EPL news: Roberto Mancini criticized for his tactics against Manchester United
Roberto Mancini might have thought that he was entitled to some credit after getting a draw against Manchester United at the Eastlands stadium as he ended City’s streak of four successive defeats to the Red Devils. However, Mancini
is now in line to face the music due to his pragmatic approach to the match against the Red of Manchester. Clearly, the home ground was not happy at the end of the game which was against a Manchester United side which was described as the “the worst United
side in the history of the English Premier League” by some.
Plagued by injuries, United travelled across town to face their derby rivals with a depleted squad that contained an injured Patrice Evra, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher and Rafael Da Silva. Evra and Rafael aggravated their injuries
during the match and they had to be substituted whilst Fletcher and Scholes were forced to play on with minor knocks.
However, the nil all result was an embarrassment for the team in Blue as City failed to dominate the game and create any clear-cut goal scoring chances. City’s defensive strength has been well advocated in the 2010-2011 season
as they have only conceded 10 goals in 12 games in the Premier League, but they have only managed to score 15 goals themselves, something that will definitely need to be addressed if they are to capture a UEFA Champions League spot come May 2011.
Graeme Souness, Roberto Mancini’s ex-team mate at Sampdoria in Serie A remarked on the situation at Manchester City as he said, “City fans will understand that Mancini plays a type of football that means they won’t lose too many
games. But you go back to Mark Hughes’s days and that was his undoing - he had too many draws. Chelsea’s goal difference is plus 23, City’s is plus five and I don’t think you can go with a front three of Tevez, David Silva and Yaya Toure if you want to play
attractive football and win home games, which you must do if you are going to win anything. They don’t complement each other. City need someone to give them more guile and craft to deliver the killer ball.”
Roberto Mancini might argue in return that his only target this season is to capture a top four spot in May of 2011, something that he is on course to do. However, his attitude that was reflected during his statement that Chelsea
would win the league is bound to infuse some negativity in the Manchester City camp.
Nonetheless, Manchester City are currently fourth in the league table ahead of Newcastle United and five points ahead of Tottenham Hotspurs, a team that piped City for the fourth place spot last season.
Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure’s brother, who played at Arsenal previously under Wenger and won the league with the London club in 2003-2004, said, “When you play against the top teams, the most important thing is to try not to lose. The
key thing in the Premier League is to make sure you beat the teams you are supposed to beat, like Wigan and Fulham and Birmingham. If you can do that, and then draw against the big teams like United, then you will be ok and you can be up there. The manager
came in and we all knew he was Italian [in his thinking]. We work a lot on our shape as defenders and as a team. We work on covering each other and that has made the difference. We don’t concede a lot of goals now.”
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