Bobby Manc – For Or Against?

For the last two weeks, I have watched the blues from my sick bed, growing ever more disheartened by what I have seen.

A defeat to Arsenal I can sort of take. Arsenal are a good side and City were always up against it when Boyata got himself sent off. But losing to Wolves and then falling to a poor defeat in Poland has made me think the playing staff isn’t worth the money they have paid for them.

But some of the players seem to be escaping attention seeing as Roberto Mancini has come in for a fair bit of flack recently. His supposed bust-up with Carlos Tevez and more recently, players such as Gareth Barry and James Milner have come out in defence of the manager, stating there is no problem.

There’s no hiding the fact that City’s recent poor run is a million miles away from what ADUG are trying to achieve and the feeling is that Mancini already has the noose around his neck and defeats to West Brom today and United on Wednesday could see him drop through the trap door. But would sacking the Italian be the answer? Let’s examine Mancini’s case.

Mancini Should Be Sacked

Let’s face it, since taking over from Mark Hughes, Mancini hasn’t done much to bring success to the club. When he arrived, City were already in the semi-final of the League Cup but Mancini’s cautious approach at Old Trafford cost us the game. We should have done much better in the FA Cup and fourth place was there for the taking. But for some reason, Mancini couldn’t inspire the player to take that last Champions League spot and we lost out.

It’s that kind of failure that we thought was in the past but it is still there, haunting us season after season. Mancini has also clearly lost the dressing room. He is showing that he is not in control at the club and the big egos dominate match day, not him.

And let’s not forget his tactics. He’s got David Silva and Adam Johnson, two players more than capable of turning a game yet he doesn’t play them together. Johnson on the right, Silva on the left would take us back to our glory days of the 60’s and 70’s. The sort of team Mercer and Allison built. Yet he leaves them on the bench. Why? He prefers to play a lone striker, relying on Carlos Tevez continually and since he’s been injured, we haven’t performed.

Mancini is not the tactician that we thought he was and it will be better to replace him now than wait until the end of the season. That way, we might still have a chance at finishing in the top four.

Mancini Should Not Be Sacked

Plain and simple, Mancini should not be sacked as manager. Why? Well for a start, last season he took us into Europe by the much preferred route of finishing fifth. Okay so we could have had fourth place but fifth is a huge improvement on our previous Premier League finishes. He’s bought a lot of players but he has bought the right players for the club. When he joined City, Mancini inherited a squad that was used to getting their own way. Under Hughes, some players were almost guaranteed a starting place no matter how they performed in the last game and they have tried to carry it on under Mancini.

But the Italian is having none of it and his decisions have not gone down too well with the players. But they have to realise that Mancini is in charge, not them. They are the ones who should be performing on the pitch. Mancini picks a good team but they don’t play to the required standard. The passing is woeful at the moment and defending is even worse. Even against Lech at Eastlands, three defenders dallied around the ball, neither made a challenge and Lech scored. Why should Mancini be responsible for that?

Mancini is still to find the right balance in the side and sacking him now would mean another winter of discontent at Eastlands. We cannot afford to keep replacing the manager every year just because of a few bad results. Let’s not forget, we go into the West Brom game in fourth place with an opportunity to put some clear distance between ourselves and the chasing pack. How many times over the last 30 or so years have we been able to say that?

What do you think? Is Mancini’s position really under threat or is that just the media trying to cook up a storm? Should City sack Mancini? If so, who would replace him? Let us know your thoughts.

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