City Out of Europe

Whatever your opinion may be, there are plenty of valid reasons as to why qualifying for the Europa League may have benefited us as a club and as a fanbase. Trips to some of the continent's most beautiful cities, consumption of some of its finest ales and experience of some of its most hostile atmospheres. Regardless of the level of European competition, nine times out of ten, you're guaranteed quite a tour. So in that sense, I'm not only disappointed that we were dumped out of the Champions League, but possibly even more so that the effort from the players last night, when the chance of post-Christmas European football was at stake, was nigh non-existent.
There was always going to be contrasting atmospheres withing the two camps, Dortmund had qualified as group winners prior to the game whereas City had been knocked out of UEFA's elite competition in their previous group game against Real Madrid. Nevertheless, I was shocked at the difference between the attitudes of both the Dortmund staff, whether back-room members on the bench or players on the pitch, and our own. Throughout the game, Klopp could be seen embracing his players throughout the game, he gave them a whole lot of loving, but that's his style, a lot of managers will have different relationships with their players, including our very own Roberto Mancini, who is a much more abrasive character, he likes to keep his players on edge. It's worked in some respects, many other managers have a similar style but possibly treat and individual differently, one that is going to win them championships, Mancini has done the same, only his fatherly affection has been shown toward Mario Balotelli.
As said above, the players looked like, among other things such as for some being out of their depth, they couldn't be arsed -Tevez aside. Dzeko was complacent in his running in behind, although that's not unusual. Garcia and Barry were poor, particularly the Spaniard who is on thin ice among many fans, he played like a crab on its back for much of last night's game. As much as I love Barry in the league, he's not proved himself to be good enough for European football. Nasri played? Oh, I was unaware of that. I won't be fed that "he's the man who recycles the ball in our team" bile anymore. He's got talent, he just hasn't any bollocks. The rest didn't show much passion last night either. Cheers, lads.
That said, Mancini didn't cover himself in glory last night, nor has he in our previous Champions League groups/campaigns. Understandably, he wanted to rest Zabaleta, that was fine by me with half an eye on Sunday, but it forced Nastasic out wide to left-back, and as good as a defender he is proving to be, he was lost when Blaszczkowski came on. Furthermore, it was one of the reasons as to why we had no shape whatsoever, alongside our forwards well, just being there with what looked like little instruction.
But shape isn't something that I think City have had this season. The inconsistency in Mancini's team selections won't help, and to be fair to him, we've had injuries but other than when he's switched to 3-4-1-2 in the later stages of Premier League games, City's system has looked much like as follows: A goalkeeper, four defenders and then five 'players'. It often looks like Mancini has set his team out in a very Roberto Di Matteo like system; the attackers attack and the defenders defend, there is no collective graft as a unit that has helped Dortmund themselves to become so successful over the last couple of years. The purchase of just a single player would help us with this problem drastically. We've been linked with him quite a bit. De Rossi, I believe he's called.
City's squad is unbalanced, just as the starting XI is so often. You question the players hunger to play for the fans, they're playing at a tempo you may find at Hough End, Platt Fields, Heaton Park, wherever on a Saturday morning. Reports today suggest that Txiki intends to sort this out. Thank fuck.