French international footballer Samir Nasri could be an indispensable part of Manchester City, but, off late, his performance on the ground has ever been unpredictable. On one occasion he presented himself as a best player in the world while most of the other times, he proved to be just a normal player. City spent more than £24million in 2011 to buy this high profile player from Arsenal, and, indeed, he proved his worth in the first season, but after that his strike rate started diminishing. His lack of afford is more critical than his ability to score, this is what Manchester City’s boss Roberto Mancini thinks about the Frenchman. In most of the previous matches, except Saturday’s tie with Newcastle United, his gameplay has rather been a cold show from a superstar and this is something that is making his boss angry. City manager even said recently that he wishes to punch him looking at his flip flop show in last few matches. Actually, he is right in his judgment, coz many City players have shown a dip in their performance from last season; hence they are trailing by a good 15 points margin from their arch rival United this season.
Talking about Nasri and City’s failure to repeat last year’s triumph, he said, “I would like to give him (Nasri) a punch, because a player like him should play like this always.
“Every game. Maybe one game sometimes he can play badly.
“I don’t understand what was different. I can’t understand how a player with his quality doesn’t play like this every game.
“The second year is always difficult to win the title again. And sometimes the player can think it is enough to play 50 per cent. We’ve probably had this problem this year.”
While taking their 15 points’ trail as big enough, he added, “We can’t think we are 15 points behind because for me, the gap is not correct. Fifteen points is too much. I think it is six or seven, not 15.
“We showed this in the first derby when we deserved to win and lost. You can play well, but if you don’t score and concede, you lose.
“They have won a lot of games, difficult games, to stay on top and they deserve to win the title for this.
“This is the mentality you have when you win everything for 20 years and you know if you don’t play well it’s important to win.”