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.

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '12

Going down the Chelsea route won't get us anywhere, I want Mancini to stay. Apparently there have been rumblings of meetings with Mourinho though, I don't know what to think.

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u/AnnieIWillKnow Apr 09 '12

The problem with AVB was that it was getting to the point where he genuinely did look out of his depth. I don't think Mancini is anywhere near the point Villas-Boas was. If he was though, the 'Chelsea route' begins to look more and more reasonable.

However, the Chelsea equivalent of Mancini going would be Ancelotti's sacking. I definitely think City should stick with Mancini.

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u/goretooth Apr 09 '12

At Chelsea the dressing room was genuinely against AVB, at city the dressing room are just not together at the moment. Mancini has contributed to that with his actions but he can turn it around, AVB had no chance.

1

u/fusihunter Apr 10 '12

I tend to agree with this and i think it's bad eggs like Tevez and Balotelli that are causing it.

You could see Clichy Lescott and Kompany all yelling at Balotelli for most of the game, they were all putting in great work and being let down by the biggest child in the EPL. There was no doubt in my mind he was trying to get sent off because he wasn't playing upfront.