Forgive the broken record

But Mancini must be replaced as City manager
I realise that his tenure has seen 3 trophies brought into the club and I understand the yearning for stability which is something that we've never had for decades.
But I believe for all that,considering what's at his disposal,we are being shortchanged.
If we hypothetically switched Mancini for Moyes,Mourinho even AVB
would you think that we would be sitting this morning 15 points behind what is in effect a fairly average Utd side by their standards?
Would we have a team that folds whenever the opposition play with a bit of heart and get stuck in?
Would we have no width and absolutely no pace or plan B whatsoever?
Would we have just played another must win game and found the only passion in a city shirt coming from the incredibly loyal travelling support(?(who yet again were magnificent yesterday)
We all know the answers and hopefully the Barca 2 will let the sheikh know in unswerving detail that the only change needed is at the top.

Coming out of Goodison yesterday was the same as at st Mary's a few weeks ago,fuming at such an insipid gutless perfoamce and Mancini has the audacity to be too angry to attend the post match media duties
Don't blame the ref for his poor performance and don't blame the players for yet another tactical masterclass
Mancini and only Mancini takes the blame
Inept and out of his depth

End of rant

Ditto to all that.

We should have bought a CB last winter, especially when Cahill was available for £6M. Or Alex after he was frozen out by AVB. They'd have been happy fighting for a starting spot or on the bench. Cahill has done plenty of bench warming as he hasn't complained. Now he's overtaken Terry in the starting line up. Isn't Alex a starter for PSG who are in the q/f of the CL? Komapny gets injured/banned and we have to play a fat Kolo (if memory serves me). Now Mancini is complaining that we should have bough a CB this winter. WTF are Lezza and Kolo for if not backup? If they aren't good enough as back up why are they still at the club?

I crave for players with pace. That puts the shit up the opposition (and helps when we lose the ball).

I hope you're right PPLF. The Spanish 2 should be able to see what we can see. We shouldn't be fighting just to finish top 4 (we could so easily slip out with a bad run). With our squad, and the right summer additions, we should have been coasting this title.

Disagree with the CB argument. Nasty has played well this season with Kompany and pretty much the same with Kolo.

Last season we ended up as PL Champions - of that team, we had the best keeper, the best CB pairing in Lezza and Vinny combining to all of our defence being the best in the PL last year.

In MF, we had 2 players that would walk into any team in Europe: Yaya and Silva.

Up front we had Aguero, another that could've walked into any team in Europe.

So if I'm correct, I make that:

Hart

Zaba
Vinny
Lezza
Clichy

Yaya
Silva
? - to replace NDJ (who played a big part in our solidity)
?


Aguero
?

That's 3 places to fill. Looking at the team at the end of May last year - tell me the 3 players for those positions? It's really that simple when you sit down and look at it - knowing you have the likes of Tevez, Dzeko, Barry etc etc in the squad.

What I meant about the CB, Bobby is complaining that we should have bought someone in the Jan transfer window. If he was looking to freeze JoLo out, maybe buy Cahill last winter?

You could argue that Bobby wanted Di Rossi, RVP and Martinez.
IF we had them, maybe we'd be half decent.

Hart
Zabba, Kompany, Lezza, Clichy
Yaya, Di Rossi, Martinez, Silva
Aguero, RVP

Now you tell me that isn't a good team.

It is a good team. However, ask yourself why Bobby wants to freeze out Lezza? Why try and break up the best CB pairing in the PL? That's odd and tinkering with a proven formation.

You could argue that this team is equally as good:

Hart

Zaba Kompany Lezza Clichy

Yaya NDJ

Milner Silva Tevez

Aguero

One change - NDJ has gone.

or, knowing you want a change - 2 MF and a striker from the 3 I mentioned:

Hart


Zaba Kompany Nasty Clichy


Martinez


Silva Yaya Bale


Aguero Cavanni

£40m Bale
£40m Cavanni
£25m Martinez

Balo out - £40m
NDJ out - £6m
Nasri out - £15m

£44m outlay + Nasty forget the shit he bought for close to £40m.

I don't think it's anything to do with who we have or haven't brought in
It's just a collective lack of desire running through the side which I find to be the biggest issue

Simple eh?

Well, actually it is.

The lack of tactical awareness is at times incredible
Who thought playing 3 at the back with Kolorov's defensive inadequacies being exposed as a theoretical wingback against a side who use width as their main attacking option as a good ploy?

That sort of sums it up PPLF.

Against a team we generally struggle against, the first priority would be to stop their wide men....and you don't do that by playing 3 at the back.

We swapped at one point back to a flat back 4, Silva swapped sides and we suddenly started to dominate...then he swapped back again.

I agree, tactically Mancini is poor.

