Dirty TackleRoberto Mancini admits the loss of Mario Balotelli has hurt Man City
Two months after selling Mario Balotelli to Milan, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has come to the realization that losing the 22-year-old striker has hurt his club. The combination of Balotelli and Mancini's frequent clashes and Milan's willingness to pay the €20+ million necessary to bring him to the club he supported as a child ended Mario's productive two and half years in England (both as a footballer and a headline generator) before he could completely fulfill the potential Mancini always knew he had. And now the manager seems to lament cashing out too soon.
From Reuters:
"Mario scored 15 goals last season. This is the difference, the goals we did not score," Mancini told a news conference on Friday. [...]
City scored a total of 93 league goals last season. In 30 games so far this campaign they have found the back of the net 55 times compared to 72 at the same stage last season.
"The difference is that we score 20 goals less than last year. Only this difference," said Mancini.
"We concede the same, we have the best defence, we are missing only these goals. We had a lot of injuries, we lost Sergio, we lost Mario," he added in reference to Aguero, who missed the first month of the season and has sustained further knocks."
Though Balotelli only scored one goal in 14 Premier League for City this season before returning to Italy, he has already scored seven times in seven Serie A appearances for Milan to become the club's third highest scorer on the season. Man City, meanwhile, head into Monday's Manchester derby a whopping 15 points behind Man United. And their YouTube channel just isn't the same either.
