be a tinkering bottler. He just can't help himself.

Just don't know why he doesn't keep it simple.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Biggest problem is his bloody stubbornness.

No matter what's going on I'd we're losing off comes Tevez.

He doesn't like lescott so rather than play a player whose played at lb plenty of times he sticks in a kid one week and shoehorns in one of our best players this season to bring in kolo.

He always waits til 70 mins to sub.

Yaya and Aguero are in subbable.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

I wasn't comparing seasons per se. Just that their lead isn't insurmountable at present. I don't think we will win the league.

However, I do think this defeat is a better wake up call / kick up the arse than the United game, where it could have gone either way.

We don't need a fucking wake up call. This has been going on for months and months and months. Surely you must hqve noticed.

[Blue Since 76]

For all the tactical & personnel arguments on a game by game basis, my biggest gripes with Bob are that he lacks the ability to inspire the players.

I agree and I think part of the problem is that they don't like him. No proof, so this is just my own thought, but:

He's never, ever happy with how they've played, either individually or in public.
He's kept giving Mario chances yet treats him disgracefully when he's on the pitch - how many times do you see him yelling at him and making public expressions of discontent before ignoring him when taking him off.
He's criticised several players publicly, notably Hart.
Whether you rate him or not, his treatment of Lescott has been terrible, starting with Bayern away last season.
Tevez - he was ultimately forced to back down. Wouldn't have happened in Salford, so has the rear factor gone? If you're worth £20m+, you now know the club won't do anything.

So I'm not sure they like him or trust him to defend them in public. For that reason they may not respect him or fear him. Not saying he's lost the dressing room, but they seem indifferent.

I mentioned during the Dortmund away game that their manager was like the opposite of Mancini - he never stopped being positive about the side and everything they did, even when it was a misplaced pass. Possibly over friendly, but certainly worked in Europe.

[Im_Spartacus]

We can win the league...we won it after being 8 points down with what?...6 to play.

However, we're lacking a sparkle, that something special this year IMHO. I can't put my finger on it, maybe the exit from Europe has taken its toll emotionally...I really don't know.

In my eyes Mancini needs to stay....and at least the next two seasons. He hasn't become a bad manager overnight...and yes we need a plan B. But how he is able to adapt and adjust will possibly be the making of how he is viewed by our support in years to come.

Many would say he wasnt a good manager in the first place.

All the evidence is that he made a total fucking mess of the 2nd half of last season until desperation kicked in and the players like Yaya and Tevez pulled us out of the shit, and even recently lescott saying the team were pretending they couldnt hear him on 85 mins against QPR suggest there is strong evidence that it was Mancinis restrictive influence that held us back.

We need that again, and for me, we are in a very unusual position that for the first time in our history, we are not needing to look for a new manager to get more out of the team, we are looking to need a new manager to stop actively restricting the individual players by dragging them down to his level of tactical naivety.

Thats why changing manager now would not be a problem for me, because it would be for positive reasons - this squad of players is one pf the finest ever assembled (barring the shit we signed in the summer), and we need someone who will work out how to get them to play like their collective talents should allow.

Even if we played as poorly as the weakest link in the team, we would still be some way above the turgid shit we have seen from Mancini's teams since last December, and thats not an acceptable state of affairs

[RodneyRodney]

There's one thing that would have had City ten points clear by now and there's another that would probably still win us the league. The first would have been signing Van Persie as Mancini wanted, the second would be getting Mourinho. But I can't abide either of them, RVP's a nasty twat, Mourinho's an egomaniac, and you don't have to be Colin Shindler to think that City need to keep a bit of their soul. Getting RVP would have been like signing Rooney, the only thing more unpalatable than Mourinho taking over would be having Ferguson in charge.

Well over half of us , including me , were aginst gettng Van Persie. At the time , that seemed right because we had four good forwards playing well, so no need to disrupt them for a 25M quid injury-prone 29 y.o. Unfortunately , all of our forwards have gone off the boil this season.Mourinho will be a mistake if we get him - 2-3 years then off somewhere else.

[RodneyRodney]

Marwood has to carry the can for a lot of it.Bloody daft situation where the manager's hands are tied on who he can/cannot sign, and we end up with 3 guys who he obviously didn't want.

[Im_Spartacus]

Well over half of us , including me , were aginst gettng Van Persie. At the time , that seemed right because we had four good forwards playing well, so no need to disrupt them for a 25M quid injury-prone 29 y.o. Unfortunately , all of our forwards have gone off the boil this season.Mourinho will be a mistake if we get him - 2-3 years then off somewhere else.

Some would say they are off the boil because we do not play a game which makes use of the strength of any of our strikers.

We would need a combination of Messi and Maradona to dribble through the minute gaps we try to constantly thread the ball through.

