The thing with City is Mancini is still tactically naive no matter how much he spends on players. He WILL also have major problems with keeping players happy as they can only field 11 each week. They will get into massive trouble getting rid of said players as they pay players far more than other clubs can afford. Hence the reason the likes of Adebayor, Santa Cruz and Tevez are still moping about backstage at City. All those superstar egos and only 11 places. Soon the likes of Barry, Milner and Balotelli will be added to those not playing and impossible to sell.

His tactics last season were defense, defense, defense. 3 holding midfielders at home for example and reliant on the world class individuals to pull something out of the fire. This season he's gone to the opposite strategy of attack, attack, attack. Whilst still successful because of the sheer quality of the attacking players, you have to wonder how they'll cope with the Champions League playing like that.

Mancini is no tactical wizard. The fact that Moyes shows him up twice a year is hillarious.

Correct me if i'm wrong, (i was 7 at the time), but the majority of the Man Utd team that won the very first Premier League was the same that finished 2nd in the last old First Division the year previous. The introduction of Sky Sports coinciding with Utd winning the league simply helped Utd to increase their profile at home and more importantly abroad, thus increasing the money they had to spend on players. City have simply had their money given to them on a plate, they have earned none of it. THAT is the gripe of alot of people i'm willing to bet.

Whos reviews have you read rob?


You only need to watch his highlights on youtube to see what hes got

I remember York giving a trial to a lad who looked brilliant on Youtube. Scoring for fun at an apparently decent level. He now plays for Harrogate Railway!

Ive no doubt that Nasri is a quality signing....It just seems, from a distance, that Mancini has no firm idea on what formation he sees City playing in....He signs players, throws their names in a pot, and comes out with random ideas of what he wants from his squad.

Even in your post, you don't seem to clear on what City will play...Dzeko, a man who jus 7 or 8 months ago you were spending 20-odd million on, was seemingly on his way out, until he recently grabbed a couple of goals.

It seems to be exactly the same transfer policy that Rafa Benitez was often accused of, if a lot more expensive.....Buy players, discard them after a short period, gain zero consistancy or any sort of team spirit, because players don't have chance to form relationships.

Its a risky strategy, but as I said before, it can't go on forever...Mancini has to stop and prove his own worth pretty soon.

Thats great but I have seen him in four games and my point was it shows them on youtube.

If he shows up as good as the them games he will be a bargain if we land him.

A step up for the lad then!?!

Football Managertastic!

Mancini tactically naive? I have read some nonsense on this forum but that surpsses all in terms of stupidity. He has been negative, yes, but tactically he is very, very good. He's far superior to Moyes, in terms of tactical ability. Mancini's problem appears to be his man-management skills.

As for the games against Everton, our finishing let us down, certainly in the last two. He got it wrong at his first game at Goodison but tbf he had not long been in the country and hadn't encountered many teams who simply dive around the box so they can win free-kicks in order to lump high balls into the box.

If you simply go by head-to-head clashes in the PL then Mancini is far better than Ancelotti. Is that the case?


As for Mancini having a scattergun approah to signing players....I can't agree. Nasri is exactly what we need. Watch the Community Shield for evidence. Our central midfield is one-paced. We needed someone who could carry the ball, inject some urgency into our play, bring others into play, not require three touches before passing a ball forward and provide a goal threat. We also need someone who can play on the right as Johnson doesn't provide enough quality for a full 90mins.

How many players has Mancini signed and then discarded? The players he's trying to discard were signed by previous managers.

As for the system he'll play, it will be 4-2-3-1 in most matches. The point I was trying to make, perhaps badly, was that he will not stick rigidly to that formation and seems intent on building a squad capable of playing different formations. For example against Swansea we started with 4-2-3-1, changed to 4-3-3 and ended up playing 3-5-2 complete with wing backs! Surely that sort of tactical flexibility should be commended?

.....You highlight the scattergun approach in that paragraph.

Why sign all those central midfielders, if what you actually needed was a pacy one?...Just sign the pacy one at the start, rather than sign a barrel load of players who, 6 months down the line, prove to be poor.....Similarly, with Johnson, why sign him if he isnt good enough in the first place?.....There is a thing called scouting (Clubs used to do it, people like Mancini don't, because its unlikely he ever leaves the comfort of his FM11 game)..A good scout would have told you he was very raw and not really upto winning you a league title.

