Mancini - Silva will adapt to the Premier League

[Mark (Blue Army)]

Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, has said he is relaxed about David Silva's slow start to life in the Premier League and blamed it, in part, on the player's international commitments with Spain.

Silva has been on the substitutes' bench for City's last three league games, starting only the Europa League qualifying ties against Timisoara and the opening match of the season at Tottenham Hotspur. It follows a bittersweet World Cup for the 23-year-old, when the joy of being part of the victorious squad was tempered by losing his place after their opening group game, the 1-0 defeat to Switzerland, and not playing any part in the final.

The impressive form of James Milner and Adam Johnson, playing in the wide attacking positions, has left Silva on the edges so far, but Mancini said it was inevitable the £25m signing from Valencia would need time to settle in to his new club.

"The thing with Silva is that we have been able to work with him only a couple of days at a time since he arrived. He had just signed for us when he went off with his national team to play in Mexico [during the August international break]. Then he came back and very quickly was off again with the national team again, this time to play in Argentina – another long trip.

"I thought he did very well when he came on [Silva was an 85th-minute substitute in the 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday] but I always said that he would need time because it is very different here than playing in Spain. The internationals are over now and I think it will be time for him to play in the team from the next game."

That will come against Red Bull Salzburg on Thursday, in the first match of City's Europa League group. Mancini hopes to have three of his injured players – Wayne Bridge, Emmanuel Adebayor and Nigel de Jong – available for the trip to Austria, with a more realistic target for Jérôme Boateng being the game at Wigan Athletic on Saturday, but he will resist the temptation to hand Shay Given his first appearance for the club this season.

Mancini had promised Given there would be an opportunity to play in cup ties when he persuaded the Republic of Ireland international not to leave in the wake of losing his place to Joe Hart. For now, however, Given has been told he must be patient. "We are involved in four competitions and I'm sure Shay will play in Europe at some point but I will continue to play Joe on Thursday," Mancini said. "It is a difficult decision for me because, as I keep saying, Shay is a strong goalkeeper but at the moment this is my choice."

That will reassure Hart following the mix-up with Kolo Touré that led to Nikola Kalinic opening the scoring for Blackburn on Saturday. "I haven't said anything to him about it," Mancini said. "Joe called for the ball and that's why Kolo didn't play it. It was a gift for Blackburn but this hasn't changed my belief in him. Joe is a good goalkeeper but this sort of thing can happen. He's still young and he is strong enough mentally not to let it bother him."

guardian.co.uk

[gillie]

If he plays him for long enough and not just seven fuckin minutes.

[edgeley blue]

Personally, thought the bottom part was the best. Having faith in Joe is brilliant

[ronk]

It's a pain in the ass that journalists well paid to write this sort of stuff using access that City fans can only dream of when they don't even bother to get the age of players right. There was no need to include his age except padding and it would have taken 10s to check.

He's 24.

[john@staustell]

When Scum and Chelsea have great players on the bench it's 'wonderful squad depth' but when City do it it would seem to be a 'slow start', an insurmountable sea of problems.

[brite blu sky]

In the longer term Silva will be fine. There is a clamour for us to gel and click right now. Silva just to mention one player has got a lot stacked against him.
WC - late return and no pre-season team work - so not up to speed.
2 international breaks in 4 weeks
New league to adapt to
New club and team mates to adapt to and to some extent a different way of playing.

Put all that together, and then compare his situation with say two others Barry and Tevez.
Both missed a part of pre-season, both have started the season off the pace.. but both players know their role at City and know the Prem, they have had more training with the squad just about.. and for me that shows, the last two games we have seen a steady improvement in both Barry and Tevez.. both looking sharper and almost 'back to normal' but even so it has taken 4 weeks and they are still not quite there.


If i was Bobby i would play Silva in the Europa and CC initially, let him get game time that way and then slowly introduce him more and more into the Prem as he gets up to speed and finds his feet in the team. i dont mind him playing 20 mins or so for a while as it takes the pressure off him with the ready-made excuse that you cant expect too much from a subs performance.

[Mike J]

cant believe he didnt bring him on earlier on saturday. stupid error imo.

[ruralblue]

Theres bringing him in slowly!, and bringing him in Slllllloooooowly.

7 mins game time is not nowhere near enough to even start to get going. If Mancini is letting him adapt to Prem life then fair enough but at least bring him on with 25 - 30 mins to play. Also the weather now seems to have turned on it's head and persistant rain and getting colder, are we then going to give him time to adapt from the more sunnier climate of Spain?

Needs more game time!!

[Ted Hughes]

He should have been on much earlier on Saturday but when he did come on, he looked a lot more like the Silva we know. Whether that's due to the complete incompetence of the opposition picking him up (because they WERE shite whatever excuses made) or a leap in match fitness etc by Silva we'll have to see. He was linking well with Tevez though & actually passing the ball back to him unlike others.