Mancini said he's not embarrassed by the terrible campaign, good courage, but it's embarrassing and disappointing with his interview after yesterday. Did he mean he did not take the blame on himself ? It's worrying.
- First: "I don't think we lost our qualifying tonight, we lost before." but then said: "Getting into the Europa League was our target tonight."
It's a self-contradictory defence: What qualifying? if it's CL 2nd round then pointless, if it's the EL qualification, then if it's "lost before" then why "was our target tonight" and played many core players (right before the derby).
The obvious thing is that by playing that team, he really thought that it's not out of City's hand and did try, but failed again and denied his responsibility. Did he underestimate Dortmund again? Or he guessed that Dortmund would play halfheartedly though he had thought they lost his chance even before.
At the end, Dortmund played with fewer 1st team players and far less motivation, but still beat City.
- "Tonight we tried but we were missing players. We had chances to score but we didn't and if you don't do it is difficult to win."
"We wanted to win but to win we needed to score."
What? Did he mean to blame on the players, and specifically the strikers? Remember that Dortmund did not use their first team. The strength of Dortmund is in their system and gameplay. Mancini clearly did not have his stamp on that, but still rely much on the individuals and their own performances. Mancini's not a developmental manager, inconsistent with tactics and gameplay. Great individuals are not enough in football (especially European football).
Many pundits and City fans blamed the player attitude. But I see they're hard-working, and there're no internal problems/rumours like last year (Tevez, Balo, Yaya...). With the great squad (individually) City have, a very good manager should be able to compete with the best on multiple fronts.
- Mancini: "Last season we did better. This year we had a very difficult group and if you make a mistake in the first two or three games it is very difficult."
Another poor comment. The group this year is just a bit more difficult, and the fact is City is ranked in 2nd seed, but every one (even RM) first feared them and thought they should be in 1st seed pot with their squad. The teams should have complained about tough group are Dortmund and Ajax. Mancini doesn't seem to accept that this year his team performed very badly in Europe (regardless of the group). It's not just the mistake in first 2-3 games, City did not meet the expectation in every game of the group with unimpressive play.
I think the issues are about the tactics, selecting team and priorities. Mancini seems to have problems to play in different fronts in the same period, against varying football styles. Also, he seemed not to settle for the strongest line up this season, but experimenting too much.
For a young manager, I think the likes of M.Laudrup or Klopp would do much better with the squad quality City have.
What does Mancini's defence mean?
posted on 5/12/12
Laudrup and Klopp are flavour of the month, I wouldn't be considering them just yet.
Agree with the rest though. For me, the players look together, but I wouldn't be surprised if he is starting to lose the dressing room. Tactically, he has been all over the shop this season and it has taken one or two changes, or the quality of individual players, to get us out of it.
I thought before last night that Mancini would have until the end of the season and then someone else would be coming in. Now, I think a lot may depend on the result on Sunday.
posted on 5/12/12
I've never thought Mancini was right for you and I think that if you had a real top quality manager you'd have probably dominated, and still could. I do hope you give him until the end of the season though but I think anything less than champions, or runners up & a cup, and you could see him leaving.
Been underwhelmed by City this season, I'd convinced myself after last season that they'd use the title and push on for a few more blitzing everyone in their path but that just hasn't happened, luckily for us.
posted on 5/12/12
He meant that qualifying for the next stages of the CL didn't come into the equation last night, and I guess that's his real focus.
Think it was a fair point to be honest.
I think City will find their feet in the CL, and I agree with the next quote he makes too.
If they'd have held on in Madrid, who knows? Confidence is a huge motivator in football, and if they'd returned from Madrid with something, then the pressure may have been turned onto someone else.