Agree. I mean WTF! Why go three at the back against Everton Didn't he do the same against LPoo & Real Madrid & hasn't he had to abandon it every time he's tried it

Blue thanks for trying to cheer me up. It didn't work My mood just got worse after England got battered, the scum won & then the cricket got washed out. After another Bury loss, a pants Grand Prix all I need now is wins for Spuds & Chelski to make it the worst weekend of sport in recent memory

In answer to your question I think my photo tells it all

I will keep trying to cheer you up then TMG!

I've not changed my point of view since the Southampton game. Bobby could have gone then for me.

I still stick by the fact he was a lucky manager last year and this year he seriously had been found wanting.

Please forgive my broken record but get Gollum in there must be some reason he won't sign a new contract. You can bet there will not be performances like that.

I'd take Golom or Mourinho without question

It's not going to matter who we buy - we already have very talented players, but if the formation, tactics and attitude aren't all there - then we are going to falter. We are not consistent and with the abundance of talent we have and the glorious football I have seen them play sometimes - it's up to Bobby to get it right when we are up against Everton, Liverpool. We slipped up against Sunderland and Swansea in the past and lately Southampton. All games we should have won.

Don't agree with PPLF about AVB - to me he's not proven himself yet - the Spuds slipped up to Fulham at WHL - and no excuse for that.

Wasn't being serious with AVB

That's okay then:D

Wensdi and PPLF have hit the nail on the head for me. There's precious little in the way of passion in the squad this season and I'm not entirely sure where it's gone. Maybe NDJ had it when he left?

But it's patently obvious. Aside from Zab, Milner, Aguero and Tevez, who always put in a massive shift in every game, who else has stood out as being 100% up for it, every game?

Hart has been making mistakes and being a bit cocky. Clichy is a bit hit and miss and we've not had a steady CB pairing all season. JoLo looks like a man who's been frozen out. Barry seems like he's not with us every game, Garcia can only cut it against weaker opponents, Nasri frequently goes missing, Yaya only turns up when it suits him and - as much as it pains me to say it - Silva is looking very ordinary this season too. As for Dzeko, don't even get me started!

This, to me, looks like a team full of people going, "Well, we WON the league last season, what do we have to prove?" The answer to this is simple: Prove it wasn't a one off. Prove it wasn't the massive fluke it's looking more like with each passing week.

Tony,
"England got battered, the scum won & then the cricket got washed out. After another Bury loss, a pants Grand Prix"

Know exactly how you felt mate. Went to Gigg in a bad mood after watchin City and came out in a worse one....although tbf Bury played absolutely brilliantly but somehow lost.....my weekend didn't really get any better after that.

Mancini tends to struggle with his formations when certain "big" players are out, if Aguero's not in we struggle for goals and if Yaya's out we have no authority and drive from CM. His inclusion of Kolarov was utterly baffling, surely everyone knew Clichys speed would have nullified Colmans bursts down the flank. To me we seem to lack the same intensity and speed of last season, dropping us down to other teams level....this needs to be built back up for next season.
Still believe Mancini will be here next season if we win the FA Cup and imo rightly so, if not he's struggling. Moyes is a no-nonsense manager that would be a more than able replacement that would get 110% out of everyone, unfortunately i think the owners would go foreign again (think Jose's going to Chelsea, so won't be him).

I believe he had gone for the 3-5-2 because that's the formation Wigan plays, and Wigan trounced them last weekend. If that's why, then he deserves to go just based on that. It was obvious they would not fall for that again. Inept.

Or, if it was for other reasons, why change a back 4 that had not let in a lot of goals recently? On that, he deserves to go.

Either way, I've had enough. Terrible season. We won't win the FA Cup, and if we do then he still deserves to go. Terrible signings, terrible tactics, terrible attitude from the majority of the players, terrible substitutions and more.

Terrible.

RM should have a full squad to choose from by the time we play Newcastle. This would be a good time to show some dominance and build some confidence - as long as he gets the tactics right. Yaya, Kompany and Sergio should all be fit. What about Micah - is he anywhere near fit yet? I know a lot of you want him to move on - but I think he does add something to the squad - he's big, powerful, can run and he's good. I know he's injury prone but so are a lot of players.

Wensdi,

Every player gets injured at some point in the season no matter who they are. Unfortunately some get injured a lot more than others and pick up a reputation for being injury prone, that is no use to the squad in the long run. Michael Owen is a prime example and our own Michael Johnson was an extreme example of this but Micha Richards, Santa Cruz and Jack Rodwell have joined the list. Micah has barely played a full game this season, Santa Cruz was always injured and was even injured when we signed him from Blackburn and spent his first couple of months on the injured list if i remember correctly.

We need players that are a bit stronger and up to the rigours of a long season, if they are going to be spending most of their season with the physios then they are taking up a squad place that should be used by somebody more up to it in my view.