Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini (2014/15)

[blueinsa]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

So who are the 11 MP can totally trust at the moment?

Who on here can answer that?

According to minutes played, and the team he goes for in the big games, his preferred 11 is:

Hart

Zab, Demichelis, Kompany, Clichy

Navas, Fernandinho, Yaya, Silva

Dzeko, Aguero

Coincidentally, that is the exact team he played against Burnley.

My only concern about the gaffer is the sheer amount of rotation he does on a match by match basis with it seemingly not based on any kind of form, rather its a case of you played this one so he gets the next.

I know that's simplistic and probably way off the mark but its clear something isn't right and we can see the lack of effort from certain players and its puzzling why he keeps on giving them opportunities to shaft him.

 

[Damocles]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

My only concern about the gaffer is the sheer amount of rotation he does on a match by match basis with it seemingly not based on any kind of form, rather its a case of you played this one so he gets the next.

I know that's simplistic and probably way off the mark but its clear something isn't right and we can see the lack of effort from certain players and its puzzling why he keeps on giving them opportunities to shaft him.

I looked at this a few pages back and it seems that he doesn't actually rotate a lot with the exception of the defence. Walked away last night without finding a pattern but it occurred to me afterwards that 90% of his rotation is his defence and of that 75% are the fullbacks. Other than that he has a pretty solid core team.

So suppose the question is why he is rotating the defence so much but keeping the men in front of them fairly stable?

None of this points though to what our main failing is this year - the collapse of our attacking threat.

Last year we played Kolarov over Clichy a lot more which balanced out playing Zab on the other side and made us a little on dimensional in terms of how we attack and the sides which we come in on. Navas/Zab compared to Silva/Clichy for width is extremely one sided. Kolarov got 7 assists last year which this year would make him our joint top and even when we banged in a bunch of goals last term he was third.

Just on this season alone, we have scoring 2.6 goals a game when Kolarov is in the team compared to 1.7 per game when Clichy is in the team instead. The sample sizes are too small to really draw any conclusions from but we all tend to generally agree that Kolarov is a much more attacking player just from watching him, and his absence looks to have been missed.

I've had an idea that we look a much more balanced team when Sagna is in it instead of Zab; more defensively solid and able to effect the game better. We could be looking at a scenario where Clichy and Sagna are the better pair when we need strength defensively and Zab and Kolarov should be used when we need an attracting threat from the wings. At the moment we're mixing and matching and it looks lobsided to me.

 

[without a dream]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

My only concern about the gaffer is the sheer amount of rotation he does on a match by match basis with it seemingly not based on any kind of form, rather its a case of you played this one so he gets the next.

I know that's simplistic and probably way off the mark but its clear something isn't right and we can see the lack of effort from certain players and its puzzling why he keeps on giving them opportunities to shaft him.

I looked at this a few pages back and it seems that he doesn't actually rotate a lot with the exception of the defence. Walked away last night without finding a pattern but it occurred to me afterwards that 90% of his rotation is his defence and of that 75% are the fullbacks. Other than that he has a pretty solid core team.

So suppose the question is why he is rotating the defence so much but keeping the men in front of them fairly stable?

None of this points though to what our main failing is this year - the collapse of our attacking threat.

Last year we played Kolarov over Clichy a lot more which balanced out playing Zab on the other side and made us a little on dimensional in terms of how we attack and the sides which we come in on. Navas/Zab compared to Silva/Clichy for width is extremely one sided. Kolarov got 7 assists last year which this year would make him our joint top and even when we banged in a bunch of goals last term he was third.

Just on this season alone, we have scoring 2.6 goals a game when Kolarov is in the team compared to 1.7 per game when Clichy is in the team instead. The sample sizes are too small to really draw any conclusions from but we all tend to generally agree that Kolarov is a much more attacking player just from watching him, and his absence looks to have been missed.

I've had an idea that we look a much more balanced team when Sagna is in it instead of Zab; more defensively solid and able to effect the game better. We could be looking at a scenario where Clichy and Sagna are the better pair when we need strength defensively and Zab and Kolarov should be used when we need an attracting threat from the wings. At the moment we're mixing and matching and it looks lobsided to me.

