Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 3)

[NQCitizen]

you what now?

Pretty straight forward. We've won two away on the bounce at tough places with Garcia as centre half and a system which some think leaves our cb's badly exposed. So saying choosing Garcia was baffling is.... well baffling IMO.

I think Lescott would've gotten whiplash playing against Doumbia on yesterday's pitch. Garcia may not be quick and may not be agile, but he's quicker and has more agility than Lescott and against a team who are going to play us on the counter like CSKA did, picking Garcia was the right decision.

I'm not having that. Garcia was a fucking shambles again yesterday. Lescott should be ahead of him every time at centre half, no matter what

Yes we won two games which is of credit to Pellegrini and the players but this was more in spite of having garcia at centre back as opposed to winning them because he was centre back. I think we're more likely to have had 2 clean sheets had lescott played

Any good team presses Lescott into deciding what to do with the ball at his feet and he is completely terrible at that. He's no less error prone than Garcia and Garcia is statistically better in the air too.

 

[forevermancity]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

Lescott is terrible, he is done

2 wrong statements in 6 words, well done, it takes great ability to do that!

 

[wayne71]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

We've just won two away games on the bounce, one in the CL in fucking Russia. Picking Garcia may well be baffling, but it's been bafflingly effective this week.

If you want to talk about baffling we won the league with Mancini and you still wanted him sacked. Now that is truly baffling.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

The passing stats are quite interesting actually:

City had their best possession stats of their CL campaign so far last night. They attempted and completed the most passes in a CL game this season for us last night (621 & 489 respectively) and had their highest pass completion rate 79%. These fall well short of the leading pass completion stats in the competition. The most attempted passes is 930, the most completed is 828 and the best completion rate is 89%. As 828/930 is 89%, somebody's had a good game somewhere. We're below the competition average is passes attempted, completed and the completion rate, though we did have the debacle of Bayern at home.

Interestingly Bayern have had double the number of attempts on target we've had in the competition so far (48 v 24). We're 8th in the list of attempts on target, 7th in the list of those created inside the area, but again half as many as Bayern (14 v 28). In fact even outside the area we have half as many as Bayern naturally (10 v 20), we're 18th on that list, showing we don't like a pop from outside the area. We rank 17th in passes attempted on 1585, PSG top with 2477 with Barca 2nd on 2455. We move up to 14th on passes completed at 1190, PSG top on 2135 with Barca again 2nd on 2121. We languish 14th on pass completion % with 75%. PSG and Barca top on 86%, Bayern 85%, Real 81%, Arsenal & Ajax 80%, Chelsea and Schalke 79%, Juve 78%, United 77% with Shakhtar and Zenit and Napoli 76%.

Bayern top the possession stats with 65%. City rank 13th with 50%, Barca are 2nd with 64%, PSG 63%, Arsenal 55%, Juve and Ajax 54%, Real 53% and United 52%. So we're clearly not a possession team, but we don't dominate the attempts list either...

In terms of individuals, last night was positive for Nastasic who completed 41 passes at 87%. Zabaleta was the star with 61 passes at 87%. Yaya had 89 passes at 84%, whilst Fernandinho had 76 at 86%. Silva languished a bit at 76%, with Garcia and Negredo at 78% and 77% respectively. Kolarov at 75% with Aguero and Navas at 71%. Hart was 69%. Our overall pass completion rate was 79% compared to 70%.

So our passing and possession stats languish a bit compared to some of the elite clubs, but if the results keep coming then it will prove our play is working.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

JMW do those stats take in to account that Bayern had 31 shots last night

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

JMW do those stats take in to account that Bayern had 31 shots last night

They obviously did, but we also fall behind Juve, Real, PSG, Barca, Leverkusen in overall attempts, though obviously Bayern are a country mile ahead, but aren't top scorers, just showing how wasteful they are as well :P.

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

JMW do those stats take in to account that Bayern had 31 shots last night

They obviously did, but we also fall behind Juve, Real, PSG, Barca, Leverkusen in overall attempts, though obviously Bayern are a country mile ahead, but aren't top scorers, just showing how wasteful they are as well :P.

The quality of opposition has a bearing on these stats I would guess. Our stats last night, and against Plzen would be far more impressive than they would have been against Bayern. We can only face who we are drawn against, and we all know that Bayern are the best team in the competition, and this would have a negative influence on our own figures. If each team in the competition played each other as in a proper league format, then the figures would be far more telling.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

We've just won two away games on the bounce, one in the CL in fucking Russia. Picking Garcia may well be baffling, but it's been bafflingly effective this week.

Oh and playing Lescott last night would've been an absolute disaster and I love the guy and want him to sign a new contract and stay.

you what now?

Pretty straight forward. We've won two away on the bounce at tough places with Garcia as centre half and a system which some think leaves our cb's badly exposed. So saying choosing Garcia was baffling is.... well baffling IMO.

I think Lescott would've gotten whiplash playing against Doumbia on yesterday's pitch. Garcia may not be quick and may not be agile, but he's quicker and has more agility than Lescott and against a team who are going to play us on the counter like CSKA did, picking Garcia was the right decision.

I'm gonna have to blink and stare at that post a little while longer, Billy. Garcia was gash last night, plain and simple, and the fact that we won despite him, should not be seen as an endorsement of his selection.
Of the two players Garcia is certainly more comfortable in possession than Lescott, but the latter has more desire and is, crucially, a natural centre half. A race between the two of them would be interesting, although I think they'd have to film it with one of those special slow shutter cameras the BBC uses for filming flowers budding over a 6 day period, as any movement would be imperceptible to the naked eye in real time.
In actual fact, I think Garcia is the slower of the two, and having been undone by a 60 yarder over his head, caught flat footed so that a 5ft 8' Japanese midfielder beat him in the air, lost his forward to the tune of 6 yards from one cross, and allowed the same player to wriggle around him and almost conceded a penalty as he vainly tried to make up ground, amongst other examples of amateurish defending, I do not think Lescott could possibly have done worse. Ultimately though both are a liability at this level

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

Nothing is too much trouble for Manuel , take the early hours of Thursday morning at Manchester Airport for example .....

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[FantasyIreland]

Re: Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

I'm gonna have to blink and stare at that post a little while longer, Billy. Garcia was gash last night, plain and simple, and the fact that we won despite him, should not be seen as an endorsement of his selection.
Of the two players Garcia is certainly more comfortable in possession than Lescott, but the latter has more desire and is, crucially, a natural centre half. A race between the two of them would be interesting, although I think they'd have to film it with one of those special slow shutter cameras the BBC uses for filming flowers budding over a 6 day period, as any movement would be imperceptible to the naked eye in real time.
In actual fact, I think Garcia is the slower of the two, and having been undone by a 60 yarder over his head, caught flat footed so that a 5ft 8' Japanese midfielder beat him in the air, lost his forward to the tune of 6 yards from one cross, and allowed the same player to wriggle around him and almost conceded a penalty as he vainly tried to make up ground, amongst other examples of amateurish defending, I do not think Lescott could possibly have done worse. Ultimately though both are a liability at this level

Nail on head.

Apart from the fact Honda is actually a tad over 6 foot......