How Long.....has he realistically got after that?

What does everybody think?

I know we need stability, I know we won the league, I know we are still in for the PL.

But............after tonight, we WILL NOT qualify for the next stage again after spending another £35m and selling the one player who we could count on in a game like this.

I like Mancini, but tonight - AGAIN, he got his selection all wrong from the start.

Now - we've been here before, but even IF we were to go on and win the league again, the owners, I'M SURE...wanted us to at the very least, qualify through ANY group we got drawn against...and let's face it.....2-1 up against Madrid with 6 minutes to go and get beat 3-2.........completely outplayed at home by Dortmund and get a lucky penalty to draw 1-1.....then play Ajax and get played off the park for 70% of the game, revert to a back 3 for 5 minutes, give away a goal and then revert back to a back 4 with our LB at RB......sorry, but what the fuck is that all about when Milner could play RB.......Clichy LB and Micah and the yet to start Kompany at CB's.

Tevez kept on the bench for so long? Nasri, left on so for long and ended playing in CMF??

I'm really not sure what the fuck he had in mind - if anything tonight.

Personally, ....I think the owners will be in Pep's ear first thing in the morning....I just cannot see Mancini surviving past December....after tonight.

Garcia and Rodwell - are they really a replacement for DeJong??? Both are injured...and hardly played.

Sinclair for Johnson? Hardly seen him.

Lescott....if Mancini stays will probably play every other 5 games after another woeful performance...and Kompany???WTF has happened to him? Worst City player so far this season.

Yaya......was probably right when he said to his agent he needs a new challenge...he must have seen what was going on with Mancini and his selection and buying policy....and how he has persisted with his love-in with Mario....because tonight......he couldn't give a shit through 94 minutes.

Not sure where we should go........................but so far this season, we've been fucking woeful and look completely disjointed all over the pitch.

Pep or Bobby? Guess it won't be down to us................or our opinion, but I can't see the owners being happy at all with the situation this season.

I wouldn't blame Mancini for tonight. The players looked woeful, and just like the couldn't be arsed. Not moving quick enough. I lost count of how many passes made between the back 4. Passing that like is pathetic.

Aguero just looks a shadow of his former self this season, Dzeko only plays well when brought on as a sub, but I think Mancini picked the right side.

Don't understand this 3 at the back business. It clearly doesn't work. What is different from last season? I think now Tevez and Aguero up top is the way forward, but our midfield just looks all over the place!

Signings; why isn't Sinclair given a go? Why buy him if we aren't going to play him.

Is Pep the right man? He did well with Barca, but I'm sure it would take a pretty dyer manager to f*** up Barcelona.

Im still pissed that we let the best DM in europe go the scum because we didnt want to play 10k more and we are still paying that cunt bridge 100k ! joke!

Sorry........but i think after 20 minutes he should have saw what was happening and made a formation change. They played with immense width with their full backs as wingers...what did he do? Nothing. We played with 3 central MF's for 65 minutes.

After 20 minutes he could have changed what he had and played this formation to counter what they were doing:

........................................................Hart.........................................................


................Richards......................Kompany.........................Lescott.................


....Milner........................................Barry........................................Clichy.........


...............Nasri................................Yaya...................................Aguero............


......................................................Dzeko..................................................

It's not rocket science!!!

No he waited until we were 2-1 down, then reverted to a back 3 with Clichy at RB???? WTF??

We went 3-1 in that time frame......then waited until 12 minutes to go to bring on Tevez???

Sorry...as much as players were shite...and they were, he got it all wrong tonight early on.

We had a player in Sinclair who would have ensured their full back (which ever side he played) would not have ventured forward as much....but they always had an 'out' ball out wide.

First goal - from out wide on the right...as was the third........second came from a corner, all because we had no-one marking their right full back.

So, as much as we were shit all over the pitch, the formation allowed them to get to the edge of our area unchallenged all game.......and that's down to formation and tactics....as much as the players playing woefully - IMO

I must say that I have never been one of the Mancini out brigade,but he was the reason behind tonights downfall.It was his team, his tactics,and it was crap to be kind.Where is all the experience he has had in European game?They were not on show tonight.He said that he knew what was wrong after the last game,he also said he was going to remedy it,why did'nt he?We were too slow and it was a case of one pass forward three passes backward.And four defenders stood and watched the second goal headed in,scored by an average height fullback!!

Bob, he showed all his European experience last night: He never got anywhere in the CL with any team he's managed. I think he has this view that whatever style he plays will be enough, and it patently isn't.

