Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 2)

[mancity1]

Damn. I thought it was 'Thick as a Brick'...which personally I thought was harsh given that Billy isn't. Now if it had been DD I'd have nailed it.

LOL but you may be Skating Away on the thin Ice now BK.

Probably. Lucky I ain't a fat man

I agree he isn't but I wish he wouldn't troll who he perceives on here to be the RM's finest gathering of bluemoooners.

He needs a dose of Crispian St Peters BK.

See if you can get the gist in that one?

If you get it in one you get 5 bertie points.

I'll pass. I ain't dancing to your tune.

The Pied Piper who well you know the story of the Pied Piper I think.

Sorry Billy couldn't help myself but after all James Paul wrote a whole score dedicated to you back in 67.

 

[OB1]

I think it'll be typical city if City are the first team in Pellegrini's managerial career to not be able to play the way he expects them to ... ;)

The players worry me far more than the manager, at this point.

In my very humble opinion with regards our players ... we have a serious, and when I say serious, I mean chronic problem in both full back positions. I know it's practically blasphemy to slag off Zaba but he's just not a good enough footballer. Same with Kolarov and Clichy. None of them possess the attributes required to be the marauding full backs which Pellegrini is used to incorporating into his team. Clichy is the nearest but fuck me his end product is virtually non existent. Simply having full backs who get forward but never ever ever - well once a season - manage a meaningful cross, isn't going to cut it.

Other than that ... I'm sanguine. There's no mentality problem IMO. The players just need to get up to speed with what they need to do in real time match situations when they have two choices. The default setting is currently pass it sideways when in doubt ... this is going to have to change for us to play the way Pellegrini wants ...

You may be right about the full backs. I am one of those that prefers Micah to Zab. Micah is not the world's most elegant footballer or the finest crosser of a ball but he's far from the worst supply line.

Clichy should be out every day practicing crossing the ball with some zip on it. He should be under instructions to just go for it more and try to whip the ball over (or look for cut backs) and make up for lack of quality with some quantity.

I am far less confident than you about the mental fortitude of the players.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Rafa's football is pretty bland... effective, but bland. Our chiefs want a beautiful brand of football they can sell to the world. Yes, it's nothing like that right now but in a year's time it probably will be if Pellegrini can get these players playing his way. If he can't then I wonder who actually might, since Pellegrini got the egos at Real Madrid functioning very well as a unit. With the attitudes of some of our players towards non-marquee games, you have to wonder if even Klopp dancing and screaming on the touchline would inspire them for the 'small' games.

I think it'll be typical city if City are the first team in Pellegrini's managerial career to not be able to play the way he expects them to ... ;)

The players worry me far more than the manager, at this point.

Ditto. The lack of pace is one thing, but the lack of desire is something else. Nasri, Dzeko, Ya Ya, even Spanish Dave, I can't recall when I last saw any of them give their all for the cause in a game. Coasters and dilettantes we seem to have by the shedload

 

[Gelsons Dad]

Unfortunately not. I am however finding wonder, that a manager can be ruled out within 4 matches but a clown who did a lot of harm at Liverpool, is being hailed as the next best manager and one we should have got.

Yeah. Winning that CL final was a real woman. On the other hand the two owners Hicks & Gillette did a fine job.

Rafa won the CL with someone else's team, in freak circumstances, they finished 5th that season, and only Uefa allowing 5 English teams in they wouldnt have qualified, when he had to buy players he was nothing short of woeful. He was shocking at Inter lasting only a few months, he did ok at Chelsea but hardly pulled up trees and was universally unpopular with the fans.

Manager
Real Madrid U-19s
Spain U-19 League (1): 1992–93
Spain U-19 Cup (2): 1990–91, 1992–93
Extremadura
Segunda División promotion (1): 1997–98
Tenerife
Segunda División promotion (1): 2000–01
Valencia
La Liga (2): 2001–02, 2003–04
UEFA Cup (1): 2003–04
Liverpool
FA Cup (1): 2005–06
FA Community Shield (1): 2006
UEFA Champions League (1): 2004–05
UEFA Super Cup (1): 2005
Internazionale
Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2010
FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2010
Chelsea
UEFA Europa League (1): 2012–13


yeah, what the fuck does Rafa know?

