The reason why we are struggling to score

[MaineRoadMemories]

Simple answer is that we are playing the wrong formation with the current players.

The longer answers is as follows.

The hybrid 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 that Mancini favours with the "outside-in" wingers brings with it many strengths and is a very good tactic/formation to employ. However, the most potent attacking advantage of this formation is the use of overlapping full backs.

Once the winger has cut inside to his favoured foot if a shot is not on and a cross is very unlikely due to being on the weaker foot there is usually a big gap that has opened up on the wing around the edge of the 18 yard box. This is where the full back comes into play.

You need an attacking full back who is good at crossing and confident on the ball to take up this position and for the team as a whole to take advantage of.

What we currently have is 4 centrebacks playing in our defence. Lescott and Richards are very good players and can defend well. However, both are next to useless at getting forward, being comfortable dribbling and able to cross a ball. Because of their lack of attacking ability (they are centrebacks after all) they rarely keep up with play and do not venture more than 20 yards into the oppositions half.

The consequence of this is that everything gets very narrow in the middle of the park and the wingers just end up shooting from distance with nowhere to go. It's relatively easy to defend against as you can squeeze the game down the middle and snuff out any chances from coming from inside the box.

With the lack of a midfielder who can cut open the defence with an amazing pass everything has come oh so predictable using this formation. It is in need of Silva, Boateng and Kolarov and once all 3 are fully match fit this formation should be employed.

However, I'm very disappointed with Mancini so far this season as this appears to be his only plan. He has no plan B and his only tactic has been to swap the wingers back to their "normal" side or put on subs far too late into the game. He is managing with an "uncomfortableness" about him presently.

We have the squad to play every formation under the sun effectively. Whilst we have no full backs and only centrebacks we need to ditch the current formation, go 4-5-1 and play two wide wingers with Silva just off Tevez or Tevez just off Adebayor up front.

Mancini needs to start coming out of his comfort zone and playing to the strengths of the players he has fit.

[Beefymcfc]

Simple answer is that we are playing the wrong formation with the current players.

I'll go with the short answer mate - agreed!

[avoidconfusion]

I think the problem with the overlapping fullback will be solved when Boateng and Kolarov are back, both of which look a million times more dangerous than Richards and Lescott when going forward.

[Im_Spartacus]

Maybe the other issue is that when you look at Chelsea playing that formation, they have Anelka and Kalou/Malouda out wide, with a good, strong big cunt in the middle who bullies defenders

We have two wingers (eg not goalscorers) and a midget. It was so evident today that for this reason we kept trying, but had effectively run out of ideas by the middle of the first half.

[MaineRoadMemories]

I think the problem with the overlapping fullback will be solved when Boateng and Kolarov are back, both of which look a million times more dangerous than Richards and Lescott when going forward.

Agreed, so why, with the strongest squad depth in the premiership, are we forcing players to do what they are not comfortable doing instead of having more than one formation that suits the players who are fit.

[MaineRoadMemories]

Maybe the other issue is that when you look at Chelsea playing that formation, they have Anelka and Kalou/Malouda out wide, with a good, strong big cunt in the middle who bullies defenders.

Drogba is like having two strikers on the pitch in the one body. He is that good at playing up top.

We have Tevez who is not suited to playing at the tip and much prefers to drop deeper - where he is so much more effective and should be playing.

[Im_Spartacus]

Maybe the other issue is that when you look at Chelsea playing that formation, they have Anelka and Kalou/Malouda out wide, with a good, strong big cunt in the middle who bullies defenders.

Drogba is like having two strikers on the pitch in the one body. He is that good at playing up top.

We have Tevez who is not suited to playing at the tip and much prefers to drop deeper - where he is so much more effective and should be playing.

Makes it interesting to me to see that Jo was brought on. Does Bobby really rate him above the other strikers on our bench who could have maybe done the job of disrupting the defenders and fielding the odd speculative ball that we needed today?

[mcfctm]

The problem is we're playing Tevez upfront on his on at home! If Mario was fit I don't think this would be happening and due to a lack of experienced strikers maybe this is why mancini is playing this way but it's clearly not working. We play with wingers yet when we get the ball wide they're cutting in and crossing (cos theyre on the wrong wing) and with no height up front this isn't going to work.
Jo was poor when he came on and maybe he just needs some confidence but I think it's time to give a youngster a go (coming on from off the bench) on thursday. That swedish kid is the one people are raving about so why not him?

