Roberto Mancini, the manager of Manchester City, is coming under a lot of pressure after a series of poor results in the English Premier League.
City drew a match against their neighbouring rivals, Manchester United, in the midweek and they drew again on the weekend against Birmingham City. Both these matches were drawn at home, which puts extra bit of pressure on Mancini, who is not doing exceptional at Manchester City.
Apart from these home draws, Manchester City was thrashed by Arsenal at home as well. Therefore, the fans and critics have been blaming Mancini for wrong tactics. He is being blamed for using defensive tactics, even in easier matches that have resulted in unwanted draws. Also, Mancini has been found guilty of negative mentality in his approach, which has resulted in failure of the club.
During the match against Birmingham, Mancini made a tactical mistake when he substituted Carlos Tevez, the Argentinean striker, and brought on Gareth Barry, the English defensive midfielder. This move seemed inexplicable as the match was level at 0-0 and City needed to get more attacking in their approach, rather than being more defensive. Same approach was used against Manchester United, which also resulted in a goalless draw for the team.
Also, in the previous week, Mancini made statements suggesting weaker goals for his team. Mancini suggested that City was playing for a Champions League finish only, and the title challenge was never in mind. At one point in the season, Manchester City did look like title contenders, but their poor run in recent weeks showed a lack of commitment and an absence of a positive mindset. After investing big money in their team, a mere fourth place finish is something unacceptable to the fans.
Amongst this criticism, the assistant manager David Platt has come out in defence of the manager. Platt said that Mancini is not a defensive manager and the whole issue is being observed from a biased view. He suggested that Manchester City played an attacking football for most part of the match against Birmingham. However, Tevez was still troubled by his injury from last month, which resulted in his substitution. Platt said that Mancini faced difficult decisions, but he made them only to be wrongly criticised because of a lack of understanding by outsiders.
The only problem with Platt’s explanation is that Mancini could have made other substitutions. The Brazilian striker, Jo, was sitting on the bench, but he never made it into the match. Roque Santa Cruz was brought on for James Milner around the hour mark, but it did not prove fruitful for City. So, bringing Barry for the last ten minutes of the match really seemed a bad decision for Mancini.
Although, Mancini made some mistakes, he was let down by his players as well. Manchester City forwards had too many wild shots and they failed to challenge the Birmingham keeper in the match on most of the occasions. Out of 24 shots by City players, only 7 were on target, which is really poor for the players of this calibre. In the end, it was a mixture of some poor football and some poor managing that let City down in their home ground.
Nevertheless, Mancini would have to change some things in his camp. He needs to work on the mentality of his players, who really are coming under a lot of pressure as well. In order to achieve this difficult goal, Mancini would have to change himself as well. He needs to set high goals for him, because he has the capability to do so. Only then he would be able to get a finish close to the top and a place in the Champions League.
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