Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

[Anonymous]

How Pellegrini sets up for Bayern is going to be fascinating. Wouldn't be surprised if he goes gung-ho for that one too.

I think that's his default setting.<br /><br />-- Mon Sep 23, 2013 1:51 pm --<br /><br />

I was happy when Jimmy came on as we got a little bit more of the ball back.

Was noticeable when he came on he was yelling at the players on the pitch to up their tempo and push further up the pitch. Sadly for him most of them already had their cigars out and were planning where they were going for dinner! :)

 

[hgblue]

This group of players, allied with desire, tempo and intensity, wins this league by at least ten points.

I've been saying since the start of the season I expect us to win the league and also pick up a domestic cup. Feel far more confident about that than I did two weeks ago :)

Take your point about United being poor ... one thing very few people have dared mention in the mainstream media ... just how much the rags played like Everton yesterday. So rigid, such a lack of creativity and flair. The fact Kagawa and Nani didn't even make it onto the field tells me everything I need to know about Moyes ...

And to think someone on here said of Pellegrini "he's the Chilean David Moyes" ...

Fair play to you Billy for sticking to your guns after a couple of dodgy performances. Yesterday was a special performance....

 

[Didsbury Dave]

We did, it annoyed me that he got a goal. They should have got nothing and a couple more in the back of their net.

15-20 minutes into the second half I thought we were going to eclipse the 6-1 scoreline. We were that dominant.

But the subs disrupted us and we didn't quite get the breaks on the break, if you know what I mean.

-- Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:59 am --

I don't always agree with you, Dave, but I do think both of the quoted statements are absolutely spot on. Negredo is a fantastic player, a great acquisition who brings several characteristics that (and this is the key) significantly enhance the contributions of other key players (Aguero, Kolarov, Navas, Nasri, for example, all benefit from his presence, in different ways).

I said elsewhere on here last night that Aguero, great though he's been for us, could be unbelievable this season - 30 in the league and 40 overall is what I think he's capable of, and if he stays fit I reckon he might just hit those heights.

As for the match v Bayern, no reason why we can't get a result. Sure, they're a top team and they may well turn us over - there'd be no shame in that - but we can definitely get a result, and I think, with our quality, that our attitude should be to expect a result. The staff and players will, so we should too.

With regards to Aguero, he has it all. Pace, skill, vision, finishing. And he has that upper body strength where big defenders cannot knock him off the ball. He gets down low and almost goes under them. See the first goal against Plzen as an example. He's young, by all accounts he trains well and lives well.

You're damn right he can get 30 goals a season. I wouldnt' swap him with anyone in the Premier League - and I think he's going to get better and better.

I'd say it was our reluctance to make subs and let United have control of the midfield for 20 minutes after the 4th goal with them having Cleverley giving them an extra man in midfield that stopped us, we settled at 4 and Pelle for some reason didn't want to match up and keep us in control, maybe he saw it as match defensive practice to get us working on a 4-4-2 defensive pattern so that we look more comfortable defending in that manner in future, but I was happy when Jimmy came on as we got a little bit more of the ball back.

I'd say the gameplan for minutes 60-75 was to draw them on and smack them on the break. The breaks just didn't quite happen for us in that period but they could have. I think it was Aguero got ahead of the last man and didn't make contact with a cross. Last 10 minutes our subs were to shore us up and they reduced out ability to break, but Dzeko still almost scored.

 

[TGR]

One swallow does not a summer make and all that!!
There were some pretty impressive derby and other big results under the previous manager too.

However - not to be mealy mouthed about yesterday - the improvement in positioning, thinking and pace in Kolorov was striking; as was the confidence and eagerness of Nasri. If these are directly attribuable to the new caoch then credit where credit is due. Going to take more than a derby performance though - but certainly very encouraging on a team and micro level yesterday.

This.

That said the first 60 minutes yesterday was simply breathtaking.
We made them look worse than Newcastle.
If our players can keep that level of desire and hunger when playing the 'smaller' teams away from home then we are a potential serious force to reckoned
with. Out of the next 7 games we have - 4 are away from home. We will know for sure either way after that.

 

[Danamy]

I've been saying since the start of the season I expect us to win the league and also pick up a domestic cup. Feel far more confident about that than I did two weeks ago :)

Take your point about United being poor ... one thing very few people have dared mention in the mainstream media ... just how much the rags played like Everton yesterday. So rigid, such a lack of creativity and flair. The fact Kagawa and Nani didn't even make it onto the field tells me everything I need to know about Moyes ...

And to think someone on here said of Pellegrini "he's the Chilean David Moyes" ...

