ROBERTO MANCINI has delivered a sharp critique of Micah Richards’s progress for Manchester City, talking of a player who does not always give his best and expressing a conspicuous lack of sympathy about his inability to win over England manger Fabio Capello.
Mancini points out the defender is too often guilty of lapses of concentration and needs to “remember to pick up his brain”.
Richards’s omission from the last England squad demonstrated the reservations Capello has had about the player throughout his time in charge of the England team. However, Mancini made it clear he accepted Capello’s thinking when he was asked whether he sympathised with Richards and thought his player was good enough to be included.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Micah is young. In the last year he has improved a lot, but he needs to improve more. He has good quality but sometimes Micah thinks he can play at only 50 per cent. If Micah plays to 100 per cent, he can become one of the top full-backs in Europe. His body is on the pitch, but his mind is left at home sometimes. For this, he can improve – if he can remember to pick up his brain.”
Richards’s form has been so impressive during City’s rise to the top of the league there was widespread surprise when Capello decided he would rather include Liverpool’s Glen Johnson and Kyle Walker of Tottenham Hotspur ahead of him for the internationals against Spain and Sweden. However, the concerns about Richards’s attitude date back to Mark Hughes’s time as manager, when the player was considered a poor trainer.
Despite a notable improvement since Mancini took over, the Manchester United pair of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are also ahead of Richards in Capello’s thinking for the right-back position, leaving the City player in danger of missing the cut for next summer’s European Championship.
Meanwhile, Adam Johnson and Pablo Zabaleta have signed new contracts. The England winger has agreed a deal that ties him to City until 2016, while the Argentina defender Zabaleta has agreed fresh terms through to 2015.
Johnson’s deal should end long-running speculation about a move away from the club.
