Roberto Mancini’s New Found Faith In Attack Can Secure Top Four Finish, But Has His Hesitation Cost Man City The Title?

£81,000,000. It’s a huge sum of money. It’s also the value of the attacking weapons Roberto Mancini fielded against Sunderland on Sunday when they demolished the Black Cats 5-0.

David Silva, Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli were all brought to Eastlands for fees of over £20 million, Adam Johnson was signed for a relatively frugal £7m, while uncertainty remains over the figure paid for Carlos Tevez.

Manchester City fans everywhere must have been jumping with joy watching their team dismantle Sunderland with an urgency and lethality seldom seen from the club this season. Which poses a pertinent question. Why, with such quality at his disposal, has Roberto Mancini been so reluctant to let them off the leash?

In a number of games this term, City haven’t punished teams in a manner which would be expected of a serious title challenger. Home matches against Fulham, Birmingham and Blackburn have yielded two goals and three points.

Compare this to league-leading Manchester United. They are still to play Fulham at Old Trafford, but the other two games produced six points and 12 goals. Five against Birmingham and seven against Blackburn.

This is the reason United will win the Premier League title once again and City will continue their 43-year drought for the title. Had City matched United’s record, they would sit in second spot and only four points behind Sir Alex Ferguson’s men, not the 10 they find themselves trailing their rivals by now.

It’s frustrating for the City faithful to have a stable of wonderfully talented attacking players at the club and not see them do what they do best week in, week out. Could it be argued that had Mancini employed this philosophy earlier in the season, then United would be fighting tooth and nail for the title rather than the comfortable canter they have now?