Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

[OB1]

I still don't see much by way of tactical changes, to be honest.

It's not tactical Pellegrini has changed, it's simple positive thinking.

I though we were crap last night and on other nights, just like Mancini, we would have had our arses served on a plate by a better team.

For me, he has to find a better balance between the two. We have gone from one extreme to the other and it's open season running off the back of our midfield.

Case in point, West Ham at the weekend.

Reminded me so much of our games at Norwich and Newcastle last season. Lovely stuff to watch but a failure to take chances left the game hanging in the balance for far too long.

We're creating more chances and taking more chances though than we did last season. For me the number of chances we create will continue to grow as the players get to know the manager's system better. We're improving each week at present and the only weakness we have is losing Vinny to injury and the knock on effect that has. With him back in the team, which he will be on Sunday, we're more than equipped to score more than Chelsea, or any team in our league, does.

It's not the scoring I am worried about, mate.

The whole philosophy can't live or die with Vinny being fit from one week to the next.

That's where we seem to be at.

We were terrible last night, I really do feel that. There were times lacking so much cohesion and general shape.

I retain hope he knows we need a new top class left back and centre back.

Sorry but we were not terrible last night. Terrible performances don't produce the stats that we did last night: 20 shots, 60% possession, 86% pass completion... We also played some delightful football at times on a horrid surface and were very unfortunate not to have a two goal cushion just after HT, which would probably have made a big difference to the rest of the game.

We had too many nervy moments at the back for anyone's liking but that is a long way from being terrible. I agree that we do not, IMO, have the balance quite right yet but I also think that our players are taking and will take time to adjust to Pellegrini's bolder approach.

 

[taconinja]

I still don't see much by way of tactical changes, to be honest.

It's not tactical Pellegrini has changed, it's simple positive thinking.

I though we were crap last night and on other nights, just like Mancini, we would have had our arses served on a plate by a better team.

For me, he has to find a better balance between the two. We have gone from one extreme to the other and it's open season running off the back of our midfield.

Case in point, West Ham at the weekend.

Reminded me so much of our games at Norwich and Newcastle last season. Lovely stuff to watch but a failure to take chances left the game hanging in the balance for far too long.

We're creating more chances and taking more chances though than we did last season. For me the number of chances we create will continue to grow as the players get to know the manager's system better. We're improving each week at present and the only weakness we have is losing Vinny to injury and the knock on effect that has. With him back in the team, which he will be on Sunday, we're more than equipped to score more than Chelsea, or any team in our league, does.

And other clubs will come to fear the amount of chances we create and put away and do much less attacking. It's a good philosophy that works. He does need to make sure that the back line is more on the same page, though. Last night's goal was an error on the part of four players combining to fail at doing the correct thing.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I still don't see much by way of tactical changes, to be honest.

It's not tactical Pellegrini has changed, it's simple positive thinking.

I though we were crap last night and on other nights, just like Mancini, we would have had our arses served on a plate by a better team.

For me, he has to find a better balance between the two. We have gone from one extreme to the other and it's open season running off the back of our midfield.

Case in point, West Ham at the weekend.

Reminded me so much of our games at Norwich and Newcastle last season. Lovely stuff to watch but a failure to take chances left the game hanging in the balance for far too long.

We're creating more chances and taking more chances though than we did last season. For me the number of chances we create will continue to grow as the players get to know the manager's system better. We're improving each week at present and the only weakness we have is losing Vinny to injury and the knock on effect that has. With him back in the team, which he will be on Sunday, we're more than equipped to score more than Chelsea, or any team in our league, does.

It's not the scoring I am worried about, mate.

The whole philosophy can't live or die with Vinny being fit from one week to the next.

That's where we seem to be at.

We were terrible last night, I really do feel that. There were times lacking so much cohesion and general shape.

I retain hope he knows we need a new top class left back and centre back.

Terrible? If that game had been played on a proper pitch we'd have won 6-0 last night, Tolm. We absolutely dominated.

There are mitigating circumstances around the Vinny reliance because of the new guy's absence. Although I without question would have Richards or even Boyata ahead of Garcia. He has to get wise to this clown sooner rather than later, and when you've got him and Kolorov letting people run past them there's going to be scares.

We are certainly missing chances, but that's an encouraging sign for me, not a worry. Players like we have up front will not continue to miss them. We will give some teams some real hidings this year.

Chelsea will tell us a lot. If I see Kolorov and Garcia in the starting eleven for that I'll be pissed off with him. As it stands, the positives about Pellegrini far outweigh the negatives for me and I can see things coming together for a title win - maybe even a comfortable one.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

We're creating more chances and taking more chances though than we did last season. For me the number of chances we create will continue to grow as the players get to know the manager's system better. We're improving each week at present and the only weakness we have is losing Vinny to injury and the knock on effect that has. With him back in the team, which he will be on Sunday, we're more than equipped to score more than Chelsea, or any team in our league, does.

