Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini 2015/16

[BigOscar]

Every move he made was spot on today. Fernando and Navas on to change the game, then even had time to take the piss by bringing on Zabaleta for the last 2 minutes and moving Kolarov our of leftback to let him know how utterly shit he'd been. Just don't start Kolarov and Yaya anymore in the CL if possible

 

[OB1]

Are we though? Are we entertaining in the way a top side is or entertaining in the sense it's end to end with no control of the game so god knows what will happen?

Both ;-)

 

[stony]

Every move he made was spot on today. Fernando and Navas on to change the game, then even had time to take the piss by bringing on Zabaleta for the last 2 minutes and moving Kolarov our of leftback to let him know how utterly shit he'd been. Just don't start Kolarov and Yaya anymore in the CL if possible

Apart from starting Toure when he clearly wasn't fit and setting us up with no protection for the back 4.

 

[BigOscar]

Apart from starting Toure when he clearly wasn't fit and setting us up with no protection for the back 4.

Clearly not fit? I find it impossible to tell, he's been playing like that for ages now

 

[daztrueblue91]

He's got an absolute huge decision to make on Yaya Toure.

The days of him dominating the midfield battle and being a creative force from deep are fading away and I don't see how we can get the best out of a Sterling-Silva-De Brunye combo with him in the team.

It's almost impossible for them to freely interchange when they have to be defensively sound to cover Yaya.

For me, we don't need to create our chances from deep. We need to allow the forward 4 to play their natural game and make sure the 2 CMs offer natural defensive stability.

----------------- Fernandinho ---------- Fernando/Delph---------------
De Brunye --------------------- Silva ---------------------------- Sterling
---------------------------------- Kun ---------------------------------------

With the AMs all interchanging could be the way forward for us.

 

[stony]

Clearly not fit? I find it impossible to tell, he's been playing like that for ages now

Which makes his decision to start him even more strange. I thought you said he got everything right?

 

[hilts]

He's got an absolute huge decision to make on Yaya Toure.

The days of him dominating the midfield battle and being a creative force from deep are fading away and I don't see how we can get the best out of a Sterling-Silva-De Brunye combo with him in the team.

It's almost impossible for them to freely interchange when they have to be defensively sound to cover Yaya.

For me, we don't need to create our chances from deep. We need to allow the forward 4 to play their natural game and make sure the 2 CMs offer natural defensive stability.

----------------- Fernandinho ---------- Fernando/Delph---------------
De Brunye --------------------- Silva ---------------------------- Sterling
---------------------------------- Kun ---------------------------------------

With the AMs all interchanging could be the way forward for us.

navas has to play

 

[BigOscar]

Which makes his decision to start him even more strange. I thought you said he got everything right?

I said every move, I didn't mean the starting formation, I meant the changes. Starting Yaya seems to be an automatic, I don't know why anymore as the negatives have gotten worse and the positives are rapidly diminishing. The lack of a replacement in the summer seems like a club decision to get another year out of Yaya

 

[Hungarian blue]

Which makes his decision to start him even more strange. I thought you said he got everything right?

That's true. Starting Yaya in away CL matches is a shit decision, I've just decided that after tonight. No matter what level the opposition represents. He's a class act in many ways but we need both of Fernandos if we want to achieve something meaningful in Europe.

 

[ayrshire_blue]

He's got an absolute huge decision to make on Yaya Toure.

The days of him dominating the midfield battle and being a creative force from deep are fading away and I don't see how we can get the best out of a Sterling-Silva-De Brunye combo with him in the team.

It's almost impossible for them to freely interchange when they have to be defensively sound to cover Yaya.

For me, we don't need to create our chances from deep. We need to allow the forward 4 to play their natural game and make sure the 2 CMs offer natural defensive stability.

----------------- Fernandinho ---------- Fernando/Delph---------------
De Brunye --------------------- Silva ---------------------------- Sterling
---------------------------------- Kun ---------------------------------------

With the AMs all interchanging could be the way forward for us.

This 100%. Unless it's purely a fitness issue with regards to his hamstring injury, then he's rapidly on the decline. He's been a passenger of late and contributes nothing defensively or offensively. The difference between his and Fernando's performances were night and day.