[ashton287]

Maybe the other issue is that when you look at Chelsea playing that formation, they have Anelka and Kalou/Malouda out wide, with a good, strong big cunt in the middle who bullies defenders.

Drogba is like having two strikers on the pitch in the one body. He is that good at playing up top.

We have Tevez who is not suited to playing at the tip and much prefers to drop deeper - where he is so much more effective and should be playing.

Makes it interesting to me to see that Jo was brought on. Does Bobby really rate him above the other strikers on our bench who could have maybe done the job of disrupting the defenders and fielding the odd speculative ball that we needed today?

jo is our only other fit striker isnt he?

[Im_Spartacus]

Maybe the other issue is that when you look at Chelsea playing that formation, they have Anelka and Kalou/Malouda out wide, with a good, strong big cunt in the middle who bullies defenders.

Drogba is like having two strikers on the pitch in the one body. He is that good at playing up top.

We have Tevez who is not suited to playing at the tip and much prefers to drop deeper - where he is so much more effective and should be playing.

Makes it interesting to me to see that Jo was brought on. Does Bobby really rate him above the other strikers on our bench who could have maybe done the job of disrupting the defenders and fielding the odd speculative ball that we needed today?

jo is our only other fit striker isnt he?

RSC was on the bench wasn't he? I saw him warming up before the game anyway, but have to admit I didnt pay much attention to who was on the bench

[ashton287]

Maybe the other issue is that when you look at Chelsea playing that formation, they have Anelka and Kalou/Malouda out wide, with a good, strong big cunt in the middle who bullies defenders.

Drogba is like having two strikers on the pitch in the one body. He is that good at playing up top.

We have Tevez who is not suited to playing at the tip and much prefers to drop deeper - where he is so much more effective and should be playing.

Makes it interesting to me to see that Jo was brought on. Does Bobby really rate him above the other strikers on our bench who could have maybe done the job of disrupting the defenders and fielding the odd speculative ball that we needed today?

jo is our only other fit striker isnt he?

RSC was on the bench wasn't he? I saw him warming up before the game anyway, but have to admit I didnt pay much attention to who was on the bench

I dont know i just assume that cunts injured every week

[marvin]

City fans have been making that mistake for months.

City struggled to score today because Tevez was struggling, and the other centre-forwards were also injured. We still managed to create enough chances to win the game. Robinson and Blackburn defended well

[Im_Spartacus]

City fans have been making that mistake for months.

City struggled to score today because Tevez was struggling, and the other centre-forwards were also injured. We still managed to create enough chances to win the game. Robinson and Blackburn defended well

No, no, no, no, no.

Tevez wasn't struggling.

Blackburn had two 6 foot odd defenders
We had one 5 foot odd forward
We had two 5 foot odd wingers, who dont score very often, playing as forwards
And Jo (occasionally, when he was stood upright)

It doesn't take a fucking rocket scientist to work out why we ran out of options

[Ted Hughes]

Mancini is getting it wrong & costing us points. I'm fully willing to ride it out, suffer his mistakes etc until he gets it right, as I was with Hughes but when you consider the options he already had before the transfer window opened & the teams we're actually seeing him put out on the pitch, he's thrown all his eggs in one basket & because of injuries & his own stubborn attitude, we have mainly been putting out weaker, less gelled teams, on the whole than we could have been. Almost all our top 5 squad from last season would have been available to start this one. He should have seen the potential difficulties we may face early season, bedded in last season's team in the pre season games, swallowed his pride & put out an 11 based on last year's team which could be gradually changed over this season. I predicted the possibility of all of this when we were wasting pre season games, fucking about in the US.

Today: Yaya & Vieira= new combo. SWP, Milner, AJ= new combo. Only Johnson has regularly played that role for City. Why 4 untried players in different roles? Arrogant nonsense, disrespecting Blackburn's ability to 'do a job' on us. Those are the kind of tactical shuffles you make when the players have been together several years, not several weeks.

[Im_Spartacus]

Mancini is getting it wrong & costing us points. I'm fully willing to ride it out, suffer his mistakes etc until he gets it right, as I was with Hughes but when you consider the options he already had before the transfer window opened & the teams we're actually seeing him put out on the pitch, he's thrown all his eggs in one basket & because of injuries & his own stubborn attitude, we have mainly been putting out weaker, less gelled teams, on the whole than we could have been. Almost all our top 5 squad from last season would have been available to start this one. He should have seen the potential difficulties we may face early season, bedded in last season's team in the pre season games, swallowed his pride & put out an 11 based on last year's team which could be gradually changed over this season. I predicted the possibility of all of this when we were wasting pre season games, fucking about in the US.

