231 replies to this topic

[Turrable]

ESPN feed choppy as hell for anyone else?

[OilCanShotTupac]

Great game.  Was flipping back and forth between this and the Sox game - they ended at almost exactly the same time.

 

I was also, nominally, working.

Edited by OilCanShotTupac, 08 April 2013 - 03:55 PM.

[Turrable]

 

Aguero = Nava

[teddykgb]

love the effort from the MUFC captain Patrice Evra there.  Never made it inside the penalty area.

[soxfan121]

Who is the primary defender - the guy who steps back, takes a step in the wrong direction and then chases Aguero through the shot?

[Turrable]

Better angle

 

[teddykgb]

Who is the primary defender - the guy who steps back, takes a step in the wrong direction and then chases Aguero through the shot?

Ferdinand and then Jones

Edited by teddykgb, 08 April 2013 - 10:52 PM.

[Tangled Up In Red]

Wow, Evra

 

edit: then again, you should be able to trust your teammates to do a reasonable job

Edited by Tangled Up In Red, 08 April 2013 - 11:44 PM.

[mabrowndog]

[URI]

So...Mancini is trying to get fired, right?

[teddykgb]

What makes you say that? Poor mistakes led to goals.  I tend to think he's not quite good enough and probably needs to go, but what about yesterday's match pointed to Mancini trying to get fired? I'd honestly love to have some new ammunition.

[DrewDawg]

The FSC commentators were ripping him postgame yesterday, saying that he never reacts to what's happening on the field except to throw his hands in the air when someone makes a bad play.

[Zomp]

Loan period is up guys.  If you could clean it before returning to Old Trafford, we'd appreciate it.

[teddykgb]

Loan period is up guys.  If you could clean it before returning to Old Trafford, we'd appreciate it.

 

Touché.  I'll console myself by trying to convince myself that the FA Cup is just as important.  And then hope that we don't get bumped by Wigan.

[URI]

What makes you say that? Poor mistakes led to goals.  I tend to think he's not quite good enough and probably needs to go, but what about yesterday's match pointed to Mancini trying to get fired? I'd honestly love to have some new ammunition.

Sorry, I just re-checked the thread.

I thought exactly what was said above...he has his plan, and if there is any deviation from said plan, he is unable to adjust. Like...he expected the shit Spurs of the first 30-40 minutes of the game to stay shit, and when they started playing a little bit better, the team didn't adjust and Spurs dominated the last half hour.

Like he game planned for a midtable team and realized that he was 2 goals down and decided to put Lescott as the 92' striker.

[teddykgb]

Lots of smoke about Fernandinho to City being done or nearly done coming out of Italy.

 

If true, I'm happy to see us looking for a more mobile partner for Yaya.  I love Barry and what he brings to the table, but I think Yaya and any combo of our current midfield just lack what is needed for Europe.

 

If it's really true, though, I'm most excited to see City getting a start on the transfer window early.  The last few summers have been brutal and have cost us. Getting some players in early would be incredible, especially with less major international football allowing players like Silva to get a rest.

[LTF]

Not transfer-related, but something many may find interesting:

 

http://espnfc.com/ne...anchise?cc=5901

 

On a somewhat related note: Teddy, did you get tickets for the City-Chelsea match at Yankee Stadium? I passed. Wasn't thrilled with the prices. Fuck that.

[teddykgb]

I did. They sell them individual now but they're still overpriced. I just couldn't resist even if i'll be lucky if even half the youth team makes the trip, let alone anyone of note

[Zomp]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[teddykgb]

Deserved.  A game that summed up the entire season.  City once again were almost impressive in their ability to find ways not to score.

 

Reload in the summer and take it to Gollum and the rest of the league next season.

[Turrable]

Mancini to be sacked this week

 

http://www.telegraph...-this-week.html

[teddykgb]

Mancini officially fired per mcfc.co.uk

 

Probably necessary as I"ve said before, but I will always respect the man for how what we achieved.

[Zomp]

Is it necessary?  He deserved at least one more year, IMO.  Not his fault Silva and Aguero had sub par years.

[Zomp]

They fired him because they want a holistic approach...what. the. fuck.

