This viz doesn't need many words of explanation.
The further right the player name is the more starts he has made. The higher the player name is the less sub appearances he has made. Bigger the bubble the more minutes played.
Red=defenders, yellow=midfielders and green=forwards.
A few thoughts:
Mancini seems to have a core of 6 or 7 players who have made the most starts, had few sub games and have played a lot of minutes. None of that 'core' should surprise anyone.
No player has played over 2000 minutes and this tells us that even the most trusted players have suffered through some injury issues this year. Think of Kompany, Silva, Aguero and Toure (AFCON).
Dzeko is a super sub. Neither Milner nor Nasri have grabbed the chance and earned the managers trust sufficiently to be the #1 right sided player, again injury has played it's part.
Lescott has been replaced by Nastasic. Balotelli should have been sold in the summer, seeing how little he had featured.
Summer Signings
Much has been made in recent days of Man City's Summer 2012 transfer activity. I think Harkiano said it best with his 'fleet of Ford Fiesta's', and it has been clear to most people how little impact, Nastasic aside, that the Summer transfer's have had.
Nastasic, at 19, has been a revelation. Garcia has been functional at best and doesn't command the trust of the manager when all midfielders are healthy.
Rodwell and Maicon have suffered through injury and Sinclair, in his short time at the club, has been a training cone. Those 3 players have played just 871 minutes, less than 10 full games, between them. Those 3 players had cost a reported £24m and it's fair to conclude that those transfer dealings have been very underwhelming. That money surely could have been put to better to use this season.
Rodwell is young enough to come close to covering his transfer bet, but it may take 2 or 3 years. Sinclair is a transfer bust and Maicon's transfer fee was so little that it doesn't warrant much criticism.
Thanks for reading, hoped you like the chart.