If mancinis answer to our problem is always to go and buy another player and blame the existing players rather than address his own tactical shortcomings, where does the spending ever end?

[Dameerto]

There's one thing that would have had City ten points clear by now and there's another that would probably still win us the league. The first would have been signing Van Persie as Mancini wanted, the second would be getting Mourinho. But I can't abide either of them, RVP's a nasty twat, Mourinho's an egomaniac, and you don't have to be Colin Shindler to think that City need to keep a bit of their soul. Getting RVP would have been like signing Rooney, the only thing more unpalatable than Mourinho taking over would be having Ferguson in charge.

Well over half of us , including me , were aginst gettng Van Persie. At the time , that seemed right because we had four good forwards playing well, so no need to disrupt them for a 25M quid injury-prone 29 y.o. Unfortunately , all of our forwards have gone off the boil this season.Mourinho will be a mistake if we get him - 2-3 years then off somewhere else.

I don't think he WILL be off in a few years though - I believe his next move to England will be to settle down and build a dynasty as big as his ego. He's slept around for a bit on his European 'Grand Tour', got it out of his system, now it's time to move into the cottage in the country with the girl of his dreams and start making babies.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

A few questions. Are we playing well or poorly most of the time? i.e forget spells of games like v WBA,Scum 2nd half,Newcastle.

Will most teams primarily defend against us and when they do is our build up a bit slow and ponderous?

Are some players ,maybe quite a few, in poor form?

If the answers to all of those are yes the final question for me is does the boss think the same? Or is it possible that the boss thinks we are playing well and we aren't doing well enough because we keep missing chances?

[PeterParker]

He is inconstant. That is what is wrong with him.

It always had and always will, that might always be the problem with Bobby. He can tactically take a piss on every manager in the world, like he did at that 6-1 in the Swamp and other games, but he can be so clueless sometimes that is almost heartbreaking. I think the club has reached some point that we can always go down from here.

I don't want him out, i respect him for winning us the title and finally making us a team that has that "last minute winning mentality", but i am not blind to see that almost every player that came here, lost some of his spark. Nasri, Dzeko, Milner - were players that were world class before coming here, now they are just ok.

I think the decision was made when our new two administrative staff from Barcelona sign with us. He will go in the summer, but maybe because he wanted to sign with Russia this summer or because of that row with Marwood about bringing in new players.

[carl_feedthegoat]

A few questions. Are we playing well or poorly most of the time? i.e forget spells of games like v WBA,Scum 2nd half,Newcastle.

Will most teams primarily defend against us and when they do is our build up a bit slow and ponderous?

Are some players ,maybe quite a few, in poor form?

If the answers to all of those are yes the final question for me is does the boss think the same? Or is it possible that the boss thinks we are playing well and we aren't doing well enough because we keep missing chances?

I think Moyes would have all the players we have playing to their strenghs , I also think he is more tactically astute than Mancini.

All in all its Mancinis fault we are battling away,it has to be as its gone on too long now.He told us many weeks ago that he KNEW WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS......I think he was bullshitting.

[carolina-blue]

A few questions. Are we playing well or poorly most of the time? i.e forget spells of games like v WBA,Scum 2nd half,Newcastle.

Will most teams primarily defend against us and when they do is our build up a bit slow and ponderous?

Are some players ,maybe quite a few, in poor form?

If the answers to all of those are yes the final question for me is does the boss think the same? Or is it possible that the boss thinks we are playing well and we aren't doing well enough because we keep missing chances?

I think Moyes would have all the players we have playing to their strenghs , I also think he is more tactically astute than Mancini.

All in all its Mancinis fault we are battling away,it has to be as its gone on too long now.He told us many weeks ago that he KNEW WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS......I think he was bullshitting.

Me thinks, that there in lies the problem , Knowing what it is and knowing how to solve it are two completley different things ,

[Douglas Higginbottom]

A few questions. Are we playing well or poorly most of the time? i.e forget spells of games like v WBA,Scum 2nd half,Newcastle.

Will most teams primarily defend against us and when they do is our build up a bit slow and ponderous?

Are some players ,maybe quite a few, in poor form?

If the answers to all of those are yes the final question for me is does the boss think the same? Or is it possible that the boss thinks we are playing well and we aren't doing well enough because we keep missing chances?

I think Moyes would have all the players we have playing to their strenghs , I also think he is more tactically astute than Mancini.

All in all its Mancinis fault we are battling away,it has to be as its gone on too long now.He told us many weeks ago that he KNEW WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS......I think he was bullshitting.

Me thinks, that there in lies the problem , Knowing what it is and knowing how to solve it are two completley different things ,

The question is though ,does he know what the problem is or even think there is one.I think when he made that statement he was referring to our defensive lapses but the real problem ( it certainly is now anyway) is our attacking play and the fact that we don't really look like scoring goals.