Today: Yaya & Vieira= new combo. SWP, Milner, AJ= new combo. Only Johnson has regularly played that role for City. Why 4 untried players in different roles? Arrogant nonsense, disrespecting Blackburn's ability to 'do a job' on us. Those are the kind of tactical shuffles you make when the players have been together several years, not several weeks.

Did we not school Liverpool with a similar team?

IMO SWP only played because he played for England in midweek and he couldn't drop him, I couldnt believe he started the game, as he doesn't deserve a place in the 11. Neither does Vieira, but he chooses to drop both De Jong and Barry to accommodate him. I don't get that.

Apart from that the side was pretty much the same as we beat Liverpool with, and was a side more than good enough to beat these wankers today. His selection wasn't arrogant, it was naive to the extreme with the attacking players he selected.

[mcfctm]

It should have been irrelevant whether swp played in midweek for england, this is city! The manager and the players need to stop worrying about what they're doing for England and start concentrating on what they are doing for the club that pays they're wages.
Johnson was good today but probably could have found a cross when Tevez was free in the box in the first half and the manager needs to pick players who'll perform not who's getting 15 minutes for England.
Get Silva in the team!

[Im_Spartacus]

It should have been irrelevant whether swp played in midweek for england, this is city! The manager and the players need to stop worrying about what they're doing for England and start concentrating on what they are doing for the club that pays they're wages.
Johnson was good today but probably could have found a cross when Tevez was free in the box in the first half and the manager needs to pick players who'll perform not who's getting 15 minutes for England.
Get Silva in the team!

I will qualify my statement above by saying again that had it not been for the silly mistake, we would have won by a few goals and thats ultimately not Mancini's fault

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

It should have been irrelevant whether swp played in midweek for england, this is city! The manager and the players need to stop worrying about what they're doing for England and start concentrating on what they are doing for the club that pays they're wages.
Johnson was good today but probably could have found a cross when Tevez was free in the box in the first half and the manager needs to pick players who'll perform not who's getting 15 minutes for England.
Get Silva in the team!

I will qualify my statement above by saying again that had it not been for the silly mistake, we would have won by a few goals and thats ultimately not Mancini's fault

John,

You can't say retrospectively that "this would've happened if that would've happened". We could've lost 10-0 if Hart didn't fuck up. It's impossible to certainly say what would've happened.

I totally agree with what MRM is saying and though I really appreciate his well thought out argument saying "we are playing the wrong formation with the current players" is a bit rudimentary. Yes at least one of Lescott & Richards is a centre back but byu the same token if we had full backs able to cross today there would've been no one in the box.

[Im_Spartacus]

It should have been irrelevant whether swp played in midweek for england, this is city! The manager and the players need to stop worrying about what they're doing for England and start concentrating on what they are doing for the club that pays they're wages.
Johnson was good today but probably could have found a cross when Tevez was free in the box in the first half and the manager needs to pick players who'll perform not who's getting 15 minutes for England.
Get Silva in the team!

I will qualify my statement above by saying again that had it not been for the silly mistake, we would have won by a few goals and thats ultimately not Mancini's fault

John,

You can't say retrospectively that "this would've happened if that would've happened". We could've lost 10-0 if Hart didn't fuck up. It's impossible to certainly say what would've happened.

I totally agree with what MRM is saying and though I really appreciate his well thought out argument saying "we are playing the wrong formation with the current players" is a bit rudimentary. Yes at least one of Lescott & Richards is a centre back but byu the same token if we had full backs able to cross today there would've been no one in the box.

Realistically, aside from the mistake we could have worn them down and won comfortably - but yes, as you say, we could still have lost 10-0. The odds would suggest we would have won had it not been for a mistake, as with last week. Which is why I am not too despondent, because these things happen - I just hope they don't become regular "things"

The team "he put out" today played well - that is not to say it was the right team - they did their best, but I as with many feel we could have done better with a different style.

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

I meant to say that, with the inability to predict what would have happened being the case, we can only work on the remaining performance.


Personally I don't think our overall performance was good enough today.