Man City exited the Europa League today. A 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev could not overturn the first leg 0-2 loss.

Unfortunately, the headline front story is about their mercurial 20 year old striker Mario Balotelli who was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Goran Popov.

I looked at the footage several times and feel that the sending off was somewhat harsh and I'll tell you why it was and wasn't.

THE BALOTELLI CHALLENGE

Balotelli did go into the challenge on Popov with his studs showing and his foot was raised to about chest level. Usually, players do not go hard into those types of challenges and if they do raise their foot high, there should NOT be any body contact. Unfortunately, Balotelli did make contact with Popov - first into his chest and then as he lowered his foot - he made contact with Popov's thigh as well. Its quite clear that it was an ill-advised challenge and difficult to justify. There really was no need for Balotelli to do that as Popov was making a routine clearance from deep in his own half. I'm going to put that down to poor judgement on Mario's part. On the other hand though, there was no force in the challenge that would cause Popov to roll around on the ground in "pain". I think Popov realized that when Balotelli made contact, it was an opportunity to get Balotelli at least a yellow card. I'm sure the straight red card was a joyous surprise to Kiev. This is just more evidence of the type of play-acting that goes on in European football where players contrive to dive, writhe around and roll in "pain" to accentuate physical contact and draw a card on the opposing player. It really is indicative of the type of high stakes that are involved in football - in terms of wins, revenues and the whole financial aspect of professional league soccer.

MANCINI FURIOUS

City boss Mancini castigated Balotelli in the press after the game using words like "stupid foul" and "cost us the game". This is clearly in relation to previous reports where Mancini told the press that Balotelli routinely ignores his coaching instructions. Obviously Mancini is not going to let this go without a chance to drive home a point to his wilful young striker. You can ignore the coaching staff if you do your job well. But when you don't - then expect a ton of bricks to come down and that's EXACTLY what Mancini intended with his Balotelli comments. Any young player who is resistent to coaching from his own club - that's a big red flag to me. No player should have that attitude and expect to be a success in the game. Coaching is there to help players improve technically and also implement team strategies and schemes. Talent alone cannot work, especially at the high level that Man City are operating in - both at a payroll and stakes level. A strong team concept and structure is the basic requirement for success and without it - City really cannot hope to overhaul the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United - all three of which operate under established footballing philosophies and a sound team concept.

THE LAST WORD

City paid a fortune to acquire Balotelli this season and they will need to get him quickly in line. This is one of several back-stories at City where player and manager have clashed in a battle of wills. Really - Mancini's job is much like a Lion Tamer - at a club with 25 roaring lions. He has enviable financial backing but a hell of a job trying to implement his footballing philosophy and team concept. City is awash with incredible talent and large egos. They do have a nice mix of talent and tenacity which I like. The challenge now is to really bed all these players together and create team chemistry. That does take some time. Where players step out of line - Mancini needs to quickly stamp his authority. I don't really want to make a big deal out of Mario Balotelli's red card in the Kiev game. I think Popov's playacting was the trigger for the red card. But Balotelli needs to get back on track with his coaches and work on raising the intelligence level of his game. There are some tackles that you don't follow through on. This was one of them and I think he'll learn.