City v Watford Post Match Thread

[SWP's back]

you rotate when you have the players to rotate, we clearly haven't, hence pelli not only admitting it but getting as many established players as possible on.

yes change a couple, 3 even but any more than that and you will go out of any tournament you are in sooner rather than later.


"waits for nodding dogs, bits of kids and plastics to respond"

You are making a tit of yourself again.

 

[Jimfv1]

We have not got to the point yet as a club where no matter who makes the starting eleven (within reason) you can anticipate what sort of fist that eleven is gonna make. Yesterday I had Jack R down for a decent game, Marcos L to continue where he left off, and Micah to provide what we know he can. None of it materialised.

We also seem still to be totally flummoxed by a team that presses high with at least three well into our half from our GK, and players are left to their own devices when surrounded by three opponents. I thought after the Cup Final last year we would have half an answer to that tactic.

yeah i agree totally, we do struggle with that, and to be fair a lot of the games when this has happened we have had what was close to our strongest side out, for me we have to spot these games coming up and play 5 in MF giving the extra option when we closed down quickly, not saying this will work but its what i would give a try,

When we are at completely full strength, we're very much helped by the fact that both Negredo and Aguero do a lot of hard work when we don't have the ball. (Not a slam on Dzeko for fans of his.)

De Niro does have a point, too many changes is what he's saying. Yes we have to rotate the squad, but too many changes upset the balance. Playing Lopes against a team that is 6-0 down is one thing, but against a lower league club which is showing no fear under a new manager is different again. I don't think Pellegrini did much wrong to be honest , he has to see how the players he picked would respond when they are attacked by a lesser team. The eleven who started have a bit of a suspect mentality and think their reputations will get them through the match. The same eight who finished the game had pulled their collective socks up when they had 2-3 other players on with a stronger mentality which drove the team forward.

This will all be noticed by Pellegrini and his staff, and we won the game well in the end. I still think we are in transition, which is remarkable when you consider we are still competing for four trophies. Things could be far worse, (look across town for an example), but our club is well run, both commercially and playing wise. This is a great time to be a City fan and there will always be some valid criticism from certain sections of our support.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

If we beat spurs and are in the fifth round of the cup then the manager's rotation worked. That's it. There is nothing more to be added.

If we'd stuck silva and Milner and fernandinho and komps and zab and all the others out there, won 5-0 and then lost to a fresher (They didn't play. That's important. They didn't play. Let that sink in) spurs then it would have been a massive cock up.

 

[Jimfv1]

If we beat spurs and are in the fifth round of the cup then the manager's rotation worked. That's it. There is nothing more to be added.

If we'd stuck silva and Milner and fernandinho and komps and zab and all the others out there, won 5-0 and then lost to a fresher (They didn't play. That's important. They didn't play. Let that sink in) spurs then it would have been a massive cock up.

Milner and Silva were both injured for the Watford game, so were never going to play, just hope Silva is fit for the Spuds.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

If we beat spurs and are in the fifth round of the cup then the manager's rotation worked. That's it. There is nothing more to be added.

If we'd stuck silva and Milner and fernandinho and komps and zab and all the others out there, won 5-0 and then lost to a fresher (They didn't play. That's important. They didn't play. Let that sink in) spurs then it would have been a massive cock up.

Milner and Silva were both injured for the Watford game, so were never going to play, just hope Silva is fit for the Spuds.

Milner failed a fitness test but silva was kept out as a precaution and could have played. But of course the point still stands.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I think that there is a real danger of getting the whole game out of perspective. Like most fans I have a dabble at picking the team to compare it with the manager's. I think mine was pretty much the same. I think both Lescott and Dimichelis are slow, but I thought they would have no difficulties with Watford! The point I'm making is that I, probably most of us, had no complaints about the team selection at 3pm yesterday.

Very quickly it became clear that we were playing very poorly indeed as a team. Few individuals were as good as average and as a team we didn't exist. Pellegrini says he felt like making eleven substitutions and most in the crowd felt the same: it had nothing to do with rotation, it's simply that the team was having a massive off day.

One of the things that has concerned me about Pellegrini is that his substitutions are prearranged and don't always seem geared to a specific game. That was certainly not the case yesterday. I don't honk the substitutions showed a profound tactical brilliance, but they did show real courage. Pellegrini took the bull by the horns and put on players he really wanted to protect, which proved to me he really does mean that he is all out to win every game and every tournament we are in. It was "only" Watford, but the manager earned his corn yesterday - he could have done the easy thing and brought Ferna and Jovetic (a bit early) and we might have won anyway, but Vinnie and Zaba certainly brought the team to something like life!

 

[Damocles]

If we beat spurs and are in the fifth round of the cup then the manager's rotation worked. That's it. There is nothing more to be added.

So ultimately your point is because we won the game then we can't question the initial teamsheet that took us 2-0 down?

Because that's pretty daft.

He got his opening team wrong. We know he got his team wrong because we went 2-0 to a Championship side at home until HT.

He got his substitutions right. We know he got his substitutions right because we won the game 4-2 and turned around a 2-0 deficit.

 

[OB1]

If we beat spurs and are in the fifth round of the cup then the manager's rotation worked. That's it. There is nothing more to be added.

So ultimately your point is because we won the game then we can't question the initial teamsheet that took us 2-0 down?

Because that's pretty daft.

He got his opening team wrong. We know he got his team wrong because we went 2-0 to a Championship side at home until HT.

He got his substitutions right. We know he got his substitutions right because we won the game 4-2 and turned around a 2-0 deficit.

Whilst that appears logical, it is way too simplistic. Are you telling us that you can never pick the right side and get the wrong result?

 

[Damocles]

Yes, as whether you picked the right side is determined almost wholly by the result, as Dave alluded to

 

[OB1]

Yes, as whether you picked the right side is determined almost wholly by the result, as Dave alluded to

I disagree very strongly. Manager's don't have crystal balls, they can pick a side that they can reasonably expect to do the required job and then find that, for a host of reasons, things don't work out as planned.

Did Pellegrini pick the wrong side when we lost at Chelsea?