Shaelumstash said:
The worrying thing is, even if Pellegrini wanted to be more solid, drop the line deeper and get us back to basics of being hard to beat, the Directors above him won't allow it!
It's all part of our ingenious holistic philosophy that every team in the "City family" play high line, possession based, attacking football. Forget that our captain and former player of the season Zabaleta's form has dived off a cliff, we can't protect them and become more solid, because it's not good for brand synergy, you see.
If the loyal fans in Melbourne, New York and Yokohama see Manchester City playing a solid defensive line as they did under the previous manager, they might start thinking the whole City Group concept is crazy, they play a high line, so we aaaaaall play a high line. Football principles, concepts, philosophies, brand synergies, that's more important than winning games and trophies now.
English football has found it hard to adjust to a model where directors identify and buy players. Just when we're turning the corner on that, City go nuclear and actually allow the suits in the office to dictate the style of play and tactics!! Only at City could this happen.
I bet Fergurson, Louis Long Ball and Mourinho are secretly pissing themselves at the concept! Imagine Bruce Buck telling Mourinho "Look Jose, you're going to have to play a high line from now on, I don't care if it doesn't suit John Terry's game, we've got a marketing strategy in the far east that relies on us telling our opponents what tactics we're playing before the game."
Imagine Woodwood telling Van Gaal "Yeh sorry Louis, but our womens team play balls to feet so you're going to have to stop playing that diagonal ball to Fellaini because the fans of the women's team might not recognise both United's as being part of the same brand."
As I've said before, the concept itself is completely flawed. If you're Barcelona with a budget 10 times as big as 3rd biggest team in your league, play the same way every week, fuck all those shit teams. If you're playing in the PL that concept is flawed in itself.
I don't want to skate over the issue that Pellegrini is appalling, but the point I'm making is, our footballing strategy as a club is actually making it even more difficult for him.
I played in a very successful team who adopted a high line, but the difference was that 3 of the 4 defenders plus the keeper would give Usain Bolt a tuff time over 50 metres so we were very rarely, if ever caught out.
Personally I have no problem per se with having a CFA philosophy, but where it makes no sense is that Txiki also mentioned us playing a 433 formation which suits the personnel we have better whilst MP immediately switched us to a 442. I think the fact we play a formation that we don't have the players for added to the fact that we are constantly trying to force square pegs into round holes has more bearing of where we are now than playing a high line.
The high line leaves us exposed because with Yaya in a midfield 2, our central defenders get no protection, whereas in seasons past there would be Barry or NDJ sat right in front of them. These are elementary things and if MP wants to know how to fix them, all he has to do is look at the videos of our first title winning season because the core of that team is still the core of this team.
Just because we were hard to beat, didn't mean I didn't enjoy our football previously, far from it. The thing I enjoyed most was the fact other teams scoring against us was the exception rather than the rule which is no longer the case. It took 4 years to build that mentality and toughness and a season to erode it.
Great teams are built on great defences, the question is though, during his final season can The Engineer reconstruct the defensive solidity he demolished in his first season? I think its a queston that needs serious consideration as I don't think its a given that he'll be replaced any time soon as our current crisis and our failed transfer policy since 2012 will reflect on those directly above MP.
