Why always him Roberto? Mancini picks Mario again!
ROBERTO Mancini continues to place his faith in Mario Balotelli‘s natural talent ... and continues to take flak for it!
The Italy coach has returned the controversial striker – who he took to City in 2010 – to the international fold after a fouryear absence, and he played his first competitive international since the 2014 World Cup in the 1-1 Nations League draw with Poland.
Balotelli was quiet and substituted by Mancini just after the hour mark, but is again in contention to play against Portugal tonight.
And that brought stinging criticism from former Italy manager Arrigo Sacchi, who led Italy to the 1994 World Cup final, as well as winning two European Cups with AC Milan.
“Football is a collective sport and intelligence is more important than feet, so I would choose smart players,” said Sacchi when asked about Balotelli’s performance against Poland.
“We need generosity, passion and professionalism, we all have a car, but we need gas to make it go. In football, gasoline is intelligence, passion and professionalism,” he added.
Mancini drew similar criticism after signing Balotelli for £25m when he was City boss.
The striker was clearly talented and quickly became a cult figure among younger City fans for his off-field antics and penchant for scoring the odd spectacular goal.
But Mancini persisted with him even when Balotelli looked disinterested or became a disciplinary liability – and the manager admitted that he sometimes wanted to ‘punch him in the head’.
Mancini named Balotelli – who has scored 43 goals in 66 games for Nice in the last two seasons – in his first squad after being appointed to the Italy job in May. THE Amazon documentary showed up Pep Guardiola’s public words when he was filmed in the dressing room at Goodison Park fretting about Liverpool.
Whatever utterances there may be in the coming weeks about taking everything one game at a time, City’s date at Anfield in October will have been in the manager’s head for some time – in part because their Champions League defeat there was so painful.
All the talk is of a resurgent Liverpool with an improved team and a coach that knows how to beat Guardiola sides, giving the Blues boss extra determination to upset that particular narrative come October.
The failure to get any cover for Fernandinho in the summer transfer window means Guardiola must plug the hole from within his squad, with the 33-year-old unable to make it through every game in such a demanding position on the pitch.
Fabian Delph, Ilkay Gundogan and Aleks Zinchenko have all been mentioned by the manager as options, despite it being the preferred position of neither, while summer signing Claudio Gomes is still some way from first team level.
It feels like City could do with a player focusing on that position rather than just dipping into it given it is such an important role, but the manager will have to decide when is best to rest Fernandinho as well as who to replace him with.
One of the keys to last season’s success was keeping the dressing room happy.
Not everyone may have played as many games as they wanted, but they were committed enough to the cause to give their all when called upon. A number of players have barely featured in the opening four games – and the Carabao Cup and Champions League should provide more opportunities for Delph, Nicolas Otamendi, Phil Foden and others in the weeks to come. It is common knowledge you need a squad to compete in multiple competitions, and Guardiola will need to think about the right combinations for the ‘real’ season coming up. What a few months for Leroy Sane. Unexpectedly left out of a World Cup, dropped from the City squad, recalled by Germany and now a proud parent after girlfriend Candice Brook gave birth to a baby girl over the weekend. The 22-yearold has had quite a lot to deal with in a short space of time. The hope now for Guardiola is that the player can juggle his increased off-field responsibilities and get back to the form on the pitch that made him such a nightmare for defenders to face last year. Simon Bajkowski