Football is a fickle game for the most part, and has no patience for such nonsenses as ‘deserved’ or ‘fair.’ Despite being such a cruel mistress, there are certainly ways in which you can try and beat the game. Buying all the best players in the world is certainly one way to do this; another is if you, or your team, make a mistake, learn from it and make damn well sure you don’t do it again.
Roberto Mancini, unfortunately for Manchester City, seems utterly incapable of doing this. After gaining a reputation for suicidal conservatism last season, Mancini spent his summer trying to relieve himself and his team of this stigma. The signing of Sergio Aguero and the equally impressive (and high-scoring) start to the season gave the impression that the lesson had been well and truly learnt. However, some of the old lacklusterness was on display at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
Now, don’t get me wrong; Fulham are a good, solid side who deserve more credit than they ever receive, and the Cottage is never easy to visit. A team chasing the title, however, can not afford to drop points from a winning position, whatever the situation. While the temptation away from home is often to shut-up shop and hope for the best, a team of City’s apparent quality should have the know-how to see games out, either through solid-possession or putting the other team to the sword.
With City’s attacking quality and solid set-up, either should be possible, yet more often than not they appear to be the architects of their own downfall. Zabaletta is a fine player, yet removing the talismatic Silva with 20 minutes to go fools nobody as to their intentions; it’s almost an open-invitation for the opposition to start attacking them.
Sunday was not the first time it has happened this has to City this season either; few fans who travelled down to Wembley will forget how a strong position was blown by trying to sit on the lead rather than extend it when United were there for the taking. Nor is likely to be the last; City seem to have great difficulty in finishing off opponents, growing particularly complacent during the vital 55-75 minute mark. Why this is is unclear; maybe arrogance, or comfort, but more likely a collective feeling of job done, emphasised by the manager’s predictably conservative approach.
It can neither be dismissed as ‘Italian negativety’, with the oft-branded cliche of the Italian emphasis on defense. For a start Mancini was an incredibly talented attacker, but it has also been years since an Italian team produced a great defense; Serie A is now known for its potent attackers rather than wily defenders.
Perhaps this is the difference between a champions and pretenders, the ability to see games out no matter what. It’s the small things that make an excellent team a brilliant, title-winning team, and it’s the small things that Ferguson’s United have mastered again and again. City like nothing better than to be mentioned in the same breath as United; for them to be truly compared, they need overcome the small hurdles. To do this, Mancini and his City team need to learn to kill games, and fast.
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Follow you on Twitter, Joseph Trotter?
Do be’ave, I’ve enough pompous self opinionated twats to deal with at work without choosing to follow one on Twitter!
OK Joey we’ll pass on your advice to Roberto. Expect to hear from him soon. You are talking about one of the best coaches in the world who won Serie A three times in succession and six other Italian titles. Not to mention the FA Cup last season. We think Roberto knows better than you Joey.
“Sunday was not the first time it has happened this has to City this season either; few fans who travelled down to Wembley will forget how a strong position was blown by trying to sit on the lead rather than extend it when United were there for the taking” I’m sorry Joeseph but this is nonsense, Utd were not there for the taking, in fact City were lucky to have a lead going in at the break because they were awful for the entire 90 minutes in that game. Sunday was a different story altogether, in truth the game should have been over at half time but the City players let complacency creep in and were punished.
What a load of pigshit Mr Trotter, but then with a name like that we should expect it. I think if you look at Man Utd’s performances last year there were quite a few instances where they lost a lead and ended with a draw. Yet they still won the championship. Why not praise the excellence of Man City’s first half performance. No of course not you’d much rather look for faults.
Mancini is missing Patrick Vieria, I think.
He was great to throw on in the last 20 minutes to prevent us from conceding.
If De Jong was fit, Fulham wouldn’t have come through the middle of us like that. I hope Owen Hargreaves comes good, but I fear he will get crocked warming up tonight.
Why would Mancini listen to your advice Mr Trotter?
Your arrogance is staggering.
I think you’ll find that it’s probably a little early in the season to be making those kind of comments. Mancini will do just fine at City. I think you’ll also find that Silva was tired after an hour on Sunday and the substitution was more a neccessity than a tactical change. You’re just making assumptions based on lazy journalism.