Man City: 5 Problems Stopping Mancini From Winning The Champions League

3. Too Many Playmakers Spoil The Broth A complaint of Mancini€™s City often made is they lack width - the full backs are expected to run the channels (hence the experiment with a wingback system), with the striker(s) offering an out ball down the line. The Blues do not have wingers, and the one player you might claim to be a winger, Scott Sinclair, is more of a wide forward and not a natural fit in Mancini€™s system. Adam Johnson struggled for game time and eventually moved on, and Sinclair is likely to follow suit. Against Madrid, Mancini played both David Silva and Samir Nasri either side of Yaya Toure. Neither of the diminutive playmakers tracks back often, hence why Gael Clichy and Maicon were isolated and pulled wide so often, which led to the centre backs being exposed, and nor do the playmakers drop deep to form a wall alongside Barry and Garcia in midfield. With Real playing Michael Essien and Sami Khedira alongside Alonso, the City players rarely found the space or time to get on the ball in that system. It was no surprise that when Nasri limped off before half time David Silva suddenly found the space to play, and Kolarov offered a much needed outlet on the left hand side. Moving Silva into a more central position also meant that Toure dropped a little deeper, from where he made his lung bursting runs forward in the second half with Kolarov also offering Clichy some much needed protection. When City have the ball 30 yards from goal the likes of Nasri and Silva can link up with the strikers and midfielders and look to work an opening, but against sides of the quality of Madrid they will not be afforded such territory and only one playmaker is needed.