Shaelumstash said:
Totally agree with you on the square pegs, round hole thing. Totally agree on the fact 442 is not suited to playing such a high line, as to play so high you need lots of pressure on the ball from midfield, and we simply don't/ can't do that. I also agree that you need rapid defenders to play a high line effectively.
I also agree that just because we played deeper under Mancini, doesn't mean it wasn't attractive, attacking football. We still dominated most games, we just had a more sound base to start from and our goalkeeper and defenders were the best in the league. The same players are now a shambles. Have they all "downed tools" or are they not comfortable in the system?
One are I'd question is that you appear to be suggesting Pellegrini playing 442 is the major issue, not the high line. I'd disagree with that. We played a variation of 442 under Mancini and we had the best defence in the league 3 years running. The difference was we were 10 yards deeper and not so exposed.
You're correct in that Mancini did play a variation of 442, but I think think that is more to do with football being inherently fluid. How many times did NDJ or Barry seriously venture forward? From what I recall one of them was always within spitting distance of Kompany/Lescott so protection was always afforded to them.
Tevez always dropped deeper if playing with another striker & Balotelli always played from the left unless played as a target man like against ManUre in the FA Cup semi and Stoke in the final. I've just looked back at a couple of matches from the 2012 season and tbh I can barely tell the difference in the defensive line then to the one we adopt now. What I will say is very evident is that we always put our defensive duties first and built from there and that is where I agree with you.
Mancini's philosophy was defend first and our world class forwards will ultimately score. Pellegrini's philosophy seems to be, we'll score more than you will and I hope our world class defenders will take care of themselves which is naive Keegan-esque madness in todays world of OPTA stats and video analysis. When our full backs go missing in action and all our average opposition had to do is hit long balls into the empty channels, we became as predictable as night following day. That is the problem with MP's version of 442.
In those early 2012 matches, we were seriously good, fluid & dare I say that team was probably the most complete City team ever. How on God's earth have we gone from that to this with essentially the same players, is beyond me?
