Is Mancini serious when he said City lack players?

I couldn’t believe what I read when I read Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini’s interview after yesterdays 2-2 draw at Fulham.

This the same Roberto Mancini that has spent an absolute fortune on building a squad at the Etihad Stadium and has a star studded squad.

Poor

The Italian told Sky Sports News: “ We’re lacking players at this moment. I can only change the full-backs or the strikers. I have only two midfield players, as James Milner and Nigel De Jong are injured.”

Aww bless poor Mancini. He has only been given hundreds of millions to spend! I think he should take a look at some of the resources his fellow managers has to work with and stop talking nonsense.

Just look at next weekend opponents Everton and how much their boss David Moyes has had to spend this summer. The answer is nothing and the Scot had to sell one of the clubs most high profile players Mikel Arteta.

Mancini didn’t have to sell any of his best players and brought in an Argentinian superstar Sergio Aguero and French playmaker Samir Nasri. Whereas Moyes could only bring in Dutchman Royston Drenthe on-loan and unknown striker Denis Stracqulursi on a similar sort of deal.

Options

Mancini is moaning that he only had Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure and England international Gareth Barry available to him to play in the centre of his midfield. That’s two experienced players who have played at the top level of football for the last decade.

Barry has played in the Premier League for the last decade with Aston Villa and now City. Then you have Toure who has played for Barcelona in La Liga and won the Champions League with the Spanish champions.

Apparently these two central midfielders are suddenly not good enough to be Mancini’s central middle partnership. Yet they have been good enough to help the club make a faultless start to their Premier League campaign.

Management

These excuses smack of poor management to me. Mancini has enough players and spent enough to dominate English football. If any other top manager had the resources that Mancini had then they wouldn’t be coming up with daft excuses like ‘we haven’t got enough players’.

The Premier League season had gone swimmingly until yesterday’s draw at Craven Cottage. Yesterday however City threw away two points. This is when Mancini needs to earn his money. Its all well and good being the manager of a team when they are winning every week.

One draw at Fulham doesn’t mean a crisis but its after this sort of game that bosses earn their money. It seems strange that Mancini thinks that Manchester City drew this game because he didn’t have Nigel De Jong and James Milner available to him.

Even the biggest clubs suffer surprise results and Fulham is not the easiest place to go in the Premier League. To use the excuse of lack of players is ridiculous.

Recovery

Manchester City face Everton next weekend at the Etihad Stadium and City must bounce back with a win. Everton have won at Manchester City on their last three visits and it won’t be easy. However these are the sort of games that City need to win if they are to become a true force in English football.

Everybody is acting like City have been beaten by Fulham. However if City are to become a top class they must learn to bounce back from disappointing results.

According to reports Roberto Mancini is about to be offered a new contract. When he arrived I wasn’t convinced by the Italian. He is starting to convince me that he has what it takes to be a top Premier League boss.

However comments like the one he made after the draw against Fulham are not going to convince people that he is the class boss he needs to be at City.

Is Roberto Mancini right to state that City are lacking players at the moment?