But why bother with normal transfer policy, when you are loaded, you can simply sign players to stop your rivals getting hold of them instead?...

Balotelli??.....a year ago, a big £25million signing, now after realising he's not very good, he'd be allowed to leave with the first decent offer.

Arsenal clinging on at 1-0 down. De Natale a constant threat. That said, Arsenal have had chances. Predict Arsenal lose 2-1 on the night and go through on away goals.

As posted above, think Nasri will be a perfect signing for city. Not sure why they have put an image of Nasri scoring against MUFC on FIFA 2012 on their official site though?



Is it possible for them to sign a player withoit bringing MUFC into it?

Balotelli is very talented. He's worth the risk. If he applies himself he will be world class.

I personally think Mancini is doing a great job at City and was/is exactly what they need.

When he first arrived at City they had a ridiculous bloated squad, with a large amount of distinctly average overpaid players.

I think since then he's tried to skim the fat (Adebayor, Bellamy, SWP, Santa Cruz, Bridge etc) and go Chelsea-esque where you have a squad of 20 players, all of whom are absolutely quality, and after that you have the youngsters who can hold their own.

With the champions league this year he'll be able to rotate the side as much as he likes safe in the knowledge that there is quality right behind it.

As for him not knowing his formation, i think he knows his first choice defense, and that (if fit) the midfield will contain Toure, De Jong + Silva. I think continuity is important in those areas alone really, I feel as though the players they have up front can come in and out of the side and they are all that good they can do what is required. (and tbh, Dzeko is the one that has really really impressed me so far this year, he should be the lone target man, and Aguero plays out wide).

Another thing I respect about Mancini is that the big(ger) ego's and trouble makes seem to be either getting beaten down (Tevez) or shipped out (Bellamy, Adebayor). The one enigma in this case is Balotelli, but I think City are now in a position where he is back to being a luxury, they don't rely on him so they can drop him and leave him out if they need to. I don't think they had that last season when Tevez was injured and Dzeko was MIA.

I guess you didn't read Cibaman's post before coming out with that vitriolic nonsense. I think you should give up as you are beginning to embarras yourself.

Inside_man. - What a well-thought post. You should post more often.

What are you doing on our site, you sad get?

. Great site though, don't you think?

Aye it is a bit sad showing him scoring against United. Saying that I would think Blues find it amusing rather than a kind of fist-pumping-aren't-we-great attitude.

Tbf mate, you should be enjoying the rivalry and look forward to our future battles. I am sure you would prefer to be fighting us rather than, let's say, a London team.

Great to see Danny Nardiello bang one in tonight. Not good enough for United but still has enough to put one past the best keeper in the world.

Yes, penalties are hard to score these days...

Will we see Arsene splash the cash now that Arsenal are through to the Champions League?

Pristine irony there flower.

Pretty sure either City or United are going to win the league. Are you gonna post when City don't win this season? Or just be allover it when your winning as per?

You obviously don't know what you are talking about. There was an article on City's scouting network posted which you can read [url=http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=202193here[/url.



I'm not sure I agree with that particularly the man management. I think he's done very well on the latter saying the right things in the press about players e.g. Adam Johnson who says needs to work harder without the ball. Tactically last year I think he was still finding his feet in the competition which resulted in the conservative play of last year which is why this year is interesting. He found out last year that in this league it is not enough to get a goal up and sit back, especially at home and he has acknowledged that by saying we need another 25 or so goals to challenge for the title. Knowing that now he has more or less committed himself to being more expressive with the ball which is interesting because now, if he shuts up shop in games we should be winning, he'll be called into question and with good reason.

We had problems opening up teams who just sat back against us and employed our own countering tactics and its looking like he's recognised that, hence the purchases of Aguero and Nasri to give us more options, hopefully in our starting 11 and not just from off the bench if the game isn't going our way.

Tim Howard?

Nardiello had a couple of really good chances. Could have had a hat trick.

I see Jordan Henderson is learning the ropes at Liverpool very well. He's the new Steven Gerrard alright. His one two and surge into the box was so Gerrard-esque, as was the subsequent dramatised tumble and cricket-esque appeal to the referee.