Discuss Pellegrini (Pt 3)

[Ducado]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

You are putting him in a no win situation are you not?

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

You are putting him in a no win situation are you not?

Not thought of it like that however I think the time has come for him to drop Hart in the league and I would back Pants to do a job.
Mourinho dropped Mata..Time for Pellers to drop Hart.

 

[SeaBass]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

You are putting him in a no win situation are you not?

Only if he doesnt win!

 

[BobKowalski]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

You are putting him in a no win situation are you not?

Only if he doesnt win!

Good point :)

Norwich isn't the issue as I think it will be a routine win no matter who is in goal. The real question is the game after and the game after that. Pants plays well does he stay? How long do we bench Hart for? What will be the long term benefit (if any) of dropping Hart as opposed to the long term benefit of backing Hart. Is retaining Hart a bigger call then dropping him given that most fans seem to think Pants deserves a chance. Arguably the Hart decision is the most interesting facet of tomorrows game

 

[NQCitizen]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

Without getting into the inner/outer swamp of discussion - is it true that Mancini's public criticism of Hart after Real was a catalyst for disharmony in the dressing room? Curious to know.

 

[moomba]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

Does it require more balls to drop a player than stick with him when he's going through a rough patch?

 

[BobKowalski]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

Without getting into the inner/outer swamp of discussion - is it true that Mancini's public criticism of Hart after Real was a catalyst for disharmony in the dressing room? Curious to know.

Just when I thought we were out...you pull us back in<br /><br />-- Fri Nov 01, 2013 3:47 pm --<br /><br />

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

Does it require more balls to drop a player than stick with him when he's going through a rough patch?

Ha. That s what I said. Personally I think retaining Hart is the bigger call.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

People are not being complacent in regards to how poor our defending is. Those that support Pellegrini are well aware that things have to improve. You can have the most organised defence in the world but when your goalkeeper runs for a ball he shouldn't come for, you will concede. When a defender gets beaten too easily by a player, it leaves the rest under pressure. Whilst our defensive organisation has not been where we would expect it, individual errors have been frequent and costly. You would expect that a settled back four and goalkeeper would, after time, become more organised and individual mistakes would be eradicated. We have not had a settled back 4. Garcia, Lescott, Demichelis, Nastasic, Boyata, Kompany. Considering how young this season is, we have had to shuffle so much. When our manager is a believer in a high line and man marking and we are used to a zonal system, combine that major change with the unsettled defence and you would expect things to be a little muddled at times.

When you look at chances conceded though, we have actually defended very well. It is just errors by certain individuals that have costed us goals each and every time. Stop the errors and we will stop conceding. The manager has to obviously coordinate the defence to stop those errors too and I think he will. He has tried to rotate but in an ideal world Pellegrini would have been able to play Hart, Zab, Komp, Nasty, Clichy, Fernan, Yaya in every league and champions league game. The trouble is players have been injured or under performed. Time and stability will see us improve. When you look at a 0-0 draw where you created 20 chances, you would say right we are creating chances the goals will come. In exactly the same manner, you look at us conceding barely any chances on goal per game and say right, the clean sheets will come. Call it individual error, call it lack of stability, call it early days. Whatever you want to call it, the stats suggest that clean sheets are not too far away.

I'm sorry but I find your post to be not only complacent but illogical. While we are considering how young the season actually is, we need to point out that when the final whistle goes on Saturday we'll have completed over a quarter of it, yet we must still “expect things to be a little muddled at times.” I certainly can't “call it early days.”We have done well at home despite very iffy defending, but away we have paid not far short of the highest price we could. We've played, leaving aside the defeat at Stamford Bridge, some of the easiest away matches we should have all season, against sides already in trouble. From these sides we've taken 4 points and thrown away 8, in addition to the free gift we treated Chelsea to. I look for tell tale signs among those games that “the clean sheets will come.” And what exactly are the “stats” which “suggest that clean sheets are not too far away”? We played well in keeping possession in the first half at Chelsea, but gave them three clear scoring chances which thankfully they muffed. That's their fault not our strength. At Newcastle we let players get across defenders every time a cross was played in, we cocked up a high punt into the area and we left players unmarked in our box routinely. We keep possession well, we don't give many chances away. Fine. We give enough goals away to lose matches against good and bad teams. Sometimes they don't take them, thank God. And injuries haven't helped, certainly, but they've masked a problem rather than creating one. Whoever we play in defence, we make the same dumb errors. We “lose” attackers in our box, we play offside while trying to defend a high squiggle and we panic when a high ball down the middle falls out of the sky. This is not the consequence of injuries, but of tactics and formation.

