Adam Bate looks at how Roberto Mancini, like Pep Guardiola before him, seems determined to tinker with his team.
Wednesday 19 September 2012 17:47, UK
The unprecedented success of Barcelona brought unprecedented praise. But sometimes you do wonder whether people were praising the right things. That three-at-the-back system, for example. Did it actually do more harm than good?
But it's curious how and when the City boss has chosen to utilise the formation so far this season. If the intention is to use it as an offensive weapon in order to find a new way past stubborn teams then the question is worth asking - were they really struggling to find a way through before? A home record of 18-1-0 in the Premier League suggests not. If the motivation was to use it as an offensive tactic at all then it's surprising that the three games in which Mancini has gone with the formation this season have been against Chelsea, Liverpool and Real Madrid. The chief outcome right now appears to be confusion in the back-line caused by a pre-season of tactical disruption. After conceding an average of 0.76 goals per game in winning the Premier League crown, City are currently letting them in at a rate of 1.83 per game so far this season and are still waiting for their first clean sheet. Tuesday's trip to the Bernabeu was particularly odd. In a sense, this could have been the moment for which Mancini had been preparing his team all summer. They had worked hard to improve their tactical flexibility and now the Italian felt the time was right to show he could outthink Jose Mourinho. So Aleksandr Kolarov replaced Samir Nasri and then, when Maicon was injured, on came Pablo Zabaleta with the versatile Argentine gesticulating that they would be playing a back-three for the dramatic finale. And even then, as Michael Cox of the tactics website Zonal Marking explains, Mancini remained committed to using the formation in an attacking way. "Zabaleta could have sat deep alongside the centre-backs and kept that side of the pitch quiet," wrote Cox. "However, he interpreted the wing-back role in a strange way - charging forward up the pitch unnecessarily (when City were ahead) and also getting drawn into very central positions, leaving the right flank completely bare." A tense finale in Madrid does not seem the most obvious time to turn to the experiment but Mancini is anxious not to appear obvious. He is determined to stay ahead of the curve. But when the challenge is a huge one - as it undoubtedly was on Tuesday - Vincent Kompany would have wanted to be drawing on all the experience he has gained in recent years, not finding himself dragged out to the left-wing to mark a player of Cristiano Ronaldo's ability. Like Guardiola before him, Mancini has risked losing fluency in search of a pre-emptive strike. One step backwards to take two steps forwards? That's fine unless you lose your way after the first step.