There are some managers who win and many who don't.

 

[Paul Lake's Left Knee]

That's two bertie points OB1 it would have been three if it had of read lets show passion and play with pride today.

Jenny Anderson would be proud of you.

I'm still not sure if you have got the hang of the Bertie level system.

Jimmy Anderson is a fine swing bowler, not sure what he has got to do with anything.

Woops Paul you are playing with a straight bat here minus seven bertie points I here Stephen Fry call on QI.

Just for your eyes only as OB1 and BK are on my frequency hear ( heaven help them ).

Ian Anderson wrote the music and in some cases the lyrics to most of Jethro Tull's songs.

His wife Jenny at the time however you will find also wrote the lyrics to some of Tull's classics.

OB1 introduced Passion Play another Tull timeless vinyl.

Perhaps you are switched on the right channel now.

Bertie is what you make of him Paul but you follow the thread.

Jimmy Anderson is a bowler Paul and will play a role in Oz later this year but last time I checked he had nought to do with Jethro Tull the Prog Rock Band or as Lars once said at the Grammy's Heavy Metal what you f...n kidding , before his time for young Jimme I would suggest.

I got told off for being serious last night and not talking about the Bertie level by GDM, i think it was before you woke up, its the only serious comment i have made on this thread.

I was the one who came up with the Bertie level, if you bother to read back you will realise this, you are failing horribly as to what it is and how it works. You keep banging on about it, which is great, although you appear to have no idea why we bothered to take the piss by suggesting its introduction. You carry on in your own little world though, claiming others get you, if they do it says more about them, than making you seem better in any way.

The Jimmy Anderson line was a throw away comment, even you must have realised that...

 

[Anonymous]

I am far less confident about the mental fortitude of the players.

My reply, or should I say, my own opinion on the mentality debate will no doubt spark another furious round of tongue lashings from the usual suspects so I'll refrain. Safe to say that no squad has 22/23 players with the same mentality. The job of a manager, any manager, is to identify which players are motivated by what, and then get about motivating them. If Pellegrini fails to do that, then IMO he hasn't done his job. In the modern game you're not going to get a squad of players all with the right mentality ...

In many respects the more naturally gifted the player, the less he's likely to listen to a manager and thus the more he actually needs managing on a day to day basis.

I'm not sure if that makes sense but it makes sense in my head!

 

[BobKowalski]

I think it'll be typical city if City are the first team in Pellegrini's managerial career to not be able to play the way he expects them to ... ;)

Worse than typical City, it'd basically reveal a disease within our squad that probably couldn't be solved without yet more upheaval and selling/replacing the key offenders.

I mean, I've watched Pellegrini teams since Villarreal and they all struck me as teams who work their arse off for the manager... even the Real Madrid team he allegedly 'failed' with worked hard and pushed Barcelona's greatest ever team to the last day with a record points total (scoring 102 goals on the way and that was with Ronaldo injured for a chunk of his first season there).

So, if the lethargy of last season (and now, this season) doesn't go away even under Pellegrini, then I'd say we're f*cked short of yet another squad overhaul which could mean big name players leaving. But maybe it's just a false start... all the players speak very highly of the manager already.

You'll be getting a visit from BK but share your view.

You mean for the way you guys are gently tilling the land and sowing the seeds to blame the players for all our ills if it goes a bit tits? Difficult not to notice. Sets Pellers up nicely to either rescue the situation and save the players from themselves as we race to glory or castigate them as bunch of ingrates and malcontent's if it goes wrong.

Lets hope that its the former and starting from tonight we can count ourselves as blessed that there is a new saint in town :)

For the record I think we will win a close game but with a goal at the end to make the scoreline look a bit better. 1-3. Fact.

 

[mancity1]

I think it'll be typical city if City are the first team in Pellegrini's managerial career to not be able to play the way he expects them to ... ;)

The players worry me far more than the manager, at this point.

