Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 3)

[I'm no cynic but...]

Mistakes, Injuries, Bad refereeing decisions. 3 reasons why our away form has been bad, nothing more, nothing less.

With the exception of the Stoke game which I haven't seen due to it being my wedding day, you can attribute all of our defeats to one or more of the above factors.

Cardiff - Mistakes
Villa - Mistakes, Bad Refereeing decision (offside second goal IIRC)
Chelsea - Mistakes, Bad Refereeing, (Webb was terrible)
Sunderland - All 3 (Larsson should have seen Red, goal was obviously a mistake, and Injuries stacked up yesterday)

These excuses do not work [wedding day excepted! Congrats by the way]. Bad refereeing, mistakes and injuries are thrown at every team throughout a season. It's a battle of endurance and how a club copes with these things is what matters in the long run.

 

[AliWaheed]

The declining number of optimists will say that we are 'only' 6 points behind and that we are in the mix, but the cruel fact of the Premier League in it's 38 game format is that the average points total for the winning team over a season is 86. On only three occasions as the winning total failed to reach 80, and all of these were in the 1990s. That is not to say that we couldn't win the title from where we stand at this time, but it is still one hell of a fight to do it. Perhaps more telling is that the highest number of games LOST by a title winning team is SIX, this occurring on just four occasions. From this standpoint, with us already having lost four times in just eleven games played, there is very little optimism I can find for the battle ahead.

Perhaps the real fight has now to be aimed at finishing in the top four. The club's strategy is heavily dependent on qualification for the Champions League, otherwise FFP is going to be a millstone around our necks. If there is any crumbs of comfort to be gained here, it is that on only one occasion [last season] has a team that has reached 70 points failed to qualify for the competition. If we can pull things around and end up with a points total in the mid-70s, that MIGHT save the manager even if it didn't save his predecessor, but with defeats at Cardiff, Villa and Sunderland so far, it just doesn't look pretty.

yep. not happening

 

[Phil1]

Was disappointed with our starting line up, Garcia shouldn't have been involved. I don't think he's as useless as some on here but I knew that an away fixture against a team who has to rely on work ethic and tempo due to a lack of quality wasn't one to put him in. Milner in the middle with Navas giving us an outlet would have been my own personal preference.
He was hamstrung by injuries to some of our most important players in Silva, Fernandinho,and Kompany, and he was let down by some shocking performances, most notably YaYa and Micah.
That said he's paid to motivate the players and set them up to win games and yesterday I didn't see much evidence of either. It's still way too early to pass any sound judgement but at the quarter stage of our season I think I've seen more positives than negatives. Results like yesterday make it hard to rationalise when giving an opinion, as has been evident over the last 20 pages.

 

[Sky Blue]

The hierarchy have made a serious
error of judgment in letting this clown
take over.
We have gone backwards and Pellers
is staring Into the proverbial abyss.
If they had an ounce of decency they
should get rid by Christmas and crawl on their hands and knees and get Bobby back.

I'm absolutely seething that we are 8th and out of the title race In November.

You were a staunch 'Mancini must go' merchant. Fuck all credibility or just very childlike.

 

[chris85mcfc]

The hierarchy have made a serious
error of judgment in letting this clown
take over.
We have gone backwards and Pellers
is staring Into the proverbial abyss.
If they had an ounce of decency they
should get rid by Christmas and crawl on their hands and knees and get Bobby back.

I'm absolutely seething that we are 8th and out of the title race In November.

It appears we have ourselves a winner.

 

[Danielmanc]

The hierarchy have made a serious
error of judgment in letting this clown
take over.
We have gone backwards and Pellers
is staring Into the proverbial abyss.
If they had an ounce of decency they
should get rid by Christmas and crawl on their hands and knees and get Bobby back.

I'm absolutely seething that we are 8th and out of the title race In November.

I think it's over dramatic Matt

We aren't out of the title race in November and Pellegrini may well be able to turn this around - there is time to do so.

No one can realistically suggest that we have had anything other than a terrible start to the season in terms of our away form but there is no point in exaggerating the situation that we are in. No team is running away with the league at this stage and in that respect we are very very lucky.

Mancini isn't coming back and there is no point in keeping suggesting that he should. We have to go with Pellegrini for now and hope (we all want the same thing) he can prove his worth. If he's not up to it then we need to get rid at the right time. The big debate will no doubt be - when is the right time ?

 

[AliWaheed]

Really?

Hart
Zabaleta Kompany Nastasic Kolarov/Clichy
Silva Fernandinho Yaya Nasri
Aguero Negredo

The best first XI in the division, no doubt.

Agree with everything bar this. Thad defence is not the best in the division. Definitely not at LB anyway. Might be the worst LB combo in the top 4.
I reckon Chelsea's back 4 are the strongest.

 

[Anonymous]

Apropos nothing in particular reading the forum today has at least made me dig out a classic album.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBYUqYPy0tU[/youtube]

 

[6one]

Really?

Hart
Zabaleta Kompany Nastasic Kolarov/Clichy
Silva Fernandinho Yaya Nasri
Aguero Negredo

The best first XI in the division, no doubt.

Agree with everything bar this. Thad defence is not the best in the division. Definitely not at LB anyway. Might be the worst LB combo in the top 4.
I reckon Chelsea's back 4 are the strongest.

You ignored this sentence just below that:

One could argue that Nastasic is not finished article, could also say LB position is not strong

I also said "best XI" not best defence.

I do happen to think, however, that it is the best defence in the league. They just haven't played together often enough. That withstanding, we still need to sign a World class CB to play with Kompany and then play with Nastasic when Kompany is injured.

I disagree about Chelsea's defence. Aging, all over the place at the minute. Mourinho sets his team out very defensively so they have not been exposed. Chelsea lucky from ref decisions which have given them at least 4 points so far this season.

 

[Norman kneejerk]

Re: Clueless manager

A lot of fair questions here and I'm kindda worried too at some of these things.

A question I would have is when Sunderland were hanging on with all the team defending why we only had about 2-3 men in the box and the rest outside, just statistically not enough to get through against 8 or 9. I have noticed when the reds chase a game near fergie time they will have 3 along the 6 yard box, 2 behind and 1 near the edge of the box to get after the cross coming in and often scramble one in.

was a bit strange MP said after cant understand how we didn't score but we were so out numbered in the box and instead just passed it around the edge.