[teddykgb]

Is it necessary?  He deserved at least one more year, IMO.  Not his fault Silva and Aguero had sub par years.

 

I think it became necessary when they had a shit show of a press conference after the FA cup loss where he basically said the ownership needs to make this go away.  Probably they wanted to do this at season's end in a more orderly fashion, but the news leaked and it was impossible to put back away.

 

Obviously you're smart enough to know that statements in an official PR are hardly something that should be read into.  I think they fired all the coaching staff because they wanted a holistic approach, and Mancini had packed the youth level with some of his buddies as coaches, only the youth teams were really lousy in spite of the youth talent that had been purchased.  

 

It could have gone either way, but it's probably better to make the change too early rather than too late.  If we'd have had to have fired him next Jan after another disappointing CL campaign, another season would be gone.  We'd know for sure that it was the right move, but that was probably a bit too long to wait.  He's a lot like Claude, in a way.  His teams show up and play the same game every game.  Sometimes that's good enough, sometimes it isnt.  With the talent we have at City, it most often is enough, but there's too many teams who know how to play against us in Europe and in the PL.  Wigan was NOT a shock in the FA cup.  We basically played the exact same game against them just a week and change earlier.  IN that game, an individual moment of brilliance from Tevez saved the points, they nicked the goal this time.  Any team that could field a midfield that could press and move would give City a nightmare.  Mancini did nothing to respond to this, did nothing to try to counter this weakness.

 

Finally, City spent a ton of money to bring in Begiristan and Soriano from Barcelona.  They came on board late last season, too late to axe a manager who had just won the PL.  It really isn't surprising for new management to want their own guy in place.  I guess I'm most surprised that City moved on from their manager and Pep isn't the man coming in.  If they were going to be firing Roberto I'm honestly surprised those two couldn't sell Pep on waiting for City to bring the old team back together.

 

Pellegrini seems to be the favorite to replace Mancini.  I'm really, really high on him as an option.  He plays a very similar formation but seems to be able to get the offense flowing a bit more against packed defenses.  There are also (of course) some rumors about maybe Mourinho.  Should be interesting to watch this play out.

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

So if they had beaten Wigan in the FA Cup he would have kept his job?

 

I dunno, he won the league on this day last year; he takes them to the promised land, then finished 2nd the next year and is sacked? Seems awfully bizarre to me.

[URI]

Sounds like a certain west London club...

[teddykgb]

Sounds like a certain west London club...

 

He's been here for 3.5 years.  Chelsea have had what, 4 managers in that time frame?

 

I don't think he would have survived if they had beaten Wigan.  His performance in the CL and Europa, combined with continual struggles against some of the lower sides really did him in. I'm pretty sure they would have fired him even after winning the FA Cup, but like I said, there was a major leak about this the day of the FA Cup and Roberto didn't react to it well.  Team really had no choice but to make a move now or face another week of this.

[Zomp]

and in those 3 years they've finished 3rd, 1st (!), and 2nd.

 

I dunno, I get the aggravation at not making the Champions League knock out round, and certainly the FA Cup defeat, but money doesn't always mean success (I know you know this).

 

Sometimes patience is the way to go.

[teddykgb]

and in those 3 years they've finished 3rd, 1st (!), and 2nd.

 

I dunno, I get the aggravation at not making the Champions League knock out round, and certainly the FA Cup defeat, but money doesn't always mean success (I know you know this).

 

Sometimes patience is the way to go.

 

 

And outside the CL after losing a must win game at home to Spurs on the last game of the season the year he took over.  I get why this is a bit puzzling to supporters of other teams, but I've alluded to his probably needing to go nearly all season because it seems like there's been a lot of bickering behind the scenes in addition to some incredibly mediocre performances.  City have really invested in their youth setup and the youth "elite development squad" have been a joke under Mancini's buddy.  Mancini himself gave minutes to only two youth players all season, and they nearly never made the bench.  These two can be related, of course, but I think the leadership at City really want to have a manager who can integrate the youth they're paying huge sums for while getting the most out of the highly paid players they've brought in.

