This is the first of my ‘Hughes v Mancini’ articles analysing the amount of appearances and sub appearances made by Manchester City’s players under Mark Hughes and then under Roberto Mancini.
Key:
40 – Forty starting appearances
(3) – Three appearances from the bench
* – January Signing
(Statistics are in chronological order and are from all competitions)
Manchester City under Hughes:
Hughes managed 21 games in all competitions.
Shay Given: 21
Gareth Barry: 20
Shaun Wright-Phillips: 19 (1)
Carlos Tevez: 18 (2)
Kolo Toure (c): 18
Wayne Bridge: 17
Joleon Lescott: 16
Emmanuel Adebayor: 15
Stephen Ireland: 14 (5)
Craig Bellamy: 14 (3)
Micah Richards: 14
Nigel de Jong: 13 (3)
Pablo Zabaleta: 8 (3)
Robinho: 6 (1)
Sylvinho: 4
Martin Petrov: 3 (7)
Roque Santa Cruz: 3 (6)
Vincent Kompany: 3 (5)
Nedum Onouha: 2 (2)
Richard Dunne (sold): 2
Vladimir Weiss: 0 (3)
Michael Johnson: 0 (2)
Benjani: 0 (1)
Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:
?Wayne Bridge
?Joleon Lescott
?Robinho
?Martin Petrov
?Roque Santa Cruz
?Vincent Kompany
?Nedum Onouha
?Michael Johnson
?Benjani
Suspensions awarded to:
?Pablo Zabaleta
?Craig Bellamy
Manchester City under Mancini:
Mancini has managed 20 games in all competitions so far.
Shay Given: 19
Pablo Zabaleta: 18 (2)
Nigel de Jong: 18 (1)
Gareth Barry: 17 (1)
Vincent Kompany: 17
Carlos Tevez: 14 (1)
Craig Bellamy: 11 (6)
Micah Richards: 12 (1)
Javier Garrido: 9 (2)
Stephen Ireland: 9 (1)
Kolo Toure (c): 9
Martin Petrov: 8 (2)
Emmanuel Adebayor: 8 (1)
*Adam Johnson: 7 (2)
Joleon Lescott: 7 (1)
Wayne Bridge: 7
Shaun Wright-Phillips: 6 (7)
Dedryck Boyata: 5 (2)
*Patrick Vieira: 4 (4)
Roque Santa Cruz: 3 (6)
Sylvinho: 3 (6)
Benjani: 3 (2)
Nedum Onouha: 2 (4)
Robinho: 2 (3)
Vladimir Weiss: 1
Abdi Ibrahim: 1 (1)
Stuart Taylor: 1
Greg Cunningham: 0 (1)
Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:
?Micah Richards
?Stephen Ireland
?Kolo Toure (c)
?Martin Petrov
?Joleon Lescott
?Wayne Bridge
?Shaun Wright-Phillips
?Roque Santa Cruz
?Nedum Onouha
Suspensions awarded to:
?Emmanuel Adebayor
?Patrick Vieira
Compassionate leave given to:
?Emmanuel Adebayor
?Carlos Tevez
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There is clearly a difference between the players used by Mark Hughes and by Roberto Mancini, and this is taking into account all the injuries, suspensions and unavailabilities. Firstly, the most used player by both managers is Shay Given which is no surprise. However, Hughes no.2 and no.3 are Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Mancini’s no.2 and no.3 are Pablo Zabaleta and Nigel de Jong. And then there’s Shaun Wright-Phillips who finds himself behind the likes of Martin Petrov and Javier Garrido in Mancini’s list which for a regular in Fabio Capello’s squad, isn’t good enough. And there’s no excuses, this has nothing to do with his contract negotiations but everything to do with his poor form and attitude.
Another big-mover in Mancini’s list is Vincent Kompany who had actually returned for selection 11 games before Hughes’ departure. But Mancini has used the Belgian in virtually every game he’s managed and sees him as an integral part of the squad. Then there’s Javier Garrido, who didn’t make 1 appearance under Hughes but has flourished under Mancini scoring a fantastic goal at Molineux. Finally we have Nedum Onouha who I rate very highly, but unfortunately for Onouha, he managed to injured at exactly the wrong times under both managers; when he was put into the starting eleven, he got injured almost staright away.
Mancini has also put his trust into the Academy’s prospects, most notably Dedryck Boyata. I hadn’t heard of young Boyata before he was thrust into the spotlight at the Riverside and was then selected to play both ties of the Manchester derby semi-finals in which he did himself proud. Boyata recently signed a new contract and is a very promising prospect. Mancini has also used the likes of Abdi Ibrahim and Greg Cunningham.
Then there’s the January signings. Adam Johnson (who was probably not signed by Mancini) has really flourished in his 7 starts and has managed to thrust name into the picture for a late surge into Fabio Capello’s provisional 30-man squad at the World Cup. Finally, there’s Patrick Vieira, disliked by many but I think he may have an important part to play yet despite his lack of pace.
What are your thoughts? What do these statistics tell you?
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