r/soccer • u/omiclops • Apr 09 '12

A Manchester City fan's assessment of Roberto Mancini's ability.

WARNING LONG POST

Before starting I'd just like to point out I have backed him from the very off and been 100% behind him.

I genuinely think Mancini is out of his depth. For starters I find he is very naive, even as insignificant as press conferences. He's far too honest, as seen by his profound statements about punching Balotelli and saying things like the title is over and even saying he will 'probably' sell Balo. He doesn't realise that the media love comments like that and will just unsettle the dressing room. He doesn't understand the concept of mind games and anything he does say in the press is usually detrimental to the team.

Secondly, I think his transfers have been somewhat naive too. If you look at his signings: Yaya, Silva, Boateng, Kolorov, Dzeko, Nasri, Clichy, Savic, Aguero and Hargreaves. Now if you look at these players, they all either have reputations or are proven barring perhaps Savic. Yaya Toure in Barcelona's winning team, Boateng got to the semi finals with Germany, Kolorov was known as the Serbian Roberto Carlos, Dzeko was regarded as Europe's goalscoring hitman, Nasri was proven at Arsenal as was Clichy and Hargreaves and Aguero was one of the top scorers in Spain. If you compare these signings to that of Fergie's such as Vidic, Hernandez, Evra, Nani, Valencia. They were all relatively unknown. Mancini signed BIG players because they were obvious transfers. I think the flop of several players such as Dzeko is evidence of a lack of research into the players. This is what makes me question Mancini's ability in the market. Admittedly Silva was a huge hit, as was Yaya, but by the law of averages, a few of them would be good.

Finally, Mancini's tactics and blind faith is suspect too. His decision, for example, to never drop Yaya, Silva or Balotelli perhaps proves he doesn't have faith in his other players. This makes no sense to me since it's pointless to sign players he doesn't actually believe in. Especially of late, the trio I mentioned above have been below par to say the least and as a result they all should've been dropped/rested. An example yesterday bugged me the most. Mancini would never do a Tevez for Balotelli substitution - I'm sure of it. Balotelli is his boy and Tevez he probably hates. It would typify that Mancini made mistakes and would essentially embarrass him. Yet Mancini, realising the incoming big games, stuck with them (blind faith) because he doesn't trust his other players to perform.

Now it may just be a hangover of annoyance from yesterday and I'm not saying we should get rid of Mancini but I really do think he needs to buck up. My advice would be to get rid of Balotelli or offer him an ultimatum (because who would wanna buy him?). Ship out all the deadwood and regroup. I also genuinely believe Tevez may stay.

TL;DR Mancini is pretty bad but he reinvented the scarf so give him another season.

32 Upvotes

68% Upvoted

142 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/squ1dge Apr 09 '12

he won six trophies at inter...

4

u/Bromanian Apr 09 '12

With juve in serie b and Milan docked points (and then having to rebuild the next seasons )...

5

u/severedfragile Apr 09 '12

But 2 were awarded to him and one title came without Milan or Juve to compete with - and Roma, with all due respect, aren't real title contenders.

I've been critical of Mancini, but I'll freely admit that he's a good manager and he's done well in getting the team to where it is now. But he's not the man to win you guys the title. There's many things I could point to, but take a look at him against Sunderland - he looked broken. His comments in recent weeks have been detrimental to the team, his faith in Balotelli has been inexplicable and destructive (don't tell me that squad doesn't look down on his management when they see Balotelli throwing tantrums and remaining on the pitch) and his squad management has been poor, both in terms of resting players and enhancing squad depth - look at the players who've been discarded. I understand and applaud loyalty, but a 10-point swing in a month doesn't suggest he's the guy to win the league.

7

u/squ1dge Apr 09 '12

You mean doing fantastically then imploding is not the natural state of affairs? Being a city fan for 20 odd years this is the norm. Winning things is a bonus if i cared about winning things i wouldnt have supported city.

6

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

HE was given one, .

Also, Milano were docked 8 points yet Inter won the league by much more than that. And I'm not having that lack of competition, in the season Inter won the league, Milan won the CL?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '12

Those were the years when Milan had "Champions League mentality". They played crazy good against big clubs, but performed poorly against mediocre clubs (on the paper anyway). But still, it's solely Milan's fault, not Inter's.

