There’s a well-known phrase in the footballing industry which is used to describe the downturn in fortunes of a club, and that phrase is “second season syndrome”.
It is a term that is easily applicable to Premier League Champions Manchester City at present. Nearly nine months have passed now since Sergio Aguero broke Manchester United’s hearts with a dramatic last-gasp winner against QPR with the last kick of the 2011/12 season to win the title for Roberto Mancini’s men, but oh how different things are today.
Following defeat to Southampton on Saturday coupled with United’s 2-0 dismissal of Everton yesterday, there is now a yawning chasm of a gap between the two sides of 12 points – or in other words four games, with only 12 of them left to play.
After winning their first title since 1968 last summer, City’s fortunes have since taken a nosedive. They were dropped from Europe quicker than a Joe Hart save and weren’t even afforded the crumb of comfort that is Europa League contention, as for the title race, that is practically over – or so say 79% of people who completed our poll.
But where did it all go wrong for Roberto Mancini?
Here, we take a look at five reasons why their season has suffered a reversal in fortunes.
Click “Next” to begin.
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8 Comments
You have omitted Mancini’s inability to man-manage his players in a professional and affective manner. eg. Praise in public and criticise in private not the other way round.
Also the haphazard training before and his tactics during matches. Couple this with his obvious inability to motivate as shown in the last match and you can only conclude that he is not the manager to take city forward.
I honestly believe that City won the premiership last season despite Mancini not because of him and if he does not go we risk losing the likes of Silva Hart and Aguaro at the end of the season.
I predict we will not finish in the top four under this man’s stewardship.
I like Mancini as a person but I am sorry to say that I agree with everything written — possibly with the excepton of the RVP purchase as I understand the player didn’t want to go to City. Mancini’s purchases have been shockingly bad and his man management skills have let him down. It is time for City to find someone with more guile and someone who is a real leader.
Yeah perhaps RVP was out of his control, if the player wanted to join United there’s very little he could have done but I still think he should have brought in an extra striker I.e. Cavani or even Neymar.
“Also considering the poor form of Gareth Barry and James Milner of late,” – just another sports journalist, who doesn’t watch any games yet looks at the results and line ups of games and makes an assumption, Milner has been one of the few players who have performed excellently for City this season, along with Zabaleta, watch a few games before making comments like that
That’s a bit of a judgmental statement don’t you reckon? I watch plenty of games thanks.
Milner had 5 crossing opportunities in 3 minutes and could not get 1 past the first man, he is average at best. I 100% agree with David Warburton. There are to many City fans thanking Mancini for last year, the fact is he let United in first then they blew up…
The main reason is mancini himself.. he shd have sold balotelli last summer when PSG came for him… and easily could have got hold of van persie and gud midfielder with that money… instead he wasted 40 million of city on players like rodwell,garcia,sinclair, maicon and nastas.. of which only garica and nastas. were given more oppurtunities.. I think mancini should be sacked immediately if man city want to save this campaign… get viera for 3 months atleast stay 2nd and qualify of champs league fine tune 3-4 players and find a gud coach… they have a very gud side still…
Silva’s form is DEFINITELY key, couldn’t agree more. What the heck has happened to him this season!?
I think they’ve got too many average players who cost a lot of money (Milner being one of them, incidentally, so you’re certainly right about that too – his recent form has been dismal. He’s a work horse but that’s the only good thing I’ve got to say about him at the moment). They’re like a less extreme version of Liverpool in that ‘expensive, average player’ regard.