Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini 2014/15 (continued)

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Well I am going for a bike ride now and by the time I get back I expect Pellegrini to have been sacked, Toni Duggan to have been shot and Yaya sold to PSG for 200m.

I'm back.

Have I missed anything?

Yes. We sold Toni Duggan to PSG for 200m and shot Yaya. But Pelle's still here.

Sorry to disappoint you.

 

[badaz52]

We just haven't quite got a balanced tactician in charge yet.

Hughes - overly offensive, scored loads but conceded loads too often in the same game!
Mancini - overly defensive, didn't score too many and a lot of attacking players were held back
Pellegrini- said when he took over he was going to get us playing fast, attacking football (dictated by Txiki I might add) which is great but he seems to have left the defence in the bin as a result.

 

[bugsyblue]

My main concern is the total lack of any idea of how to defend, we have gone from looking rock solid at the back to being all over the place. The idea that we should just all stand on the edge of the box hoping to catch someone offside is plain crazy. Years ago when being level was offside and there was no interfering/not interfering with play, this was a viable tactic but not now. We just look like idiots game after game. Here is a crazy thought......Let our defenders, defend! Why rely on some idiot with a flag to determine our fate? Just defend!

When you look at some of our baffling tactics and our form falling off a cliff its unsurprising that he looks set for the chop and if he is sacked I can certainly see why. The main argument against it for me is the message it sends out, to the outside world it will almost certainly look like "Win the league or youre sacked" and I dont see how that is a sustainable model because no team wins the league every year!

Whatever happens going forward I think we should remember he won us the double last season. Yeah there will be those that say he did it with someone else's team but you could point that finger at a lot of managers these days given the lack of time most managers get in the top jobs. He did us proud last season and think on that basis he deserves a certain level of respect.

The sad thing is that we were defending better with alleged inferior defenders like Lescott,Richards and Nastasic in the side

Just shows you how pathetic we have become

It's because they get zero protection from the midfield. Look at the derby, only ferdaninho back defending at most times. Yaya, silva, Navas and Nasri can't defend. We can afford to give one of them license, ie silva, but not the others.

 

[OrigamiNinja]

My main concern is the total lack of any idea of how to defend, we have gone from looking rock solid at the back to being all over the place. The idea that we should just all stand on the edge of the box hoping to catch someone offside is plain crazy. Years ago when being level was offside and there was no interfering/not interfering with play, this was a viable tactic but not now. We just look like idiots game after game. Here is a crazy thought......Let our defenders, defend! Why rely on some idiot with a flag to determine our fate? Just defend!

When you look at some of our baffling tactics and our form falling off a cliff its unsurprising that he looks set for the chop and if he is sacked I can certainly see why. The main argument against it for me is the message it sends out, to the outside world it will almost certainly look like "Win the league or youre sacked" and I dont see how that is a sustainable model because no team wins the league every year!

Whatever happens going forward I think we should remember he won us the double last season. Yeah there will be those that say he did it with someone else's team but you could point that finger at a lot of managers these days given the lack of time most managers get in the top jobs. He did us proud last season and think on that basis he deserves a certain level of respect.

The sad thing is that we were defending better with alleged inferior defenders like Lescott,Richards and Nastasic in the side

Just shows you how pathetic we have become

Because we actually defended. Now we are so intent with trying to catch the opposition offside we have actually forgotten about the basic art of defending. We play inferior teams week in week out and 18 months ago we didn't give these teams a sniff, if we went 1-0 up then most of the time it was game over. Not now, we don't defend so even against the weakest opposition we are giving them 2 or 3 great chances every game and the majority come from this tactic of "stand on the 18 yard line, one hand in the air and tickle each others backsides with the other"! Crazy!

 

[GeorgeHeslop'sTackle.]

Manuel Pellergrini' - As quoted at yesterday's post match press conference:

"The only way we can change it is working. Working with the minds of the players, working with the team. Working with a lot of things. We must improve and I hope when the team wins again that we will recover their trust."

Maybe it's just me reading more into it than I should, by not taking into account that English isn't his first language, but did anyone else consider his use of the word 'trust,' rather than 'conference,' more than a little interesting.

"We will recover their trust" sounds like he has well and truly lost the dressing room

'fraid so Karen. It's not really down to him, in my view, he's just a nodding dog who does as he's told.

It's Soriano & Tixxi that are the main ones that have dictated our disasterous transfer policy, and insisted on us continuing to play in a style that clearly no longer suits our current (ageing) squad.

Until we get shut of them, nothing's gonna change, unfortunately... Sabella FFS!!

BRING BACK GARRY COOK!!

 

[Bluemoon115]

Aston Villa in the carling cup was 4 to them i recall

Yep.. forgot about that, that was 2012-13 so not so long ago

Remember that villa game. Lesscott,nasty and boyata in a back three iirc. Nasties debut. Dennis suarez in midfield.
We were shite and i got soaked watching it. It pissed down.

My ex broke up with me before I went to that one.

Not my favourite day tbh.

 

[pablomurphy]

Jeez, is he still here?

 

[emiratblu]

I cannot believe he hasn't gone today
For the last four games hes been saying we have to win each game, were four games on and guess what now we have to win 6 but that may not be enough now.
His trajectory aka Mark Hughes sacking is worse than Hughes, how is he still in a job?
A lot of the players know they are on the way out and very clearly Manuel is in the same boat
This is a big gamble for the owner, but one were its better to twist than hold.

 

[badaz52]

Look at how many players are out there who are midfield brutes but we would just overlook because they are not "big" names, can you imagine Charlie Adam in midfield he would sort things out. When you think about it we haven't looked great defensively since NDJ left!

 

[Lancet Fluke]

My main concern is the total lack of any idea of how to defend, we have gone from looking rock solid at the back to being all over the place. The idea that we should just all stand on the edge of the box hoping to catch someone offside is plain crazy. Years ago when being level was offside and there was no interfering/not interfering with play, this was a viable tactic but not now. We just look like idiots game after game. Here is a crazy thought......Let our defenders, defend! Why rely on some idiot with a flag to determine our fate? Just defend!

When you look at some of our baffling tactics and our form falling off a cliff its unsurprising that he looks set for the chop and if he is sacked I can certainly see why. The main argument against it for me is the message it sends out, to the outside world it will almost certainly look like "Win the league or youre sacked" and I dont see how that is a sustainable model because no team wins the league every year!

Whatever happens going forward I think we should remember he won us the double last season. Yeah there will be those that say he did it with someone else's team but you could point that finger at a lot of managers these days given the lack of time most managers get in the top jobs. He did us proud last season and think on that basis he deserves a certain level of respect.

The sad thing is that we were defending better with alleged inferior defenders like Lescott,Richards and Nastasic in the side

Just shows you how pathetic we have become

Because we actually defended. Now we are so intent with trying to catch the opposition offside we have actually forgotten about the basic art of defending. We play inferior teams week in week out and 18 months ago we didn't give these teams a sniff, if we went 1-0 up then most of the time it was game over. Not now, we don't defend so even against the weakest opposition we are giving them 2 or 3 great chances every game and the majority come from this tactic of "stand on the 18 yard line, one hand in the air and tickle each others backsides with the other"! Crazy!

You can add diving in at any opportunity, desperately trying to win the ball 40 yards from our goal to the defensive master plan. The cool kids call it defending on the front foot, everyone else just calls it what it is...shit defending.