I really hope it's just his injury, but my heads telling me it's time for us to use other options.

 

[bondsman]

Yaya toure is top class. Fernando and Delph not fit to lace his boots. Poor tonight for sure but to suggest starting those two before him is laughable.

 

[Deleted member 13905]

Apart from starting Toure when he clearly wasn't fit and setting us up with no protection for the back 4.

i'm sure i heard pellegrini say, in a postmatch interview, something along the lines of...
neither toure nor fernando were anywhere near fit enough to play a full game, so they basically got a half a game each.
given that choice, would you start fernando for the first half and replace him with toure for the second?
i think pellegrini had no other choice than to start with toure because he is the senior player, regardless of whether we were better once he went off.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Yaya toure is top class. Fernando and Delph not fit to lace his boots. Poor tonight for sure but to suggest starting those two before him is laughable.

You can't be fit 4 days after coming off with an injury like he had. The fact Pellegrini picks him over Fernando even in that situation reaffirms that unless Toure picks himself.

 

[super_city_si]

Extremely naive in his set up. We really need to adopt a way more pragmatic approach to Europe. Deja vu.
He needs to start two ferns or Delphi and Fernandinho and tell them to protect the back 4, always stay behind the ball. We have enough going forward to be able to commit these two to a more defensive style.
Oh, and tell kolarov he's playing left back.

 

[waspish]

Apart from starting Toure when he clearly wasn't fit and setting us up with no protection for the back 4.

Protection for our back four even with 2 holding ain't protecting no back four! Why?! Because they push up past the half way line and don't protect nowt they are there to press the ball to stop the attacks

 

[RichardDunneOwnGoal]

Yaya toure is top class. Fernando and Delph not fit to lace his boots. Poor tonight for sure but to suggest starting those two before him is laughable.

What's poor has been Manuel's management of the squad. Piss poor in fact.

Yaya's approaching his mid thirties and needs to be used more cautiously, especially with the congested fixture list.

What does Manuel do?

He starts him midweek against a terrible Sunderland side, we go four nil up at half time. Does he take him off and rest him for the tough weekend fixture away and Spurs? No.

In fact, he leaves him on until the 88th minute, only giving George Evans a 5 minute debut to boot.

Then, Yaya limps off less than an hour into that weekend's game with a hamstring injury/tightness.

Then, Manuel starts Yaya in the following midweek fixture, tonight, far from 100%. The game completely passes him by and his fitness, and hamstring, necessitate that he has to come off at half time.

It's just totally piss poor.

A key player totally mismanaged to his, and our, detriment.

 

[sh249]

Got most things right tonight, I thought. You can argue the toss about selecting Yaya and whether he was fit enough, but the team he went with was that which 95% of fans would have opted for beforehand. He made the Fernando sub at the right time, and bringing Navas on was a decent move (as much as I would have liked to see Silva stay on).

 

[B\connellblue]

I don't believe it matters who the personnel is, the tactics are suicidal most of the time plus anyone who thinks that Demi, Kolorov, and otamendi are good enough at this level won't be long in his job. Can he also please tell sterling to stop waiting on kolorov to overlap and just drive forward himself.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I don't believe it matters who the personnel is, the tactics are suicidal most of the time plus anyone who thinks that Demi, Kolorov, and otamendi are good enough at this level won't be long in his job. Can he also please tell sterling to stop waiting on kolorov to overlap and just drive forward himself.

I love the way you can't see the enormous hypocrisy in your first sentence.

That reserve back four were all we had available. If we'd have had some of our first choice defenders available we'd have won that game easily. Throw in the fact that most of our biggest names are half fit, and our new boys are still gelling, and we are missing an incredible amount of chances as a result, and that's a damn good result tonight.

We are fine. Mark my words. We will go up the gears as the big guns get fit and improve.

 

[Sergio Picasso Aguero]

It goes without saying that I want us to win the Champions League but I sincerely hope Pellegrini can somehow pull it off because it would be the perfect middle finger to all the haters. He gets so much undeserved criticism and his domestic double in his first season in English football was virtually airbrushed from football history the minute after it happened.