Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

[Skashion]

Nasri has always played better when Silva isn't playing and vice versa. When both play there is some redundancy created so both shine less brightly. It isn't that hard to fathom. That said, I don't think we've seen Silva in consistently good form for a long time now. However, this is Bluemoon, and it's been all of a week since Nasri was being called useless...

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

What a relief.

Yesterday was how we've been thinking we're capable of playing when we were mostly stood on the pitch as zombies last season, 'existing' as Joe put it

Aggressive, quick, intricate, mobile, devastating

Need to kick on from here now and if we do then strap yourselves in because it's gonna be one hell of a season

 

[Didsbury Dave]

That was my team prediction had Silva been fit.

On a side note. I'm shocked by how quiet both this thread and the forum in general is. Yesterday was more brutal efficient and comprehensive than the 6 - 1.

Pellegrini showed his worth and showed why he was wanted by so many clubs this summer. The best part is the team and performances will only get better.

Not quiet here fella. I'm totally fucking buzzing. I can see what this man is doing taking shape before my eyes and I think it's going to be something special. Along with the total football, the unity, the spirit, the fight...

And it's looking like you were right about Samir all along, too ;-)

Dave,

I had to smile at your, forgive me, dismal pre-match feelings! I was certain we'd win if we played anything like our best and (although I didn't say this out loud) pretty confident that we would put in a performance, despite my misplaced temptation towards a bit of caution in the team selection.

By the time, I got back home last night, I only had time to watch City on MotD and the recording of the match up to the fourth goal and I have to sasy I am almost staggered by how good we were to that point. Afterwards, we sat deep(ish) and allowed the Rags far more of the ball than I would have liked but the game was won by then. Also, although they had a lot of possession in the latter stages, they hardly played a pass goal side of our 18 yard line.

Far too much work to do to comment further at mo; other than to say, we clearly have plenty of big game players and Pellegrini's biggest task is to persuade them to treat every game like a big one (something his post match comments indicate that he is aware of). Attitude, belief and confidence are the keys to our season.

Hiya Pal.

I really did have a bad feeling about the game! I thought they'd really hurt us on the break on our left with Nasri and Kolorov there, against Valencia and Rooney. And then fifteen minutes in, we are absolutely rampant and those two set up a beautiful goal. Talk about being wrong!!!!!

I tell you what, this team is going places. Really going places. His man management skills are getting our "lesser lights" to play out of their skin, and that makes us a frightening beast when we get some momentum going. He doesn't seem afraid of making tough decisions and he's pretty fucking bold. To go so top heavy against Man Utd in his first derby...it took balls and he reaped the rewards. I really thought he'd have Ya Ya sitting again but he went for it.

We weren't even at full strength and that first hour was the possibly best City performance I've seen in 35 years of watching.

To say I'm excited about what we can achieve is an understatement. Suddenly it's a happy camp, the confidence is there. The players seem to be learning the system - we defended brilliantly. If this progress continues - and I appreciate it's early days - then we are going to be a juggernaut.

 

[OB1]

Hiya Pal.

I really did have a bad feeling about the game! I thought they'd really hurt us on the break on our left with Nasri and Kolorov there, against Valencia and Rooney. And then fifteen minutes in, we are absolutely rampant and those two set up a beautiful goal. Talk about being wrong!!!!!

I tell you what, this team is going places. Really going places. His man management skills are getting our "lesser lights" to play out of their skin, and that makes us a frightening beast when we get some momentum going. He doesn't seem afraid of making tough decisions and he's pretty fucking bold. To go so top heavy against Man Utd in his first derby...it took balls and he reaped the rewards. I really thought he'd have Ya Ya sitting again but he went for it.

We weren't even at full strength and that first hour was the possibly best City performance I've seen in 35 years of watching.

To say I'm excited about what we can achieve is an understatement. Suddenly it's a happy camp, the confidence is there. The players seem to be learning the system - we defended brilliantly. If this progress continues - and I appreciate it's early days - then we are going to be a juggernaut.

I did have a concern about the left side and I thought they might press us more; especially when Wellcrap ran Vinnie down at the start bu,t overall, we have the better players and I think the players believe in themselves against United, which they did in spades yesterday. How much of that we can vreidt to Pellers. I am not yet sure but I agree that he was bold yesterday and would hope that translated to the players as confidence in them that they fed off. They were definitely up for it, in fact almost too much so at the start: they needed to calm down a little.

 

[NQCitizen]

Think MP would ever go with Nasri on the left, Silva in the middle, Navas on the right and Aguero the lone striker? I also would like to see more of Kolarov deployed more during home games even when Clichy is fit.

Can't see MP playing without a big front man personally. Think the hustle of Negredo is becoming integral to our player and MP does seem to strongly a favour a front two. Even the less all-action Dzeko is showing his worth much better as a supporting strike partner.

Personally I can't see Silva and Nasri playing together more often than they don't. Jovetic is an interesting wildcard too, but I kinda see him being the Aguero understudy. So it's Navas or Milner with Nasri or Silva.

 

[crystal_mais]

What a difference a few games make. I think the team are starting to bed in and working to the his methods. Vinny makes a massive difference. All the players were up for it.

I'm really exited, just hoping we can start dominating away games. Keep it up Pelli. He seems to have made a difference with Nasri, Kolarov & Dzeko

 

[Anonymous]

Not quiet here fella. I'm totally fucking buzzing. I can see what this man is doing taking shape before my eyes and I think it's going to be something special. Along with the total football, the unity, the spirit, the fight...

