Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 3)

[Lucky Toma]

Re: Clueless manager

he needs to rediscover the ability that won him that Inter Toto sharpish

Meooww!! I see kitty has her claws out today ;)

 

[Anonymous]

Don’t get me wrong i have absolutely no problem whatsoever with sacrificing a bit of defensive solidity for a bit more attacking play. But, yesterday as the latest example, i just could not get over the decision to play Garcia and yaya in a two man midfield.
Fernandinho and yaya fair enough but if fernandinho is out then you surely have to be a little pragmatic and alter things slightly and play three in midfield.
And if i see our left hand side torn apart one more time, or see another long punt downfield allowed to bounce and cause mayhem or see foul after foul being given away on the edge of our box then i think i might jump off the top of one of those spirals!
One thing he has done is managed to reduce the gaping chasm that was there between our midfield and back four – so that’s a positive – but he’s got a hell of a lot of work to do yet.

I'll be honest ... I'm no 442 for want of a better description, advocate. I totally agree that it's frustrating as fuck that we played with a Garcia/Yaya or even the Yaya/Milner two man mid.

However to be fair to the manager with Silva, Jovetic, and Rodwell out, along with Fernandinho. Makes it tricky to play a 3 man midfield without it becoming entirely workmanlike and totally lacking in creativity. ie. Milner/Yaya/Garcia as three in the middle with Navas and Nasri wide and one forward.

Plus it would've been just as controversial to drop one of Aguero or Negredo based on their recent form.

 

[conormcfc]

Re: Clueless manager

This is one of those threads that will get bumped a few months down the line and all the fairweathers will look like twats.

Plays the same front 6 (apart from 2 forced changes) that scored 12 goals in the last 2 games and yet he gets the blame when they can't score goals against the team joint bottom of the league. Hilarious.

Baffles me how so many people on here come across exactly like those parody fickle fan accounts on twitter.

You obviously don't watch City much. When silva s not in the team we are missing the one player that can open up packed defenses. Mancini had the same problem when Silva lost a bit of form.

Therefore you need plan B which is now Navas on the right. He should have started with him. He also needs to tell Navas to stop running into the middle of the park for no reason and stay out wide to pull the defense open a bit.

He also started with garcia and yaya two of the slowest midfielders in the league at closing down - Yaya is OK when he has someone like Ferdi alongside him who can do the work. This is tactical it was like Moyes playing carrick and Giggs in the same midfield ( it;s to slow). To me it was a no brainer either Rodwell or my prefered option Milner in the middle. Also away from home arguably our best performance ( 2nd half against Chelsea ) we played one up front - this is also another option he could have tried with say milner and Rodwell holding with yaya in a free roll. But he sticks with a 442 type formation which jsut doesn't work.

Nasri/Yaya/Aguero are all players capable of unlocking defences and all 3 played yesterday. Absolute bollocks to say Silva is the only one capable as we've seen all 3 do it on countless occasions.

Navas did absolutely fuck all aside from missing a sitter and never looking up to see that there's no one in the box before constantly losing possession with an aimless cross.

What do the midfield even have to do with anything? We dominated the midfield battle, they barely had a kick in those areas and we had 65% possession.

We lost because our free scoring attack couldn't break them down and playing Navas (who actually played for half the game) from the start wouldn't have changed a thing.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

Re: Clueless manager

First of all I would not say that Pellegrini is clueless. Our home form proves that however our home form has always been pretty damn good.
What concerns me about the current manager is his insistence on playing players who are clearly not up to the job that this club we all love require them to be to take us up to the next level.These are my concerns
Why play Garcia in the middle and not Milner.
Why not Start with Navas
Why put Richards in when his form with all due respect to the lad over the past 2 yrs has been patchy to say the least when not injured. Zabba is so reliable at right back.
Why play Kolarov at left back when Clichy is a better player despite his form again being patchy.


The players in my opinion when we go away from home are simply not mentally tough enough to win these games against opponents who simply see us as there cup final.
Oh for a Tevez yesterday.
We simply cannot afford to keep going away from home and losing.We have 2 home games with Plzen sandwiched inbetween which now take on extra significance.

We win those and we are right back in it however with 2 aways at WBA and Southampton who are better teams than Sunderland,Cardiff,Stoke etc my concern is that we will build up ahead of steam only to be let down on the road again.

I really am lost as to what has happened to us away from home under the new gaffer.How long can it go on,only the board will have the answer to that but have we truly put all our eggs in the CL basket when in reality there is a strong chance we may get knocked out.

At the moment I would be happy with 3rd and a cup final.My gut feeling is that we won't be winning anything this season. I 100% want to be proven incorrect

 

[Marvin]

Given injury to Silva and Fernandinho, I'm not sure Pellegrini had that many midfield options apart from Garcia

It was a choice between Rodwell and Garcia. And Rodwell has not played enough games yet to come in and perform at an adequate level.

Much has been said about the fullbacks and Garcia, but the issue was more the failure of the team as a whole to make more from the virtual monopoly of possession we enjoyed.

We had almost 65% possession, 14 corners to none and 12 shots on target to their 2, but rarely did we create a clear cut chance. I'm not of the opinion that Rodwell, or Clichy and Zab would have altered matters much. The team played under pressure and couldn't handle it.

The ideal and easiest way out of this is to get Kompany and Silva fit. But if that does not happen we have to just grind out a couple of away wins. Once we do that, I'm sure that will be the end of this little chapter. It's just become a psychological issue, like winning in Europe last season.

