Five Reasons Why City Have Lost The Plot
While Man United march on, City's title challenge has been falling apart. Is it Roberto Mancini's fault for over-working his players or just the curse of City being City?
Over-working their creative players
One of the most noticeable elements of City's recent below-par performances has been the lethargy of David Silva. From the man who probed and effortlessly picked holes in defences up and down the land in the first half of the season, he has looked lethargic and aimless in recent months. He hasn't scored a league goal since December, and hasn't provided an assist since January. And it's hardly a surprise that he's knackered - no City outfield player has played more times than Silva (27 starts) this season, but he's not alone. Yaya Toure is next on the list despite missing a month while at the Africa Cup of Nations, while Sergio Aguero has also arguably been overloaded. By comparison, Wayne Rooney has started 24 games, Nani 22, Antonio Valencia just 15. Some of that has been down to injuries, but it's also due to better squad management.
At the other end of the scale, Adam Johnson has made just ten starts, James Milner 16, even Mario Balotelli only 13. This points to a couple of things - firstly, that City are over-reliant on certain players for their attacking needs, and that even with their riches they do not necessarily trust the second string. The second point is that Mancini just hasn't managed his resources well enough - was there any need, for example, for Silva to play all of their game at Wolves in October? Or Norwich in December? A little rest here and there would do wonders for him - wonders that would reap rewards at this crucial stage of the season.
That away form
Ever since the highly entertaining if nervy 3-2 win at QPR in November, City have been rather troubled travellers. The nine games they've played on the road since have only produced two wins - the 1-0 thrashings of Aston Villa and Wigan - while they have lost to Sunderland and Swansea, and drawn at Stoke and West Brom. Until last weekend, their home form continued merrily along (and even now they've still only dropped two points at the Etihad), masking their travelling problems. It's possible that Mancini, scared by the QPR near-result, has asked his team to play in a more cautious manner than the side that swashed and buckled their way to five at Spurs and six at Old Trafford. That caution has backfired.
Certainly against Sunderland, the deployment of a midfield trio of Nigel de Jong, Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure suggested a return to the dull old safety-first days of last season, and the trick was repeated at Swansea (complete with Sergio Aguero on the bench again) with the same outcome. What was it Einstein said about the definition of madness being doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?
Inactivity in January
"There are players that could be good for us but every time we want to buy a player their clubs ask for lots of money," said Mancini in December, as reports suggested that the Italian ideally wanted a centre-half, central midfielder and striker in January but had been told that he must sell before he can buy. Had that money been spent - specifically on any centre-half that did not go under the name of Stefan Savic - then we might now be looking at a genuine title race.
You could argue that the problem was of Mancini's own making - he had a generous budget last summer and chose to bring in Savic rather than an established centre-half and to give wages to Owen Hargreaves after an impressive fitness video, but he could not have predicted Carlos Tevez's brain fade (even if some thought it was simply a matter of time) and it was those holding the purse strings who decided not to meet asking prices inflated by their own summer largesse when winter came around.
Without significant re-inforcements (the under-used David Pizarro aside), City crashed out of two competitions in the absence of Vincent Kompany and began to falter in the Premier League, with Savic covering himself in just about everything but glory at Swansea as City keenly felt the absence of Kompany and Joleon Lescott. After that game, even keeping Nedum Onuoha would have seemed a more sensible option than trusting the Montenigrin. Hell, even Sotirios Kyrgiakos could have come in for nothing.
Mancini 'cracking up'
'Is Mancini calm enough for a title challenge?' was the question posed by F365's Philip Cornwall in January after a sequence of events that saw Mancini engaging in (and losing) a verbal battle with Steven Gerrard and then waving an imaginary card at Maynor Figueroa during a scratchy 1-0 win at Wigan. After months of appearing bulletproof, Mancini suddenly looked vulnerable.
That notion gained momentum as Mancini u-turned on Tevez just as Edin Dzeko was losing his form, publicly blamed himself for defeats against Everton and Sporting Lisbon and then flip-flopped and blamed the players for results against Swansea and Sunderland. Meanwhile, there's weekly talk of 'mutiny' from players disillusioned by his reportedly 'abrasive' managerial style - just when some might need an arm around the shoulder, that arm may only be available to a select few. With every passing week, Mancini looks less and less like the urbane Italian who made striped scarves cool again.
City are just being City
There's a certain fatalism that comes with being a City fan. A certainty that, no matter how good things look right now, it's all going to go wrong soon. And not just go wrong - go wrong in quite spectacular fashion. That sort of thing doesn't wash away just because you spend a lot of money, you know.
