"Mancini will be gone by Christmas"

I see loads of people coming up with this "City could sign Messi and Ronaldo and they won't win the title under Mancini:" etc...I must say I am quite astonished.

I am not the biggest fan of his type of football (thought they play the ball on the ground and when it clicks it's great to watch)...and I find him restricting his players (especially midfielders) quite puzzling considering Mancini himself was the definition of a flair player....but come on, a manager's CV never lies.

He's managed to win trophies every club he's been at. He's won trophies at Fiorentina, Lazio, and Inter. and in his first full season at City (YES, I know he's spent quite a bit), he finished joint 2nd, 9 points behind the eventual champions, and ended club's trophyless drought (Similar to what he did for Inter's years without Scudetto)

There were many critics of him about his Inter's CL performances. I think it's unfair to judge him for that. His Inter side were eliminated against Villa Real because Adriano was a total moron and they actually mostly dominated. Next year, they went out to Valencia because of away goals in a very very very controversial game which had a lot of fight which are still out there. And in 07-08 his team lost to Rafa's Liverpool which is no shame as every single European giant was embarressed by us at some stage during that 5 year reign, so no shame in that.

He managed to make some smart transfers like Cesar and Maicon...He also gave Balotelli his first chance...He really is a very under-rated manager IMO. The way people rate/treat him, you'd think we are discussing Steve Keane, or Stuart Pearce.

He made City's defense solid and it's the base for every successful team out there. Now that they have a very solid defensive unit, I expect him to put more emphasis on the offensive side, and I fancy them to be much more attractive next season. They play the ball on the ground, barely ever foot it and have great players to keep doing that going forward.

He got his tactics spot on in his biggest game of the season in FA Cup Semi....I, for one, am really looking forward to Charity Shield game, even if it's in Mexico !!

I don't like him naming out his transfer targets as I find it disrespectful to other clubs..but he also comes across as a decent guy.

mancini is smart because he is building defense.

it's aimed for the CL, and they will do some damages imo.

he's been quite awful at city tbh. some of the lineups he has fielded have been absurd. tactics have been disappointing. has mismanaged players certain players. poor youth development (pretty much abandoned boyata).....


i could go on. i was amazed that they won the FA cup honestly. but they have so much talent on the roster it's really shameful if they dont collect trophies

Chelsea reached CL final with Avram Grant as manager? Is he underrated too?

If u spent insane amount of money u will eventually win trophies.And just winning FA after so far spending nearly 200mil is not really a great accomplishment.

As for his transfer market he spent 24mil on Balotelli.No sane manager would spend that much on him.

lenear1030 wrote:he's been quite awful at city tbh. some of the lineups he has fielded have been absurd. tactics have been disappointing. has mismanaged players certain players. poor youth development (pretty much abandoned boyata).....


i could go on. i was amazed that they won the FA cup honestly. but they have so much talent on the roster it's really shameful if they dont collect trophies

Have to disagree mate. The only player that has been mismanaged IMO is Milner. Who was absolutely brilliant for Villa before his move. Maybe he didn't have the top 4 club mentality, it will be interesting to see how it'll cope.

Richards was hopeless under Hughes, but he was very very good for them last year and Mancini has made him great defensively. He also peromanently moved Kompany from DM to CB, which seem to have worked out as he was PL's best CB alongside Vidic. He also got the call of Hart over Given spot on IMO.

They are actually signing quite a lot of young players and I'll be interestd to see how they develop. The biggest negative point for me has been puzzling transfers of Koralov, Boetang and Milner and Balo (though Mancini got it spot on to get rid of that overrated bad apple in Ireland) .... Yaya and Silva took a couple of months to find their feet, but are actually pretty good now. I also think Kun will help Dzeko find his form ... He got the most away wins in the league after Arsenal and Chelsea ......which is pretty good in his first full season IMO.

BeautifulGame wrote:Chelsea reached CL final with Avram Grant as manager? Is he underrated too?

If u spent insane amount of money u will eventually win trophies.And just winning FA after so far spending nearly 200mil is not really a great accomplishment.

As for his transfer market he spent 24mil on Balotelli.No sane manager would spend that much on him.

Balotelli is a different story

BeautifulGame wrote:Chelsea reached CL final with Avram Grant as manager? Is he underrated too?

If u spent insane amount of money u will eventually win trophies.And just winning FA after so far spending nearly 200mil is not really a great accomplishment.

As for his transfer market he spent 24mil on Balotelli.No sane manager would spend that much on him.

But did you really expect him to win the title in his first season ??

Winning the title isn't all about the players. It's about team cohesion and winning mentality. Something Ferguson has absolutely mastered....I think coming joint-second is actually pretty decent, though their very good run in the end massively helped them.