 

[mcfcphil]

Don’t get me wrong i have absolutely no problem whatsoever with sacrificing a bit of defensive solidity for a bit more attacking play. But, yesterday as the latest example, i just could not get over the decision to play Garcia and yaya in a two man midfield.
Fernandinho and yaya fair enough but if fernandinho is out then you surely have to be a little pragmatic and alter things slightly and play three in midfield.
And if i see our left hand side torn apart one more time, or see another long punt downfield allowed to bounce and cause mayhem or see foul after foul being given away on the edge of our box then i think i might jump off the top of one of those spirals!
One thing he has done is managed to reduce the gaping chasm that was there between our midfield and back four – so that’s a positive – but he’s got a hell of a lot of work to do yet.

I'll be honest ... I'm no 442 for want of a better description, advocate. I totally agree that it's frustrating as fuck that we played with a Garcia/Yaya or even the Yaya/Milner two man mid.

However to be fair to the manager with Silva, Jovetic, and Rodwell out, along with Fernandinho. Makes it tricky to play a 3 man midfield without it becoming entirely workmanlike and totally lacking in creativity. ie. Milner/Yaya/Garcia as three in the middle with Navas and Nasri wide and one forward.

Plus it would've been just as controversial to drop one of Aguero or Negredo based on their recent form.

You’re right he was between a rock and a hard place to a certain extent.
But i think a workman-like midfield and just rely on nasri, navas, a pushed on yaya, and aguero to come up with a goal was a lesser evil than Garcia in a two man midfield and starving aguero and negredo of service.
We would have lost a bit of creativity playing the workman-like midfield but with yaya, nasri, navas and aguero on the pitch i think we still had more than enough creativity to beat a piss poor sunderland team

 

[lust overlord]

The difference though,between Mourinho and our manager is,for me anyway,that Mourinho would find a way to win or get a result despite the handicaps.Our fella seems unable to do this at the moment.

I'm not sure Pellegrini will ever have the sway over referees that Mourinho has. It's something Mancini didn't have either. We are often on the end of some horrendous decisions - this weekend is the perfect example. Ramires' penalty decision was a joke. As was the decision to leave Larrson on the pitch after his tackle on Garcia.

It's not just the sway with the referees,though that would certainly help.He has struggled to grasp the fact that the lesser lights in the league won't lay down and die,sometimes you have to win ugly,especially in away games.The only game we've played shit and won in the league was against Hull,at home.Winning when playing poorly,or not being allowed to play expansively,is what United and Chelsea have made a habit of.

 

[TFC]

Maybe I'm an eternal optimist but I cant help but feel that we are going to 'click' at some point. I like what MP has done with the way we go forward while not particularly liking what has happened at the back - even with Vinnie in there we have hardly looked rock solid at the back (apart from the rags at ours and they were shite that day).

Anyway, I digress. Surely there is a balance to be found there between cavalier attacking and solid defending. There fucking has to be. Its tough to watch seasoned professionals look so lost at sea in the back 4, you would think years and years of training would give then some discipline ffs.

Off track again....I think we will click and soon and go on a tear. Stupid fucking international break cant have come at a worse time, really need to put on a good display against Spurs, get that feel good factor back.

 

[Marvin]

Re: Clueless manager

First of all I would not say that Pellegrini is clueless. Our home form proves that however our home form has always been pretty damn good.
What concerns me about the current manager is his insistence on playing players who are clearly not up to the job that this club we all love require them to be to take us up to the next level.These are my concerns
Why play Garcia in the middle and not Milner.
Why not Start with Navas
Why put Richards in when his form with all due respect to the lad over the past 2 yrs has been patchy to say the least when not injured. Zabba is so reliable at right back.
Why play Kolarov at left back when Clichy is a better player despite his form again being patchy.


The players in my opinion when we go away from home are simply not mentally tough enough to win these games against opponents who simply see us as there cup final.
Oh for a Tevez yesterday.
We simply cannot afford to keep going away from home and losing.We have 2 home games with Plzen sandwiched inbetween which now take on extra significance.

We win those and we are right back in it however with 2 aways at WBA and Southampton who are better teams than Sunderland,Cardiff,Stoke etc my concern is that we will build up ahead of steam only to be let down on the road again.

I really am lost as to what has happened to us away from home under the new gaffer.How long can it go on,only the board will have the answer to that but have we truly put all our eggs in the CL basket when in reality there is a strong chance we may get knocked out.

At the moment I would be happy with 3rd and a cup final.My gut feeling is that we won't be winning anything this season. I 100% want to be proven incorrect

Chicken and egg with Richards. He needs games now otherwise he will never get back to the level he was at

At the moment I prefer Kolarov to Clichy.

I like Milner in central midfield too, and expected him to play there against Sunderland. I wouldn't have started Navas.

There were a few different things we could have done against Sunderland, but when you look at it we had territorial advantage but we did not move the ball well enough in the final 1/3rd. That was not down to the selection of players.

 

[Anonymous]

You’re right he was between a rock and a hard place to a certain extent.
But i think a workman-like midfield and just rely on nasri, navas, a pushed on yaya, and aguero to come up with a goal was a lesser evil than Garcia in a two man midfield and starving aguero and negredo of service.
We would have lost a bit of creativity playing the workman-like midfield but with yaya, nasri, navas and aguero on the pitch i think we still had more than enough creativity to beat a piss poor sunderland team

I guess it was a judgement call and the manager made what he thought was the right one. In hindsight maybe it wasn't but he gets paid to make those decisions and he will judged on them all once the season ends.

BTW ... cheers for having a discussion in which we disagree a lot but manage to do it without hating on each other. It's a rare thing at times ... :)