The Italian manager criticised his players heavily are the derby defeat, but he as many questions to answer as anyone, and his petulant attitude undermines the club.
Mario Balotelli perhaps didn’t have his best game on Sunday, but was also not as catastrophically bad as his manager made out in the press conference after the match. Mancini hauled off the striker in the 52nd minute after he misplaced a back heel, with Balotelli storming off down the tunnel in response.
Balotelli shouldn’t have reacted so badly, but surely the biggest display of petulance has come from the manager himself in taking a player off on the back of one misplaced pass. Mancini then slated the player in the press conference after the match, claiming that Balotelli was wasting his talent.
Balotelli isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I would suggest he has become slightly overrated as player as a result of his off-the-pitch activities, but I don’t see what he’s done so wrong this season.
He’s playing in a side with three other world class strikers, where he cannot be given a run in the side, and hasn’t been in great form as a result. His manager should be helping him try and recover that form, and improve as a player. He should also be trying to keep focus off the player as much as possible. Instead Mancini plays up every incident Balotelli is involved in, and leads criticism that is often ridiculously exaggerated.
Mancini is also guilty of being Balotelli’s chief hype merchant when he is in favour, consistently describing him as someone with the potential to be the best in the world. Balotelli is not an easy man to deal with, but I’m not sure how Mancini could have done worse. He plays up and encourages his antics, puts him in his starting eleven, then slates him when Balotelli does not live up to Mancini’s own billing.
In this regard Mancini’s attitude is as bad as Mario’s. After Sunday’s match there were plenty of questions about his tactics and team selection that needed to be answered, instead he tried to deflect attention by criticising Balotellli and Nasri.
The manager needs to have a look at his own performance, and tried and ascertain how one of the most expensively assembled squads in history can be out of Europe and six points off the top of the table before the middle of December.
image: © Andrew Brannan
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