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Robinho critical of Mancini

Fresh from his goalscoring second debut for Santos, Robinho has taken a swipe at Roberto Mancini and the style of European coaches:

"He [Mancini] has a different way of thinking," Robinho told the Daily Mail. "In Brazil, the coach respects the player's characteristics. But in Europe, they are used to playing with two lines of four players and they don't want to know what you can do. There, if you are a forward, the coach sends you on to the pitch just to run. You have to run and that's it."

Both Mancini (and Mark Hughes before him) demand quite a lot from their front players, and were keen proponents of the theory that defence starts in attack - evidence by how highly rated Carlos Tevez is.

The only surprise in terms of the comments themselves is that it has taken until now for anything to emerge given the penchance for players to open their mouths at the slightest opportunity.

Whilst Mancini has spoken of his desire for Robinho to return to the fold in the summer, my doubts over that are well known and it would be a big surprise if he pulled on the shirt again.

Judging by these comments, from Robinho's perspective anyway it now seems even less likely.