I wouldn’t normally indulge in a bout of public Pelle-pummelling … but right now, I’m thoroughly disenchanted with Manuel.
Off the top of my head:
a) He came across as petulant and precious with this prolonged hissyfit about a 24-hour delay. He practically announced pre-game that he expected to lose.
b) Yes, we may only have 13 fit senior players … but we have a wealth of talent coming through and he has refused to try and bed them in all season when he has had plenty of chances to do so. Throwing them in as a lump against Chelsea isn’t ideal … or very smart.
c) Having said that, I thought the kids did well for the most part … but Manuel’s formation and tactics were woeful and he sold those kids down the river. 4-4-2? Worse still, time and time again today, Chelsea played a simple one-two to get behind our backline when we stepped up. It was schoolboy tactics … watch the rerun and count how many times a Chelsea player running on to a simple short pass got them in on our goal. That was Manuel’s dopey gameplan, not Chelsea brilliance. They knew exactly how we would set up our backline and how easy it is to unlock it because we don’t track the runner.
d) Willy and MDM … no other manager would have brought those two to our club. They are Manuel’s old pals. MDM has been atrocious since his deal to go back to Argentina fell through in the summer. Denayer is out on loan and we have MDM treading treacle? MDM had one small purple patch for us during his time here … the rest of the time it’s been an old pro getting one last big payday courtesy of his old oppo. He’s too old, way too slow and is just going through the motions. Willy is awful. Just awful. Too slow to get down, too timid to challenge where it counts and his positionial sense is lousy. He was definitely at fault for three of the goals today and arguably culpable in all five. He saved a penalty but it was a poor take by Oscar.
e) If he plays Willy in the League Cup Final, we are already at a disadvantage … if he employs the same tactics he did in the league game against Liverpool we will get thumped. And does anybody feel confident that we are going all the way in the ECL based on our present form?
f) So this season has the potential to turn into a trainwreck unless Manuel gets a grip. We may well end up struggling to hang on to fourth in the league … and there is the nightmare scenario where fourth may not even guarantee ECL if Chelsea go on and win the ECL again and Liverpool win the Europa League (they would both go into next season’s ECL and one country can only have a maximium of 5 places:
http://www.theguardian.com/football...s-if-english-teams-win-both-european-trophies ) If we don’t have ECL football, we will struggle to land our summer transfer targets and Pep will start at a huge disadvantage if he only has the Europa League to aim at.
As things stand right now, I think Manuel needs to ditch the gung-ho stuff, start picking teams with an eye on how the opposition play and deploy a bit of pragmatism. He will either go out as a charming man or a daft old goat :)
