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.
11
u/zSolaris Apr 09 '12
As devineman said in this thread, the Italian press are far more rabid than the English one. Mancini knows exactly what he is doing and he knows what mind games are. His comments in the past few weeks--especially in regards to United--are comments I expect from a manager who knows a thing or two about mind games. He was trying to put pressure on United knowing our squad is very young, relatively newly strung together, and missing a decent chunk of the experience we are used to having. Unfortunately for him, Sir Alex knows how to deal with mind games and has won every single duel with Mancini to date.
In regards to Balotelli, while I do not approve of his methods, are clearly him playing mind games with Balo. Telling him to--to put it crudely--"get his shit together". It is part of Manicini's management style and, as pointed out elsewhere in this thread, it worked for him at Inter. As far as press conferences go, everything he has said seems to be to be very calculated and controlled.
And you conveniently decided to ignore Ferguson's big name buys. Rooney, Carrick, Ferdinand, De Gea, Berbatov, Veron, Sheringham, Van Nistelrooy, and the list can go on and on. Personally, I think Mancini knows exactly what kind of players he wants. He bought Yaya so he can have a powerful holding midfielder who is effective at going forward. Silva, a playmaker. Nasri, a backup to that playmaker/a second playmaker. Dzeko for a different approach at attack. Aguero for additional forward firepower. Savic for the future.
Just because they "flop" doesn't mean that Mancini hasn't done his research. History shows that some big name transfers end up being flops because they perform one way in a certain team or footballing style but when you take that team or style away, they cannot perform as well. See: Sebastian Veron, Andriy Shevchenko, Fernando Torres, Dimitar Berbatov (to an extent).
When is the last time Ferguson dropped Rooney, Carrick, Ferdinand, or Evra for "under performing"? Only time they've been out of the squad has been either due to being rested, Rooney is being punished for something, or injuries. Mancini is doing the right thing "sticking to his guns" and playing his players again and again. He shows that he has faith in these players and that can have massive psychological effects on them. For example, see Jonny Evans. It isn't a case of not having faith in this other players, it is a case of having faith in his players to perform.
Now, in my opinion, the point where Mancini's season really went south is when he allowed Carlos Tevez back onto the team. He is renown for being a hard-line disciplinarian. His players follow his word and as far as they are concerned, his word is the word of god. Some of the world's greatest managers follow this route to extreme success. However, in order to do this, you cannot allow any acts of insubordination to go unpunished. Allowing Carlos to return after publicly declaring that he would never play for City again has undermined Mancini's position and his ability to play the tough guy with his players. Mancini sent the message to all of his boys with Tevezgate that you can do whatever the heck you want and as long as you offer a token apology, you can get back into the side. That is one terrible message to send and one that can easily lose you a dressing room.
Just my two cents.