This is the third of my ‘Hughes v Mancini’ articles analysing the amount of goals that were conceded under both Mar Hughes and Roberto Mancini.
(Statistics are in chronological order and are from all competitions)
Manchester City under Hughes:
Hughes managed 21 games in all competitions.
Conceded: 29 goals
Average: 1.4 goals per game
Central Defensive Partnerships Used:
?Toure / Lescott: 14 times
?Lescott / Kompany: 2 times
?Toure / Dunne: 2 times
?Toure / Onouha: 2 times
?Lescott / Richards: 1 time
Right Back’s Used:
?Richards: 13 times
?Zabaleta: 8 times
Left Back’s Used:
?Bridge: 17 time
?Sylvinho: 3 times
?Barry: 1 time
Most Used Defence:
2) Richards – 28) Toure – 19) Lescott – 3) Bridge
Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:
?Wayne Bridge
?Joleon Lescott
?Vincent Kompany
?Nedum Onouha
Suspensions awarded to:
?Pablo Zabaleta
It’s quite clear that Hughes’ preferred centre-back partnership was of Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott. However, Vincent Kompany was injured for a while but fit for more than half of Hughes’ games in charge this season. Bridge is quite clearly the no.1 left back, no doubts there. And Richards was the preferred right back. Looking at goals conceded, we managed to let in 29 goals in only 21 games which isn’t good enough, averaging 1.4 goals per game.
Manchester City under Mancini:
Mancini has managed 22 games in all competitions.
Conceded: 24 goals
Average: 1.1 goals per game
Central Defensive Partnerships Used:
?Kompany / Toure: 9 times
?Kompany / Boyata: 4 times
?Kompany / Richards: 4 times
?Kompany / Lescott: 3 times
?Toure / Lescott: 2 times
?Toure / Boyata: 1 times
Right Back’s Used:
?Pablo Zabaleta: 13 times
?Micah Richards: 6 times
?Nedum Onouha: 3 times
Left Back’s Used:
?Garrido: 10 times
?Bridge: 7 times
?Sylvinho: 3 times
?Lescott: 1 time
?Zabaleta: 1 time
Most Used Defence:
5) Zabaleta – 28) Toure – 33) Kompany – 15) Garrido
Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:
?Micah Richards
?Kolo Toure (c)
?Joleon Lescott
?Wayne Bridge
?Nedum Onouha
Mancini’s most used centre-back partnership is of Kolo Toure and Vincent Kompany, but I think his most preferred pairing is Joleon Lescott and Vincent Kompany. The most used right back is quite clearly Pablo Zabaleta (in contrast to Hughes) and the most used left back is Javier Garrido, but this is probably down to Bridge’s injuries. Looking at the goals, we’ve conceded 24 goals in 22 games. That’s 5 less goals in one more game than Hughes averaging a little less of 1.1 goals per game.Considering the best defensive record in the division’s is United’s at 0.8 goals per game and Chelsea are in second with 0.9 per game, therefore a score of 1.1 goals per game isn’t that bad at all.
What are your thoughts?
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