Mancini: Lost in Transfer

Anti-climactic, that would probably be the most apt word to describe the Premiership title race this season. Many expected this season to be a sequel to last year’s roller coaster ride, but alas the world was disappointed to see the race end well in advance with more than a couple of weeks to go. It has left many football fans scratching their heads and wondering how the gap between the two Manchester sides grew to this extent. We look at three aspects where Mancini may have lost the plot.

The transfer market

When it comes to the transfer market, there have been few sides that could match City ever since the Sheikhs came into picture. This time around, things were not too different with the difference being that both City and United had Van Persie as their prime target. In a surprising move Van Persie unlike his other Arsenal mates (Clichy, Toure, Adebayor and Nasri) chose the red side of Manchester. City surprisingly did not pursue any other striker and went on to buy what many would call fringe/ squad players. City went on to add the likes of Sinclair, Rodwell, Javi Garcia, Maicon and Nastasic. Barring Nastasic and Javi Garcia none have been in contention for a regular starting spot.  United on the other hand went on to add Shinji Kagawa to their attack, though the Japanese has not had much of an impact, he has shown glimpses of what one can expect from him in the future. Buttner was bought from Vitesse and has been more of an understudy to Evra though he has still managed more starts than former Swansea winger Scott Sinclair.

A look at player contribution that were brought in during the transfer window

A look at the ones that left during the transfer window

Above statistics give an indication that Mancini let better players in Balotelli and Johnson leave and brought in players (Sinclair and Rodwell) that were way below par in terms of performance. United on the other hand have been releasing players that they believe have past their best, whereas City let some of its most promising young players leave. What’s baffling is Mancini let two of his strikers leave and did not bring in any replacements in January. There were clear indications that Tevez was not the force he once was, Aguero was struggling with fitness issues and Dzeko who it seemed never had the complete backing of the manager irrespective of his goal scoring form.

Some of the stats also reflect Mancini’s lack of judging talent and paying well above their market price as in case of Scott Sinclair and Rodwell, both of whom cost City about £25 million. For sure Mancini was not prudent when it came to transfers, but buying average talent consistently may have played a role in his departure.

Fixing when it ain’t broke

When City won the title last season a lot of it was down to the system they employed with two holding midfielders in Barry/ De Jong, Yaya Toure and Silva in free roles with Ageuro and Tevez/ Balotelli upfront. The system was working great but for inexplicable reason, Mancini wanted to try the 3 man defence while playing at home, Lescott’s skepticism about the formation cost him his spot in the team. Mancini resorted to his Plan A around November but by then United were already inching ahead in the title race. Whichever way you look at it, City looked a shadow of the side that won convincingly at home and grinded out results away.

A look at City’s home and away form

It’s clear that City lost the title based on its home form and largely that could be attributed to needless changes in tactics. One wonders if Mancini believed teams had worked him out and it was proactiveness on his part that warranted those changes, the question is was this actually the case? There were also absurd tactical switches in many games which left fans baffling, the latest of all being Rodwell replacing Tevez in the FA Cup final while super sub Dzeko looked on as City were in search of the elusive goal. It’s in such a scenario one should admire Sir Alex, he stuck to his guns (in terms of tactics/ formations) for the last decade and it surely paid off in terms of success.

Chalk and Cheese

A lot of credit was showered on Mancini when it came to man management, most of it was down to how he handled the Tevez episode and Balotelli was always going to be a handful. It seems adversity  brought the best out of Mancini, in comparison 2013 was a peaceful year in terms of controversies but for some reason he seemed to have lost the Midas touch. Balotelli started in a rich vein of form only to look an average player before being shipped off to Milan. Lescott was left out in the cold and even out of favour, Kolo Toure was given a look in ahead of the England international. Surely matters could have been sorted behind closed doors rather than making it look like obvious animosity between player and manager. Nasri too was one of the players Mancini criticized publicly and unsurprisingly the player hit back through the media. If this evidence of a split within the dressing room was not enough, one needs to only look at the FA Cup final. It was obvious that Wigan was the hungrier team and City looked a team out of gas and spirit.

Mancini may have won City their elusive league title in blockbuster style but he failed miserably at pushing on and retaining it which ultimately cost him his job. Did anyone mention sequels never living upto expectations?

This article was written by Ajay Chourasia, you can follow him on twitter at @ajaychourasia

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