Wins against Villa and Everton will convince me the wheels are now fully turning.

Any type of result at home to Bayern, and I think it sets us up for the rest of the season.

It's going to happen. CLichy and Silva just coming back...we are moving into full strength and top gear at the same time.

How Pellegrini sets up for Bayern is going to be fascinating. Wouldn't be surprised if he goes gung-ho for that one too.

The words from Kompanys mouth midweek......."expect the unexpected"

He knew they were fired up and ready to let rip and bully them.

Great confidence booster going into the Bayern game, but they're a different animal.

 

[OB1]

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.

I have a similar view. Not quite so bullish about Chelsea but we showed last season what we could do to them...

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

No-one can deny that the derby was a personal triumph of cosmic proportions for Pellegrini. In July he simply said he didn't think he would have any problems “adapting” to the PL or to English football, but this was to be his introduction – a flat-out, full-blooded, typical EPL, Manchester derby. The lesson would be that Moyes was the only worthy successor to SAF, that Pellegrini had a long “learning curve” ahead of him and the fancy dans who had arrived this summer were not ready for such an “experience”, even if they would ever be good enough. Pellegrini's answer was ruthlessly contemptuous – the road to success is not to be contaminated by either the PL or English ideas of how football should be played. Here was a form of the game based on athleticism, pace, power, precision, imagination, subtlety, instinct etc etc etc. The three fancy dans who played – all of whom said they had wanted to come to City to advance their careers and win trophies – ripped into United with an appetite rivalled only by that of their team mates. They had clearly meant what they said, were very ready indeed for this “experience” and had no more intention of “adapting” to English football than the manager has. What followed the referees first whistle was so exhilarating that I could not believe my eyes, to the point that I have delayed posting for nearly 24 hours, firstly to sober up after the (too many) celebratory single malts downed in our house last night, and secondly to confirm that I did see what I thought I saw!

In the cold light of day thoughts must be of the future, rather than the past, and we must now show that we can reproduce this form away from home, beginning at Villa park on Saturday, and we must put a run of excellent performances together to scare the living daylights out of our competitors. And our group in the CL could be really interesting if we can play like that against Bayern! My only slight concern is that we destroyed, not one of the real CL contenders, but a faded, clueless bunch of has-beens and never-will-bes, managed by a “good” manager without a clue of how to stop the sky blue tide. But what a performance! What an unforgettable afternoon!

 

[Shaelumstash]

We've beaten a United team in the past which included the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez.

As Mancini would testify, it's all about fine margins and a little luck.

For me, Pellegrini needs this win more than Moyes does.

Maybe marginally, but mainly because we are at home.

If he doesn't sort out the back of our midfield we will get a hiding. Imagine Rooney running into all that space, yaya isolated, kompany back pedalling, kolorov plodding back after a failed cross.

I'm desperate for him to change formation but my instincts tell me he won't. I think he's married himself to this 4222, it could be too top heavy for united.

Brilliant!

 

[OB1]

One swallow does not a summer make and all that!!

I agree with that sentiment - although I feel we're being harsh on Pellegrini. It's not one swallow. We played like that against Newcastle and against Plzen. Fucked off with Shrek's free kick because we deserved another clean sheet yesterday.

It's not one swallow and I maintain that how poor we were in other games has been overstated but it remains early days (yesterday was first league game with VK & MN paired together). However, we know we have quality and you can see what Pelle is trying to do.<br /><br />-- Mon Sep 23, 2013 12:55 pm --<br /><br />

One swallow does not a summer make and all that!!

I agree with that sentiment - although I feel we're being harsh on Pellegrini. It's not one swallow. We played like that against Newcastle and against Plzen. Fucked off with Shrek's free kick because we deserved another clean sheet yesterday.

We did, it annoyed me that he got a goal. They should have got nothing and a couple more in the back of their net.

Took me until half way down the spiral walkways to fully recover my mood because of that goal ;-)

 

[Didsbury Dave]

We've beaten a United team in the past which included the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez.

As Mancini would testify, it's all about fine margins and a little luck.

For me, Pellegrini needs this win more than Moyes does.

Maybe marginally, but mainly because we are at home.

If he doesn't sort out the back of our midfield we will get a hiding. Imagine Rooney running into all that space, yaya isolated, kompany back pedalling, kolorov plodding back after a failed cross.

I'm desperate for him to change formation but my instincts tell me he won't. I think he's married himself to this 4222, it could be too top heavy for united.

Brilliant!

Not as brilliant as your David Brightwell faux pas.

Anyway, he did sort out the back of the midfield. Fernandinho sat and Yaya moved forward. And it worked.