But the players need to take some of the rap for this, they were very poor.

There seems to be a pattern emerging for the big games whereby we start very slowly and get dominated by opposition who are far more motivated than we are. As well as the 3 CL games its been exactly the same at anfield and for the visit of Arsenal.If theres one thing i cant stomach watching,its the opposition wanting it more and im finding thats more often the case this season.
What sort of performance was that from yaya?He was utterly dreadful and the lack of tactical nous shown by Mancini & the coaching team beggars belief.
Its all well and good pointing out that we are champions and won the fa cup the season before but the pertinent question should really be whether he has done any more than any other run of the mill manager would given the same set of circumstances?Does anyone believe a Moyes or a Curbishley wouldve fared much worse?For whats its worth i believe fat sam wouldve won the league with that squad as would Rednapp.
Saw his interview this morning on sky sports saying hes at fault for not preparing them properly.While many may believe thats ok to try to deflect the blame from the players,i thought it was a disgraceful thing for a manager to admit to yet again and his position is becoming untenable.

All we know for sure right now is that Hughes couldn't cut it. I still don't agree with the managerial merry-go-round and we all know (I hope) that United went through a similar phase early on with Taggart, but I do think that with the funds at our disposal, FFP or not, we should be doing better.

It didn't help selling NDJ for a piffling three million and then ignoring a £40m bid for Mario. That was a no-brainer call: One player works hard and helps lift team spirit with his humour, the other is a selfish child whose ego writes cheques his talent is unwilling to cash. I'm pretty sure we could park almost any PL manager in Bobby's position and they'd side with me on this one.

As a side note, I notice the MCFC OS has crashed. Is Bob going to take the blame for that as well?

I heard Micah wasn't happy with 3 at the back and the formation.... bout time someone told him, he will either make Micah sub for the next few games, or maybe, just maybe the penny will drop like it did just before our winning streak to the title when it was all free flowing football, all the players were happy and we hammered everyone, and shut UTD out with not a shot on target... seems like a far cry now...
But I can only mirror what's been said above, somethings gotta give, or all our star players will want out, and we'll end up doing a Liverpool.
Mancini either smarts up at CL level, stops fucking around with daft formations, or he'll be out on his arse, shame, I really like him but wasting such talent, a crime.
Of course, we are in a terrible group, with seasoned CL teams, the margins of error are minute and make a chasm of difference, the loss to Real, which should have been a win, woeful finishing in the 1st half v Dortmund......
if we win every game left, scrape thru on 10 point then only then will Mancini be safe, but I see nothing other rhan a painful, slow, torturous death,,, again in the group stages..... :-(

It is alright saying that rotation is the thing,but when do Real or Barca mess about with a winning formation?The same formation and players have been playing for years,and it has not done them any harm.They are still regarded as the premium teams,Bobby wants to get himself,or his staff, sorted out pretty quickly.There are a few proven people out there that will step in and produce.In football you are only as good as your last result.On a different topic,after all the garbage that the rags have been posted,do they honestly think that they are good enough to progress?Wait till they get some decent teams,then they will be the ones who are crying in their soup!!

Bob, totally agree, if the two teams were swapped out, they'd be getting the same treatment, and I for one don't think they'd be winning at Madrid 2-1 with 5 to go.
Mancini played a system for the past 2 years that has earned us the title and made us the tightest defence in the past 2 seasons, the defence wasn't the problem, it was midfield, freeing up Yaya and making the most of Tevez for the last 6 games, if the players know the system, they instinctively carry it out, don't have to think about where they are, positioning etc.. they just do it, time will tell if the penny drops!

13 competitive games this season, only 1 clean sheet against a woeful sunderland side.

22 goals conceded in 13 matches against such teams as liverpool (2), southampton (2), qpr (1), Villa (4), ajax (3).

Maybe Bob is looking for a plan B that will work? I noticed last season that some teams started finding us out and playing to stop us play (West Brom, Sunderland, Arsenal) and it was only a matter of time. Unfortunately we don't have the cachet of teams like the rags or Barca, teams that other clubs fear and just don't attack. We're the newbies, the team everyone wants to beat to prove we're not up to it.

But I don't understand why he wants a definitive plan B. His substitutions last season were almost always excellent and made a difference to games that were getting away from us. He seems to be able to cut it when making changes on the fly, so why not persevere with that?

As for the back 3, that could work as long as we have two wing backs prepared to put in a shift. Zab and Micah on the right, fine, but Clichy and Kolarov on the left worries me.