Mourinho, when he came to Chelsea, got lucky that Ferguson was rebuilding and had his worst team in the decade, and also Wenger decided to start his project and let go of his invincibles one by one.

Don't forget that Mourinho spent an absolute fortune in his first season @ Inter on utter tripe, and yet only managed to get 84 points in the league (less than 2nd team in PL that season) and was absolutely dominated and embarrassed in CL by Ferguson's Man United.

Sepi wrote:
But did you really expect him to win the title in his first season ??

Winning the title isn't all about the players. It's about team cohesion and winning mentality. Something Ferguson has absolutely mastered....I think coming joint-second is actually pretty decent, though their very good run in the end massively helped them.

Mourinho, when he came to Chelsea, got lucky that Ferguson was rebuilding and had his worst team in the decade, and also Wenger decided to start his project and let go of his invincibles one by one.

Don't forget that Mourinho spent an absolute fortune in his first season @ Inter on utter tripe, and yet only managed to get 84 points in the league (less than 2nd team in PL that season) and was absolutely dominated and embarrassed in CL by Ferguson's Man United.

I wouldnt have expected a title but certainly a title challenge.Not fighting for fourth in may and tipping them just because Liverpool had Hodgson for 1st half of season and Spurs had a spectacular collapse in 2nd half of season.Honestly i would expect more if u spend nearly 200mil.

Their finish to the season makes it look better than the season City actually had.He had done nothing great to really praise him but we just wait for this season to really make a judgement on him.So far if anything he only underachieved for what he could done so he isnt underrated in my eyes.

You need solidity before anything else, Mancini is quietly trying to accomplish that. Constant finishing in the top 3 and UCL footie on a regular basis are always good short term plans. Although I would assume they'll want a sterner go for the EPL, City seem to have an "understanding" of things i.e money doesn't always guarantee results. Yes, I do think he has an underrated vibe about him and also, if Man City didn't want him, they would have fired him.

It's not like they are into saving and stuff...

What I haven't liked about City in Mancini's era is that they buy loads of attacking players yet play rather defensively.

And despite already having a world-class strike force, they haven't improved their weakest part, central midfield, but have concentrated on the striking options still.

"Mancini will be sacked by Christmas" - 3/4ths of goal.com forum, September 2010

His tactics bore me to death, sorry. It's made even worse by the slew of attacking talent he has at his disposal, but they all play mostly like drunkards.

His obsession with DMs is annoying, even worse that he loves starting Barry and Milner, which won't get you trophies, sorry. In Europa League he was a huge fail, and with that team I really can't comprehend it. On paper he should have walked the Europa, or at least done nicely against Porto. Yeah ok, he won the FA cup. Big deal, most big sides use the FA cup as youth training. He has the advantage of a huge, talented bench.

The titles in Serie A were giveaways since Calciopoli had everyone tits up and Inter were in good shape and with a solid team. The rest, Copa Italia years ago.

His first real test will be next season, with an even better team and CL football. We'll see, but I still don't rate him highly.

Underrated? The guy was given a gold Koenigsegg Agera and all he did with it was take it to the shops and back for a bag of broccoli florets and a newspaper

I think for the players City have at there disposal he doesn't go for it enough, especially on the road....park the bus far to often

brilliant post sepi and i agree with what you said!

I think both sides have a point. But you can't expect Mancini to tell his squad to just go for it and attack like crazy just because he's got the players. Having the players doesn't mean much, if they can't play together. And, clearly, they still lack a LOT of chemistry. So what Mancini has to do is improve the defense. Yes, they were pretty boring to watch, and at times quite the cowards (against man utd for example), but I don't underrate or overrate him.. I think we'll see what happens during this season. They will miss Tevez, who seems to be on his way out.. and we don't know how Aguero will do. I wish them the best. I always have preferred them to United, even before the big money injection, well maybe because they didnt have much money lol and now because Im simply not a big manutd fan.

Its a step by step process. Building the team to function properly is just one thing.. now he has to take it one step higher and start winning properly. TBF for Mancini he did what he was asked to do, get to the top 4 and get CL football. This season he will be properly tested, he has to win with style to stay in that chair IMO. No more unnecessary draws in the PL and he will atleast have to go to semi's in the knockout competitions.

He is no Mourinho alright but so far he has done a decent job.. slowly nevertheless..

- Half of goal.com, September 2010

If only I could go back and look through that epic thread

Jerk Thread Knee

Negative Manager

Its not the day after Christmas 2010, its been 8 months

tbf Mancini so far this season has been much more positive than so called tactical genius AVB who really struggled against tactical nous of Roy Hodgson