Discuss Pellegrini....

[Chris in London]

You often make me smile but you really should make more contributions like this one. Love the point about one of my most admired teams, the Netherlands of '74.

I loved watching Holland in both the '74 and '78 World Cups

They didn't deserve to lose both, though my favourite was the '78 team with the likes of Arie Haan, Rep, Rensenbrinck, the van der Kerkhof twins, Neeskens, Ruud Krol. Fantastic team.

And has since emerged that Argentina bribed a referee on their way to the final.

Holland were done.

Nah, they were shit.

Even Scotland beat 'em


:)

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I loved watching Holland in both the '74 and '78 World Cups

They didn't deserve to lose both, though my favourite was the '78 team with the likes of Arie Haan, Rep, Rensenbrinck, the van der Kerkhof twins, Neeskens, Ruud Krol. Fantastic team.

And has since emerged that Argentina bribed a referee on their way to the final.

Holland were done.

Nah, they were shit.

Even Scotland beat 'em

:)

It's insane to think, in relative terms, what a force in World Football Scotland were in the 70's and 80's.

 

[Chris in London]

And has since emerged that Argentina bribed a referee on their way to the final.

Holland were done.

Nah, they were shit.

Even Scotland beat 'em

:)

It's insane to think, in relative terms, what a force in World Football Scotland were in the 70's and 80's.

True, but this happens in football. The Magyars of 50-56 were perhaps the most revolutionary and talented team of all time. Hungary is not possessed of a vast population nor blessed with extensive resources. Belgium at the moment is punching hugely above its weight - look at some of their players - VK, Hazard, Fellaini (okay, bad example).

And yet countries with Huge resources available punch well below their weight. England has produced one really good team (maybe two) in forty years. Spain have enjoyed a purple patch for the last 7 or 8 years but punched well below their weight for a long time before that.

But you have a point about Scotland - Asa Hartford, Archie Gemmill, some great players.

If only they'd had a decent goalkeeper...

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Nah, they were shit.

Even Scotland beat 'em

:)

It's insane to think, in relative terms, what a force in World Football Scotland were in the 70's and 80's.

True, but this happens in football. The Magyars of 50-56 were perhaps the most revolutionary and talented team of all time. Hungary is not possessed of a vast population nor blessed with extensive resources. Belgium at the moment is punching hugely above its weight - look at some of their players - VK, Hazard, Fellaini (okay, bad example).

And yet countries with Huge resources available punch well below their weight. England has produced one really good team (maybe two) in forty years. Spain have enjoyed a purple patch for the last 7 or 8 years but punched well below their weight for a long time before that.

But you have a point about Scotland - Asa Hartford, Archie Gemmill, some great players.

If only they'd had a decent goalkeeper...

How dare you cast aspersions on Keith McRae.

 

[flb]

He just overlooked the greatest run I ever saw at City, 20 games unbeaten. Needs to do it again now and cement our place in history.

Good job we did go 20 games mate as Chelsea are still up our arse, we've reeled Arsenal in by 6 points which is great.

Between us and Chelsea, the tightest PL race for many a year, just hope our better firepower sees us through.

 

[steviemc]

Should this thread not be renamed the George,Billy and OB1 thread??

Can't we all just move on. Pellegrini is the man!

We could do with a thread that allows us to discuss Pellegrini's tactics without the poisonous inner/outer debate. Accept that he's the manager but still feel able to criticise' or praise as we would with any manager.

That probably would be much better and would help keep the thread on topic. At present 'Discuss Pellegrini' is such a broad title that it can cover anything from comparing RM vs MP's tactics, through to discussing Pellegrini's dress sense and hairstyle.

 

[supercity88]

Fabulous post

I agree totally with what you say - we need to be pragmatic too and I totally believe Pellegrini will be. Coming into the business end of the season should we need just a point I believe Pellegrini will set the side up in order to get that point. It is that he didn't have the players available to alter our formation and play more pragmatically. That is where my comments stemmed from. People are just labelling Pellegrini as being a one formation manager with an inability to be flexible, they are also claiming he will sacrifice results in order to play expansive football. These labels are incorrect. He set Malaga up in a more defensive system in the knockout rounds, example being the first leg away in Porto. They still lost but they went on to win playing a more expansive and attacking formation in the home leg. They played two different formations reflecting the context of the game and the task in hand. I would share the same concerns as others if Pellegrini had put out the team he did on Monday despite having a fully fit Milner/Garcia on the bench. He didn't.

 

[Zin 'messiah' Zimmer]

Nah, they were shit.

Even Scotland beat 'em

:)

It's insane to think, in relative terms, what a force in World Football Scotland were in the 70's and 80's.

True, but this happens in football. The Magyars of 50-56 were perhaps the most revolutionary and talented team of all time. Hungary is not possessed of a vast population nor blessed with extensive resources. Belgium at the moment is punching hugely above its weight - look at some of their players - VK, Hazard, Fellaini (okay, bad example).

And yet countries with Huge resources available punch well below their weight. England has produced one really good team (maybe two) in forty years. Spain have enjoyed a purple patch for the last 7 or 8 years but punched well below their weight for a long time before that.

