Media circus to blame for Manchester City downfall

With all the attention on Manchester City and the collapse of their title challenge, an accusing finger has inevitably been pointed at Mario Balotelii after his undisciplined showing against Arsenal. However, he should not be made to shoulder all the blame for City’s recent poor run of form.

City didn’t lose ground in the title race over the weekend when Balotelli was sent off — it started a lot earlier, in March, when they lost to Swansea before unexpectedly dropping points against Stoke and Sunderland.

Nobody was talking about him back then — Balotelli only got into headlines in the game against Sunderland when, obviously frustrated at being 3-1 down, he nearly pummelled Aleksandar Kolarov over who should take a free-kick.

That was the first sign for Roberto Mancini to take action, but I’m surprised that being the disciplinarian he is reputed to be, Mancini continued to play the young Italian.

Even after that, rumours of a training ground bust-up and many niggling incidences in the Arsenal match should have been enough hints for Mancini; when a player is constantly shouted at from the sidelines for not even trying to help his colleagues defend while committing many rash challenges, he should be hauled off. Instead, Mancini instead chose to bring Carlos Tevez on for Sergio Aguero.

Then there’s the entire media circus around City. It all started with the pre-season Carlos Tevez saga and has been background until a few weeks ago. The negative PR is detrimental to how a side plays on the pitch and Mancini failed to control it at City.

In contrast, you don’t see Manchester United going through anything like this; they keep the PR to a minimum and allow their players to concentrate on playing football.

Having said that, both Manchester sides are yet to play each other for the final time this season and it could very well decide where the Premier League trophy will end up in May.

After United’s unexpected slip-up against Wigan, City have got to fancy themselves of being with a shout — if they can win the derby at the end of the month, all it takes is for one of the relegation-threatened teams to grab a draw against United and make things very interesting in the title run-in.

Now, speaking of the run-in, I have noticed that many teams seem to be unable to cope with the hectic schedule recently.

Over the past weeks, teams were made to play four fixtures within 10 or 11 days and many managers opted to rest their players for certain fixtures. 

Here are a few examples; Mark Hughes rested Bobby Zamora and Joey Barton against Manchester United, Chelsea rested Juan Mata midweek against Fulham, to their cost, Liverpool did the same for Steven Gerrard, who wasn’t even on the bench for the match against Blackburn.

Some decisions, like Chelsea’s, were costly, while others were not, but I don’t think resting players should be an issue in the first place; managers should pick their best team for the match and stick with it — changes should be made only for injuries and suspensions.

Back in my day, we used to play more than 70 games a season. Now, a player will play a maximum of 40 to 50 games a season and I don’t see why current players cannot do the same.

(Former Liverpool and England International Steve McMahon is a football expert with ESPN)