And it's looking like you were right about Samir all along, too ;-)

Nasri had a poor season on and off the field last season, his worst in his professional football by his own admission. On that basis we were always likely to see an improvement this term. The big thing for me is the confidence he's playing with. He's clearly feeling a level of freedom in his play which you can see from him driving at players and acting as much as a wide forward as as a central playmaker. His finishing has got to be in the top 5 in our squad.

The overall result and performance hasn't quite sunk in for me. I think when players like Kolarov are excelling and playing with confidence and swagger, then you know there's something going on behind the scenes which is giving those players that confidence.

Pellegrini got his team selection absolutely bang on yesterday. Negredo bullied Ferdinand and Vidic in a way that Dzeko would never have done. That was for me the key to the space Aguero kept finding. Negredo has the power to hold up balls which are pitched up to him and then has the technique to play the right pass after holding off a challenge.

Navas is actually a more versatile player than even I was aware. He's not being deployed as a chalk on boots winger, he's being deployed as an attacking midfield player who has pace and delivery from wide in his arsenal. There has been a lot of talk about him coming narrow too often in recent week but we saw yesterday that it's actually crucial to controlling games in midfield that Navas and Nasri come narrow when they need to and make challenges. I think it speaks volumes about the confidence which the manager has in him. His play reminds me of the way Pellegrini had Joaquin playing last season at Malaga. Another out and out winger converted into a more versatile attacking midfield player.

This isn't a dig at the previous incumbent because Mancini's way also delivered plenty of big results and performances, but for me it's telling that Pellegrini's press conference narrative about the quality of his squad and players is almost the direct opposite of what Mancini's was. For now at least the players are responding to the things he's saying and doing.

Can we beat Bayern at home? They'll be a much tougher opponent than the rags were but frankly, there's no reason not to be confident of getting something out of that game. Yes they've got goals in them, but so have we.

 

[adrianr]

Think MP would ever go with Nasri on the left, Silva in the middle, Navas on the right and Aguero the lone striker? I also would like to see more of Kolarov deployed more during home games even when Clichy is fit.

That was my team prediction had Silva been fit.

On a side note. I'm shocked by how quiet both this thread and the forum in general is. Yesterday was more brutal efficient and comprehensive than the 6 - 1.

Pellegrini showed his worth and showed why he was wanted by so many clubs this summer. The best part is the team and performances will only get better.

Plenty of people on here have been pretty vocal in shooting down this view but I agree completely. The 6-1 was memorable as a whole event - We'll likely not see such a statement made again for a couple of decades; Everything lined up perfectly for that to be a real statement. Everyone talking about power shifting in Manchester, both teams looking in unstoppable form, then the sheer humilation of the score line just rammed it home in a way that will ensure it's on the top ten premier league dickings for a very long time.

But make absolutely no mistake about it, in the time it took us to 4 up we played better football than we ever did in the 6-1. In that game we started carefully, let them have their moments of bluster, hit them with a great goal from Balo, then they went down to 10 and we picked them apart for another couple of goals. A great goal from Fletcher caused them to commit in search of rescuing a point and we punished them for it.

Yesterday was 11 vs 11 for 95 minutes. We started with two strikers and one holding midfielder. We didn't score 4 because they were over commiting, we scored 4 because we were outclassed them all over the pitch. By anything you could measure yesterday until we declared at 4, we were the better side. It wasn't like a 51/49 cup final match with the finest of margins deciding the victor, we made them look mid table.

There are still a few question marks that remain, always will be this early in the season. Can we get ourselves up to play like that against Villa? Could we have maintained the first half form if we hadn't scored so many and it was still a cagey 0-0? Regardless, it's looking alright so far.

 

[Anonymous]

Plenty of people on here have been pretty vocal in shooting down this view but I agree completely. The 6-1 was memorable as a whole event - We'll likely not see such a statement made again for a couple of decades; Everything lined up perfectly for that to be a real statement. Everyone talking about power shifting in Manchester, both teams looking in unstoppable form, then the sheer humilation of the score line just rammed it home in a way that will ensure it's on the top ten premier league dickings for a very long time.

But make absolutely no mistake about it, in the time it took us to 4 up we played better football than we ever did in the 6-1. In that game we started carefully, let them have their moments of bluster, hit them with a great goal from Balo, then they went down to 10 and we picked them apart for another couple of goals. A great goal from Fletcher caused them to commit in search of rescuing a point and we punished them for it.

Yesterday was 11 vs 11 for 95 minutes. We started with two strikers and one holding midfielder. We didn't score 4 because they were over commiting, we scored 4 because we were outclassed them all over the pitch. By anything you could measure yesterday until we declared at 4, we were the better side. It wasn't like a 51/49 cup final match with the finest of margins deciding the victor, we made them look mid table.

There are still a few question marks that remain, always will be this early in the season. Can we get ourselves up to play like that against Villa? Could we have maintained the first half form if we hadn't scored so many and it was still a cagey 0-0? Regardless, it's looking alright so far.

That's pretty much how I see it too. Again it's not about downplaying the 6 - 1 ... fuck me that day was important for so many reasons. But yesterday was brutally efficient. Almost cruel in the way we outclassed them everywhere on the pitch. I can't give the players enough credit. It's not just that the rags were crap, it was that they simply couldn't handle us. Our quality was head and shoulders above their quality. We let them off the hook after the 4th goal. It was noticeable that when Milner came on he was shouting at the players to raise the tempo and push up again.

One man who will have watched that whilst shitting himself will have been Jose ... we could do worse to his Chelsea team if they're not careful.

 

[Phil1]

What excites me is how he made the point that we had been working on this formation and pattern of play all week in training and we carried it out exactly how he had wanted. Last season I was left wondering on more than one occasion what the fuck had we done in training in order to perform so insipidly on the pitch.
If the whole squad has bought into his philosophies then I believe we could do something special this year.