But you have a point about Scotland - Asa Hartford, Archie Gemmill, some great players.

If only they'd had a decent goalkeeper...

Belgium has followed the French model of Clairfontaine since 2004, also mirroring the French World Cup winning team in actually having 7/8 players that aren't Belgian (:

 

[levets]

Some pretty bizarre reading of Monday's game on this thread. Some of it perhaps fueled by the media / press narrative of Mourinho's greatness in stopping City's free scoring machine.

I see it differently. We were woefully under strength (Fernandinho, Nasri and Aguero all out) and had to put out a team that revolved around a 2 man midfield consisting of an ageing centre back (who hasn't played in midfield for years) with limited pace and stamina and Yaya who can't list defensive ability among his greatest attributes.

Initially in the post match I moaned about this selection but ultimately there really wasn't much else MP could've done.

We were without Fernandinho. His ability to quietly dictate the pace and direction of games, his patrolling of the danger areas and exploitable spaces, his ability to move the ball quickly and with purpose, his ability to intercept everything and anything and most importantly his ability to 'babysit' Yaya and cover his back when something goes wrong.

We were without Nasri's retention, 'ghosting', defence splitting passing and (newly acquired) determination. We also missed his 'link' with partner in crime Silva (meaning Sliva had a lot more to do to create situations and also made it much easier for Luiz to man mark him).

We were without Aguero's fear factor, his movement, his dropping into the hole, his ability to beat a man and create space and tellingly his unrivalled ability to score from fuck all.

3 exceptionally important cogs in MP's engine.

We were therefore pretty much there for the taking.

Yes Chelsea stepped up and played out of their skins sticking rigidly to their strategy and well done to them for that. Yes they created chances and yes they hit the woodwork. This isn't really anything 'new' or exceptional. Loads of teams have created chances to score (and scored) against us. It doesn't make them geniuses.

All that said, we still created 26 opportunities to shoot at their goal. Within these 26 shots on goal many of them were very very narrow misses or 'scrambles' that on another day could/would'e gone in.

Even with MPs machine so cruelly handicapped we still had more than enough about us to trouble fuck out of them. They were defending for their fucking lives that last 20 minutes. They were dogged as fuck but also had a very fucking big slice of luck (as they also did at their gaff).

For me it was a great time for them to play us and all the cards fell for them. Bit like fighting Tyson if he had a fractured wrist.

Much more this than any 'greatness' from Mourinho.

Crackin post. Extremely valid points!

Agree with the comments... but just to add ... My friend a 'Chelsea fan' who goes to the games said "that is the BEST performance he's seen from Chelsea all season; and City didn't play too well"...

That blues is perspective!

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Some pretty bizarre reading of Monday's game on this thread. Some of it perhaps fueled by the media / press narrative of Mourinho's greatness in stopping City's free scoring machine.

I see it differently. We were woefully under strength (Fernandinho, Nasri and Aguero all out) and had to put out a team that revolved around a 2 man midfield consisting of an ageing centre back (who hasn't played in midfield for years) with limited pace and stamina and Yaya who can't list defensive ability among his greatest attributes.

Initially in the post match I moaned about this selection but ultimately there really wasn't much else MP could've done.

We were without Fernandinho. His ability to quietly dictate the pace and direction of games, his patrolling of the danger areas and exploitable spaces, his ability to move the ball quickly and with purpose, his ability to intercept everything and anything and most importantly his ability to 'babysit' Yaya and cover his back when something goes wrong.

We were without Nasri's retention, 'ghosting', defence splitting passing and (newly acquired) determination. We also missed his 'link' with partner in crime Silva (meaning Sliva had a lot more to do to create situations and also made it much easier for Luiz to man mark him).

We were without Aguero's fear factor, his movement, his dropping into the hole, his ability to beat a man and create space and tellingly his unrivalled ability to score from fuck all.

3 exceptionally important cogs in MP's engine.

We were therefore pretty much there for the taking.

Yes Chelsea stepped up and played out of their skins sticking rigidly to their strategy and well done to them for that. Yes they created chances and yes they hit the woodwork. This isn't really anything 'new' or exceptional. Loads of teams have created chances to score (and scored) against us. It doesn't make them geniuses.

All that said, we still created 26 opportunities to shoot at their goal. Within these 26 shots on goal many of them were very very narrow misses or 'scrambles' that on another day could/would'e gone in.

Even with MPs machine so cruelly handicapped we still had more than enough about us to trouble fuck out of them. They were defending for their fucking lives that last 20 minutes. They were dogged as fuck but also had a very fucking big slice of luck (as they also did at their gaff).

For me it was a great time for them to play us and all the cards fell for them. Bit like fighting Tyson if he had a fractured wrist.

Much more this than any 'greatness' from Mourinho.

Crackin post. Extremely valid points!

Agree with the comments... but just to add ... My friend a 'Chelsea fan' who goes to the games said "that is the BEST performance he's seen from Chelsea all season; and City didn't play too well"...

That blues is perspective!

Your mate has a lot more perspective than a few of the cranks who've crawled out of the woodwork on this thread in the last couple of days, mate.