I have written this article not to criticize Roberto Mancini but to prove how ineffective he is in the Champions League. Towards the end of this article you will either start doubting Mancini as a European level manager or my skills as a person who thinks he understands football! (surely can’t be both) So, let’s start…
‘…& Manchester City have won the league’, were the famous words used by one Mr. Martin Tyler which echoed through both parts of Manchester when Manchester City won the title last season. Obviously the Red part of Manchester couldn’t stop crying because of the fact that they were within seconds of winning their coveted 20th league title, while the Blue part couldn’t stop crying because of the immense joy they had experienced due to Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero’s injury time winner. All in all the whole of Manchester was crying because of Sergio Aguero!
Now that Man City have won the league in 2011-12 and the FA Cup in 2010-11, it’s surely time for Roberto Mancini to win them the UCL or at least do something noteworthy/ eye-catching so that everyone starts thinking that Manchester City are a force to reckon with in Europe. By this I don’t think they should win the UCL, but at least knock out one of the giants. By the way, expecting them to knock out one of the big teams in Europe isn’t a huge task because even though their team might seem naive to the UCL, the players are not. The likes of Balotelli, Tevez, Aguero, Yaya Toure & co. have reasonable experience in the UCL. So, as a neutral I thought that this year they should do something notable in Europe. And the wonder was that the draw to come up was a fantastic one. Man City were in the same group as European giants and current Spanish Champions Real Madrid, current German Champions Borussia Dortmund and current Dutch Champions Ajax in the ‘Group of Death’ and I thought that the stage was set perfectly for ManC and Roberto Mancini to show that they aren’t as naive as they were last season and could indeed show their critics how good they are. I was betting my money on ManC to finish behind Real Madrid in the group but wasn’t surprised at the end of Matchday-1 that they lost against Mourinho’s Real because although they lost, they did give a fighting performance. Many people, including me, thought that this was a minor blip in their journey towards progressing to the knockout stages but in the next three games against Dortmund and Ajax (Home & Away) they could only manage a couple of points and now they don’t look good enough to make the Europa League. After 4 games they are placed at the bottom of their group with the statistics shouting in Mancini’s ears P4 W0 L2 D2.
That made me wonder what could possibly have gone wrong for the current English Champions led by the manager that helped them win their first trophy in 2010-11 in God-knows-how-many-years. A team containing world class players in all the departments such as Hart, Kompany, Silva, Aguero… and the list goes on ! Then I started analyzing Roberto Mancini’s European record. (Refer Table 1)
1. Roberto Mancini’s European Record:
| Team |
Inter Milan (July’04 – June’08) |
Manchester City ( Dec’09 – Present) |
||||
|
Year |
League |
UCL |
Europa League |
Position |
UCL |
Europa League |
| 2004/05 | 3rd | Quarter-Finals |
N.A. |
5th |
N.A. |
N.A. |
| 2005/06 | 1st | Quarter-Finals |
N.A. |
3rd |
N.A. |
Round of 16 |
| 2006/07 | 1st | Round of 16 |
N.A. |
1st | Group Stage | Round of 16 |
| 2007/08 | 1st | Round of 16 |
N.A. |
4th | Group Stage* |
– |
*In Process
What we can conclude from this table is that his record in Europe isn’t the best to be frank. He has never gone past the Quarter final stage in UCL till date and neither has he gone past the round of 16 in the Europa League. So, it’s foolish to expect him to turn around the tables in this season’s UCL . Yes, he did reach the semifinals when the Europa League was known as the UEFA cup with Lazio in 2003 but I am only assessing his performance in this new format of UCL and Europa League.
I feel that we should not expect anything from Manchester City in Europe till Mancini is in-charge. But this doesn’t mean that I am doubting his position as a manager. Having won 12 trophies (4 League titles and 8 Domestic Cups), he is as good a domestic manager as you can get these days. But given the demands of modern football where no one recognizes a team’s quality unless they have made a mark in Europe, the question that pops into my head is, ‘Is Roberto Mancini the right man to take Manchester City forward in Europe?’