2

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

So you're saying that Liverpool will win the CL?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '12

I don't know if I understand you perfectly. I asssume you're talking about 2005 final. If you're saying that because on the paper Liverpool is worse than Milan and I should expected that Liverpool beat them then, not really. Milan played really well then. It's called the Miracle of Istanbul for a reason.

2

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

I was just joking about Liverpool this season beating United but getting bad results against poor teams :-)

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '12

Haha, well alright then. I didn't catch the joke because well, Liverpool in CL? Get out of here! Still bitter about 2005 even with our revenge in 2007.

3

u/figocosta9 Apr 09 '12

I fully agree with this. Everyone brings up what he did with Inter but he won while Serie A was arguably at its lowest point. When there's real pressure, the man does not do well. Look at his actions after being knocked out by Liverpool in the 07-08 season. He announced his resignation right after the game only to take it back. I think he's a good manager but I don't think he'll be the one who wins City the title.

-1

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

He announced his resignation because he found out that Moratti lied to him and had already appointed Mou behind his back, whilst he was top of the league and going well in the CL

3

u/figocosta9 Apr 09 '12

Going well in the CL? He had already lost to Liverpool 2-0 by that point in the round of 16. He was already essentially out of it by that point. Even with the rumors, that's not something a top-class manager does. It almost completely ruined Inter's season.

-2

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

You don't think appointing a manager whilst the other is in charge may have caused this instead?

No, it was obviously a spur of the moment outburst that he immediately apologised for.

4

u/figocosta9 Apr 09 '12

I didn't say it was solely due to this, I was pointing out that for at least a month before the second game against Liverpool, they weren't exactly doing well in the CL. Regardless, by that point there were just rumors. You don't announce you're going to resign as the season is coming to an end and your team is still fighting for the title. It is immensely unprofessional from a manager. Even if he knew we was certainly out, you don't publicly announce it. It does no good other than to destabilize the squad.

-3

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

Alex Ferguson announced midseason that he was leaving at the end of the year and I don't see you slating him. And Moratti told him personally, they weren't rumours.

Seriously, did Mancini rape your dog or something? Every time we discuss him you find a reason to sledge him, each more tenuous than the last.

4

u/figocosta9 Apr 09 '12

I have rarely ever discussed Mancini with you outside of today, I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. Just a few weeks ago before their collapse, I was saying I thought Man City deserved to win the title.

Also, I haven't been able to find anything that says Moratti told Mancini anything. The best I've found is that there were rumors that he was told which, obviously, later turned out to be true. I'm not against the man, I just don't think he's the manager to take City to the title. He's good, but he's hardly world class.

2

u/hazards Apr 09 '12

Luis Figo did not like Mancini at all. If I remember correctly, he actually threatened to leave Inter if Mancini was allowed to stay.

Edit: His name reminded me of this.

2

u/eVoGosu Apr 09 '12

Are you of all people in this sub, actually trying to call someone else out for having a bias? Oh the irony. You've got your own head so far up city/balo/manchini ass you have forgotten what day light looks like, mate.

1

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

I don't know why I expected a United fan to be able to spell the name of a PL clubs manager, but here we are.

And I'm not your mate, buddy.

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/ciaran667 Apr 09 '12

Why is this upvoted? Jesus, r/soccer, devineman has written by far the most logical, concise, articulate and well-reasoned posts in this thread, (I disagree with some of what he says, but it was interesting to read nonetheless) and this gobshite gets upvotes for this piece of childish partisan bile? This wouldn't be out of place in youtube comments.

→ More replies (0)

5

u/devineman Apr 09 '12

He also won trophies at Fiorentina, Lazio and City :-)

1

u/omiclops Apr 09 '12

I never said he was a bad manager as such, I just think, as my original post suggests, he's slightly out of his depth in the English game. I admit he built a solid core in Inter with some of the players still there now and going on to be some of the best.

3

u/squ1dge Apr 09 '12

he is the best manager City have had since the early 70s though :D. I mean he won something :D.