In my very humble opinion with regards our players ... we have a serious, and when I say serious, I mean chronic problem in both full back positions. I know it's practically blasphemy to slag off Zaba but he's just not a good enough footballer. Same with Kolarov and Clichy. None of them possess the attributes required to be the marauding full backs which Pellegrini is used to incorporating into his team. Clichy is the nearest but fuck me his end product is virtually non existent. Simply having full backs who get forward but never ever ever - well once a season - manage a meaningful cross, isn't going to cut it.

Other than that ... I'm sanguine. There's no mentality problem IMO. The players just need to get up to speed with what they need to do in real time match situations when they have two choices. The default setting is currently pass it sideways when in doubt ... this is going to have to change for us to play the way Pellegrini wants ...

Look Billy I know where you are coming from but we would all like the best of the best and hope they jell in 5 seconds and become a turbo version of whoever is doing best at the time in the club stage.

We are told we have the best squad in England which doesn't mean anything when it comes to match days but I am sure Chelsea , Arsenal and Manure believe they have a second to none chance of going through so there is no reason why we shouldn't either despite our record and despite our start to the domestic season.

Best squad or lets at least call it a squad that can compete for the title , ( won in 2011/2012 and second in 2012/2013 ) with an investment of 90 or so mill over the summer and a squad that can certainly over 6 games is capable of getting ten points from the sides we have drawn I realise is no guarantee that it will happen but at least we know we have a decent shot at both provided we do all the right things often enough.

If we don't the blame lies fairly at the manager , the players and the executive for underperforming and underachieving.

It's boring and you can break down the why's and wherefores after the event but that's it.

We can still win games of football with the help of the manager and inspite of the manager dare I say it.

They have done it before domestically and they say the second one is usually harder but if they want it for them and us badly enough as they keep crowing they have the talent to do it.

 

[Paul Lake's Left Knee]

Yeah. Winning that CL final was a real woman. On the other hand the two owners Hicks & Gillette did a fine job.

Rafa won the CL with someone else's team, in freak circumstances, they finished 5th that season, and only Uefa allowing 5 English teams in they wouldnt have qualified, when he had to buy players he was nothing short of woeful. He was shocking at Inter lasting only a few months, he did ok at Chelsea but hardly pulled up trees and was universally unpopular with the fans.

Manager
Real Madrid U-19s
Spain U-19 League (1): 1992–93
Spain U-19 Cup (2): 1990–91, 1992–93
Extremadura
Segunda División promotion (1): 1997–98
Tenerife
Segunda División promotion (1): 2000–01
Valencia
La Liga (2): 2001–02, 2003–04
UEFA Cup (1): 2003–04
Liverpool
FA Cup (1): 2005–06
FA Community Shield (1): 2006
UEFA Champions League (1): 2004–05
UEFA Super Cup (1): 2005
Internazionale
Supercoppa Italiana (1): 2010
FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2010
Chelsea
UEFA Europa League (1): 2012–13


yeah, what the fuck does Rafa know?

There are some managers who win and many who don't.

He took a team, capable of winning the CL to 5th place, they won that treble the year before, bought the likes of Voranin, Babel, Aquilani, Keane, and a whole load of youth team and reserve team players that were average tat, that crippled Liverpool for years afterwards. All to easy to blame Hicks and Gillette and ignore the money completely wasted with little return on the players signed or in trophies. He was at Liverpool 6 years and left them far worse off than when he joined them.

4 months at Inter with a team that won the CL the year before he was mid table at Christmas and sacked.

Chelsea he wasnt able to do any damage as they only had 1 January transfer window, was only interim and therefore couldnt do any transfer damage.

 

[Gelsons Dad]

I am far less confident about the mental fortitude of the players.

My reply, or should I say, my own opinion on the mentality debate will no doubt spark another furious round of tongue lashings from the usual suspects so I'll refrain. Safe to say that no squad has 22/23 players with the same mentality. The job of a manager, any manager, is to identify which players are motivated by what, and then get about motivating them. If Pellegrini fails to do that, then IMO he hasn't done his job. In the modern game you're not going to get a squad of players all with the right mentality ...

In many respects the more naturally gifted the player, the less he's likely to listen to a manager and thus the more he actually needs managing on a day to day basis.

I'm not sure if that makes sense but it makes sense in my head!

It's well known and called Situational leadership theory. MBA 101 these days.