It's not the scoring I am worried about, mate.

The whole philosophy can't live or die with Vinny being fit from one week to the next.

That's where we seem to be at.

We were terrible last night, I really do feel that. There were times lacking so much cohesion and general shape.

I retain hope he knows we need a new top class left back and centre back.

Sorry but we were not terrible last night. Terrible performances don't produce the stats that we did last night: 20 shots, 60% possession, 86% pass completion... We also played some delightful football at times on a horrid surface and were very unfortunate not to have a two goal cushion just after HT, which would probably have made a big difference to the rest of the game.

We had too many nervy moments at the back for anyone's liking but that is a long way from being terrible. I agree that we do not, IMO, have the balance quite right yet but I also think that our players are taking and will take time to adjust to Pellegrini's bolder approach.

I would argue a large percentage of those stats are also down to the poor quality of the opposition we faced, who were also missing three of their best players?

The fact CSKA gave us so many nervy moments, forms my opinion that we were terrible in the overall scheme of things.

I wonder what the stats would have looked like if the same level of performance was also on display against a Napoli, Basle, Copenhagen, Leverkusen, teams with a few more strings to their bow?

That was our crack team out there, aside from Vinny.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

We're creating more chances and taking more chances though than we did last season. For me the number of chances we create will continue to grow as the players get to know the manager's system better. We're improving each week at present and the only weakness we have is losing Vinny to injury and the knock on effect that has. With him back in the team, which he will be on Sunday, we're more than equipped to score more than Chelsea, or any team in our league, does.

It's not the scoring I am worried about, mate.

The whole philosophy can't live or die with Vinny being fit from one week to the next.

That's where we seem to be at.

We were terrible last night, I really do feel that. There were times lacking so much cohesion and general shape.

I retain hope he knows we need a new top class left back and centre back.

Terrible? If that game had been played on a proper pitch we'd have won 6-0 last night, Tolm. We absolutely dominated.

There are mitigating circumstances around the Vinny reliance because of the new guy's absence. Although I without question would have Richards or even Boyata ahead of Garcia. He has to get wise to this clown sooner rather than later, and when you've got him and Kolorov letting people run past them there's going to be scares.

We are certainly missing chances, but that's an encouraging sign for me, not a worry. Players like we have up front will not continue to miss them. We will give some teams some real hidings this year.

Chelsea will tell us a lot. If I see Kolorov and Garcia in the starting eleven for that I'll be pissed off with him. As it stands, the positives about Pellegrini far outweigh the negatives for me and I can see things coming together for a title win - maybe even a comfortable one.

I think we can draw many comparisons with United from last season at this stage?

They were also leaking goals for fun, Southampton away 3-2 ( a late Van Persie hat-trick) Reading 5-4.

Van Persie brought his quality to the fore. I expect to win the title this season and would see it as a failure if we don't.

We have much more attacking options than United had last time in the forward positions.

I will stick by terrible, in relation to the standard of the opposition.

Sadly, I think we will have to get used to games away from home being little too open for our liking!!

Seems like we need three a game to put things to bed.

 

[OB1]

Whether or not MP does much tactically to allow for his opponents this weekend may tell us a lot more about him - as City manager - but we should also be careful not to read too much into one game.

Mourinho's preparation will, I imagine, focus very much on the opposition but my understanding of the Pellegrini way is that he will focus most of his preparation on his team doing what he wants them to do week-in-week out. As MP is entitled to think going into the game that he has the better team, he does have a good case for not altering his approach. I probably would go with a 5 man midfield to start with as this is a game that we don't want to lose.

 

[OB1]

It's not the scoring I am worried about, mate.

The whole philosophy can't live or die with Vinny being fit from one week to the next.

That's where we seem to be at.

We were terrible last night, I really do feel that. There were times lacking so much cohesion and general shape.

I retain hope he knows we need a new top class left back and centre back.

Terrible? If that game had been played on a proper pitch we'd have won 6-0 last night, Tolm. We absolutely dominated.

There are mitigating circumstances around the Vinny reliance because of the new guy's absence. Although I without question would have Richards or even Boyata ahead of Garcia. He has to get wise to this clown sooner rather than later, and when you've got him and Kolorov letting people run past them there's going to be scares.

We are certainly missing chances, but that's an encouraging sign for me, not a worry. Players like we have up front will not continue to miss them. We will give some teams some real hidings this year.

Chelsea will tell us a lot. If I see Kolorov and Garcia in the starting eleven for that I'll be pissed off with him. As it stands, the positives about Pellegrini far outweigh the negatives for me and I can see things coming together for a title win - maybe even a comfortable one.

I think we can draw many comparisons with United from last season at this stage?

They were also leaking goals for fun, Southampton away 3-2 ( a late Van Persie hat-trick) Reading 5-4.

Van Persie brought his quality to the fore. I expect to win the title this season and would see it as a failure if we don't.

