I agree with all of that mate.TBH, I was alarmed after we went from the controlled football under Mancini, to a manager who set us up 4-4-2, waited for the whistle to blow, & yelled "CHARGE"!!
We beat a newly promoted Swansea 4-0 at home in MP's first match, but we had little control & it could've been 4-4 if Swansea had a decent striker.
Some fans loved the "taking the handbrake" off approach, but it left me cold because I knew this all out attack tactic wouldn't work at the highest level, & once the opposition figured us out, we'd suffer.
After Manuel's first season where he was an unknown quantity, so it proved... The PL had figured us out. I'll never forget losing at Wet Spam & Fat Sam saying he exploited the obvious weakness that many fans were constantly complaining about to win the game easily. But Pellegrini wouldn't change.
We had Zabaleta & Kolorov as our preferred FB's, but who were both as slow as a pair of stoned slugs. Teams kept lumping balls over the top into the channels to a pair of whippet wingers on either side, who'd have the freedom of the pitch to either go for goal or pass to their greyhound striker mate gratefully waiting for a one-on-one in the middle.
It happened game after game, but yet there was never a change. I'd received cast iron info in 2012 that Pep was lined up to replace Mancini, but City couldn't be seen to be sacking him after the Agueroooooo moment, hence Pep took a year off & went to Bayern.
Because of Pellegrini perceived lack of tactics & UEFA's FFP restrictions, we went backwards after Mancini imo. It took Guardiola a season to properly assess where we were at, but after spending £200m on a new defence in 2017, City have never looked back.
Good or bad, all managers have contributed to the colourful history, that the istree clubs reckon we don't possess.
I loved Pellegrini! The first season was absolutely class with him. And the third season was very much a "hold the fort" for Pep job and he did okay despite us having a lot of dross to clear out. He did better that season than Pep when he arrived the next year to be fair to him!
I actually began to dream under Kendall, difficult start but just before he left we were looking a proper team and club. The fans and team came together and I genuinely believe we could have chased the title with a little luck and a couple of additions.I thought Machin did alright, took us up but then we needed someone to take us to the next level and kendall did that, he would have won us a cup 100% if he'd stayed.
At 73 years of age I`d be fucking delighted for a semi.That aside he did have a semi decent season in the Premier League with Forest and did get them promoted.
Mate, many of us saw what was coming, & like you said, it seems MP had no plan b. Playing a high line defence with Demichelis, Kolarov & Zabaleta was suicide.I agree with all of that mate.
It was fun at the beginning under Pellers (his first 6-9 months or so) when were were smashing in goals for a laugh but as someone above said, he had zero plan B so for the next two years just sat and had a snooze while we got battered.
And fans took out their frustrations (unfairly IMO) on the likes of Navas and Kolarov, two highly gifted technical footballers who were sent on a fool's errand week after week by poor management.
I don't know about that.
We finished 4th and on 66 points with the performances being absolutely rancid for the most part. If United hadn't conceded a late goal to West Ham days before the season finished, we'd have finished 5th behind the rags. Yeah, we won the league cup but there's no way that team was better than the one the year after. With the Pep team you could see we were heading in the right direction and were just a couple of full backs away from making the turn.