 

Pretty much every player we've signed has gotten worse under Mancini.  Most of our players best games were early last season when they hadn't spent much time under Mancini.  Nasri has regressed from the sporadically awesome player he was at Arsenal.  David Silva has a shell of the form he arrived with.  Aguero is half the player he was at Atletico right now.  Dzeko isn't even half the player he was at Wolfsburg.  At times the results have seemed to be in spite of the manager, not because of him.  

 

This is going to be a huge summer for City.  They spent very little money last year (and the Garcia purchase was awful and supposedly was from Mancini) and they sold Balotelli in addition to having a lot of money coming off the books.  There's a good chance that City will be as active in the transfer market as they've been in years.  It's not hard to imagine that the new Barca guys and Mancini do not see eye to eye on transfer targets (he probably wants us to go after De Rossi to no avail again).  AGain, if they weren't working well together and you're only going to give Mancini another season to see if you can repair it, then you're running a lot of risk spending all this money and then having to start over again a season later and possibly not with the players your new manager would want/need.

 

The corollary to the idea that sometimes patience is the way to go is that sometimes it isn't.  I think a lot was really broken behind the scenes at City.  I'm pretty sure the players had no love for the manager, although we'll surely get some quotes supporting Roberto in the coming days.  I think Mancini had clashed with a lot of the back room staff and certainly the executives.  All of this kind of conspired against Mancini this season.  There's enough quality in the team to overcome it, but that doesn't mean that better results weren't possible if a change were to be made.

 

In the end, I don't think this is about the FA cup loss, that's just evidence of some of the problems, not a particular issue.  The talk of "missed targets" is almost assuredly just a justification since it is surely technically true.  There are of course legal ramifications and a buyout and all sorts of things that impact the official club communication on the topic.  In my opinion, another season at City probably would have just seen some more rot.  Now they have to nail the next appointment and have an incredible summer because this is truly a risky move.

 

I guess after typing all this it would seem like I really detest Mancini, but that's really not the case.  I think he had just found his level.  A tremendous manager for the ascendancy, has the chutzpah to really change the mentality of a team.  He said he was going to take that stupid banner down from OT and he did it.  I will always revere the guy for what he did, but I do think he's just a step below the true class managers in the world and he's an incredibly stubborn man who wasn't going to change.  If City really wants to compete on the level of Barca, Madrid, Bayern, and the club in Salford, then I think it was probably necessary to find a manager capable of bringing the team the last bit forward it needs.

Edited by teddykgb, 13 May 2013 - 06:25 PM.

[soxfan121]

Chris Ryan from Grantland has a good piece on why Mancini was sacked and the future for Man City. 

 

Under Mancini, the club has won trophies (the 2011-12 Premier League and the 2010-11 FA Cup), but it struggled to win affection. This was always going to be a problem for as long as he was the manager. He is just not a very likable person. I'm sure Manchester City fans view him as a guy who took mercenary little shits like Samir Nasri and Carlos Tevez, and big galoots like Edin Dzeko and Yaya Toure, and Bond villains like Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov, and molded them into champions, bringing the club its first silverware in decades. If a guy does that, he never has to buy his own beer for the rest of his life. I get it.

But, sadly, Manchester City's owners are not trying to appeal to the fans they already have. They're trying to appeal to fans in Kansas City, Bangkok, Khartoum, Mumbai, and Manila. Whether or not some kid in Asia cares what Mancini says about someone named Vicky, I don't know. But clearly someone in power cares. Clearly someone, or some people, at Man City thinks that Mancini is not only not producing an entertaining-enough product (which I happen to agree with), he is not representing the club with dignity. He is not who they want to be acting as the face of the franchise.

[DLew On Roids]

Mancini's won a lot of trophies over the years, but his squads have never outperformed their talent level.  Even when he was winning titles at Inter, Juve was on the mat after Calciopoli and Milan was trying to wring a few more years out of aging teams.  He's had the best squad in England for 2-3 years, won one title, and this year couldn't keep up with a Man U team that, man for man, had no business competing with City.  A lot of managers (all of them?) aren't as good as Alex Ferguson, but Mancini really suffered in comparison this year.