We have much more attacking options than United had last time in the forward positions.

I will stick by terrible, in relation to the standard of the opposition.

Sadly, I think we will have to get used to games away from home being little too open for our liking!!

Seems like we need three a game to put things to bed.

I'm never happy until we have 3 goals in the bag (home or away) and that was the same under Mancini.

 

[supercity88]

I think tactically the team are still adapting to things and Pellegrini's system will require the players to learn quickly. He has not nurtured them and slowly changed things, he has immediately altered the style and expected the players to suit that. He is no Kevin Keegan, he will not go out and leave the defence isolated. We have not conceded that many chances, but we have conceded goals. The other teams have taken their chances and we have been a bit unlucky. Last night on the balance we deserved to win. The conditions were difficult and yes CSKA had chances but we deserved to win. We were not terrible, we were okay. We didn't play amazingly well but a win away in Moscow was the target and we got it. Job done. The team should not rely on Kompany, I agree with that. But to be fair in his absence we haven't done too badly. Individual errors cost us away at Cardiff and Vinny was in the side where again errors saw us lose to Villa. High pressing and keeping the ball is the best way to defend. Mourinho's ultra defensive style is not going to win you games unless you get an almighty amount of luck as he did for example when Inter went to Barca.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

It's not the scoring I am worried about, mate.

The whole philosophy can't live or die with Vinny being fit from one week to the next.

That's where we seem to be at.

We were terrible last night, I really do feel that. There were times lacking so much cohesion and general shape.

I retain hope he knows we need a new top class left back and centre back.

Sorry but we were not terrible last night. Terrible performances don't produce the stats that we did last night: 20 shots, 60% possession, 86% pass completion... We also played some delightful football at times on a horrid surface and were very unfortunate not to have a two goal cushion just after HT, which would probably have made a big difference to the rest of the game.

We had too many nervy moments at the back for anyone's liking but that is a long way from being terrible. I agree that we do not, IMO, have the balance quite right yet but I also think that our players are taking and will take time to adjust to Pellegrini's bolder approach.

I would argue a large percentage of those stats are also down to the poor quality of the opposition we faced, who were also missing three of their best players?

The fact CSKA gave us so many nervy moments, forms my opinion that we were terrible in the overall scheme of things.

I wonder what the stats would have looked like if the same level of performance was also on display against a Napoli, Basle, Copenhagen, Leverkusen, teams with a few more strings to their bow?

That was our crack team out there, aside from Vinny.

You're being very dismissive of the Russian Champions, who had a side (inc. used subs) of 12 internationals with a total of 487 caps and 2669 club appearances between them, have won European club trophies between them. They were strong and agile and we still had good spells of the game where we were the better team, kept the ball better and created good chances.

We were very weak at the back due to Garcia being out of his depth and Nastasic is excellent but still young so will be caught out occassionally. It's not just a case of no Kompany, it's a case of his back-up Demichelis being injured as well. There aren't many 25 man squads where you'll have more than 4 CB's (2 each side) and we've lost both our right sided ones. The links to Pepe over the summer showed we recognised the problem and tried to fix it, and I wouldn't be surprised if we were already looking at January or next summer to see who may become available at a good price due to contract or their club's current form or financial position.

We played quite well and got the job done, the problems we faced were not taking our chances and killing the game like we did v United, which can lead to a Villa situation, but last night we hung on and it's credit to the players that they fought and battled to the win.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not talking about flexibility for the sake of it. But I do think that if we play the same system every match it makes it easier for opposing managers to set up their teams to take advantage of our weaknesses. And we clearly do have defensive weaknesses. We're good, very good, but not so good that we can telegraph the way we're going to play because we know that we'll always outshoot the opposition.

Mourinho's Chelsea have played the same system every game so far this season. Same with Arsenal. Aren't they also telegraphing the way they play to the opposition?

We are better than Chelsea, but not that much better when home advantage come into it. We didn't play that badly at Cardiff and Villa but crumbled when they got up a head of steam. Mourinho's Chelsea are more than capable of embarrassing us if we aren't at our best.

I've read countless times this season how the next game is going to be massive and how if we're not careful we'l get turned over. Yes Chelsea will be domestically our biggest challenge so far this season, but not one we're going into on a run of poor form, or with excessive injuries, so I'm comfortable that we will at least take a point and certainly not get beat.

And, irrespective of Sunday's result, surely MP will have to modify the system eventually? He won't really play the same system as yesterday at Barca, RM or PSG will he? We might have the odd glorious win, but eventually we'll get mullered if we try to play that system against the top European sides, as we were by Bayern. So why not start developing a more compact system against Chelsea?

Barca, RM, Dortmund and Bayern are the four best teams in the world right now. Against them I agree playing with 2 out and out forwards is a risky proposition, still not impossible to get a result. But beyond those 4 teams, there's not a side in the world who I'd want Pellegrini to change his system for. We have the players to make the system work, as we're seeing currently.