Pellegrini promised us attacking, high risk football, and that, even one up with a minute left, his side would go looking for the second, rather than sit on the lead. In fact, the risk has been too high and in some games has proved not worth taking. It has meant in practice that Ya Ya plays much further forward than in the past, and Fernandinho goes upfield as well. Any high punt through the middle finds us one light in defence. The back four defend with no DM in front of them. This has meant that at Villa there was a wonderfully inviting circle of space in front of our back 4, and because of the high line an inviting space (not far short of half the field) behind. Did Vinny and Nasty drop off and risk being outpaced or attack the ball, play offside or what? This spread the panic, not players making silly mistakes. And when you play a high line you have to have a keeper/sweeper ie Joe Hart! The Chelsea winner was a shambles but it flowed from the same roots of uncertainty. And Pellegrin's “attacking” philosophy has meant that many of these errors are forced late in the game when the play is more stretched and players tired. The 88th minute at Cardiff where we didn't mark up yet again at a corner, the 73rd and 76th minutes at Villa and, of course, the 92nd at Stamford Bridge. The high line and the emphasis on attacking not only gives hard pressed teams an easy out ball to relieve the pressure but it puts pressure on our defenders. And whatever was said about Pellegrini's tactical flexibility in playing an extra midfielder last Sundat, he certainly didn't play a DM. When Willian played his punt forward Ya Ya and Fernandinho were well forward as the manager wanted them, and Garcia was nowhere to be seen, and certainly not in front of the back four! And yet many on here assert that it's that our defenders aren't good enough and we'll have to wait 'till January to begin to deal with the problem! Pellegrini has not yet spoken of the possibility of undermanning and even dismissed questions about formation and tactics against Bayern with a contemptuous “we don't play like they do.”

With regards to our poor defending, even the biggest idiot on here could have told you before the season started that we'd struggle without Vinny, but that issue wasn't addressed in the summer transfer window. Or, at least it wasn't addressed until after he'd been injured and with a last minute panic buy. Clichy's form has been on the slide for a while and Kolarov can't defend. Nastasic is a youngster and it's entirely to be expected that he'd suffer a dip at some stage. Nothing a spell on the sidelines wouldn't cure, but with Vinny injured and Lescott out of favour, we simply can't afford to rest the kid. Not very clever to build your title and Champs League hopes around the fitness of one key player and an inexperienced youngster. Then there's Hart's form issues which pre-date this season, Rodwell's injuries, and don't even get me started on Garcia. Meanwhile, we signed 4 attack minded players and failed to address the glaring weaknesses at Centre Back, Left Back and Defensive Midfield. And people are scratching their heads that we're shipping goals?

Sorry hgblue but only the biggest idiot on here would have told you that we'd concede three at Cardiff (1 goal in their three other home matches) without Vinnie, or three at Villa (1 goal in four other home matches) with Vinnie. And now, of course, it's not just time we need, it's a new club! We sacked one manager because he built a useless side to win the cup and PL title, the bloke we brought in to replace him is so stupid that he didn't deal with the issue which was so so obvious, but "failed to address the glaring weaknesses at Centre Back, Left Back and Defensive Midfield" because he preferred to buy 4 attack minded players, and then addressed it with a last minute panic buy. Is your real name Hans Christian Anderson - or are you one of the brothers Grimm?

 

[FantasyIreland]

Who should we have signed to solve our centre half issue? who was available?
We chased Pepe all summer if you remember...... a 'panic' buy was made because we had no other options,the players simply weren't there to sign.

Regards our 4 incomings,all were replacements for our outgoings,they weren't preferred,they were required.

A duo of Kolarov and Clichy should not be described as weak.

 

[Anonymous]

Pellegrini has a huge decision to make tomorrow regarding Hart.
Let's see if he has the balls to drop him which he should and prove he can make the right decisions at the right time.

Without getting into the inner/outer swamp of discussion - is it true that Mancini's public criticism of Hart after Real was a catalyst for disharmony in the dressing room? Curious to know.

No. His flagrant taking the piss out of Lescott after Ajax away was the bigger catalyst for his players thinking he was a dick.