Sagna and Navas look like they've never met when they play together though, which I think is why he's in and out and hasn't been given more of a run. It's not that we have a reduced threat from the right when he plays but it's completely negated.

I do think the full backs should be in pairs though, the amount of work a modern full back has to get through is outrageous and I think it would be easier to prepare the side if they had two consistent 'partnerships' at full back rather than the random mixing which we seem to get currently.

 

[Danamy]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

My only concern about the gaffer is the sheer amount of rotation he does on a match by match basis with it seemingly not based on any kind of form, rather its a case of you played this one so he gets the next.

I know that's simplistic and probably way off the mark but its clear something isn't right and we can see the lack of effort from certain players and its puzzling why he keeps on giving them opportunities to shaft him.

I looked at this a few pages back and it seems that he doesn't actually rotate a lot with the exception of the defence. Walked away last night without finding a pattern but it occurred to me afterwards that 90% of his rotation is his defence and of that 75% are the fullbacks. Other than that he has a pretty solid core team.

So suppose the question is why he is rotating the defence so much but keeping the men in front of them fairly stable?

None of this points though to what our main failing is this year - the collapse of our attacking threat.

Last year we played Kolarov over Clichy a lot more which balanced out playing Zab on the other side and made us a little on dimensional in terms of how we attack and the sides which we come in on. Navas/Zab compared to Silva/Clichy for width is extremely one sided. Kolarov got 7 assists last year which this year would make him our joint top and even when we banged in a bunch of goals last term he was third.

Just on this season alone, we have scoring 2.6 goals a game when Kolarov is in the team compared to 1.7 per game when Clichy is in the team instead. The sample sizes are too small to really draw any conclusions from but we all tend to generally agree that Kolarov is a much more attacking player just from watching him, and his absence looks to have been missed.

I've had an idea that we look a much more balanced team when Sagna is in it instead of Zab; more defensively solid and able to effect the game better. We could be looking at a scenario where Clichy and Sagna are the better pair when we need strength defensively and Zab and Kolarov should be used when we need an attracting threat from the wings. At the moment we're mixing and matching and it looks lobsided to me.

The left side is an area that'll certainly get sorted in the summer

 

[BillyShears]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

My only concern about the gaffer is the sheer amount of rotation he does on a match by match basis with it seemingly not based on any kind of form, rather its a case of you played this one so he gets the next.

I know that's simplistic and probably way off the mark but its clear something isn't right and we can see the lack of effort from certain players and its puzzling why he keeps on giving them opportunities to shaft him.

I looked at this a few pages back and it seems that he doesn't actually rotate a lot with the exception of the defence. Walked away last night without finding a pattern but it occurred to me afterwards that 90% of his rotation is his defence and of that 75% are the fullbacks. Other than that he has a pretty solid core team.

So suppose the question is why he is rotating the defence so much but keeping the men in front of them fairly stable?

None of this points though to what our main failing is this year - the collapse of our attacking threat.

Last year we played Kolarov over Clichy a lot more which balanced out playing Zab on the other side and made us a little on dimensional in terms of how we attack and the sides which we come in on. Navas/Zab compared to Silva/Clichy for width is extremely one sided. Kolarov got 7 assists last year which this year would make him our joint top and even when we banged in a bunch of goals last term he was third.

Just on this season alone, we have scoring 2.6 goals a game when Kolarov is in the team compared to 1.7 per game when Clichy is in the team instead. The sample sizes are too small to really draw any conclusions from but we all tend to generally agree that Kolarov is a much more attacking player just from watching him, and his absence looks to have been missed.

I've had an idea that we look a much more balanced team when Sagna is in it instead of Zab; more defensively solid and able to effect the game better. We could be looking at a scenario where Clichy and Sagna are the better pair when we need strength defensively and Zab and Kolarov should be used when we need an attracting threat from the wings. At the moment we're mixing and matching and it looks lobsided to me.

The left side is an area that'll certainly get sorted in the summer

Kurzawa + Bale ? :)

 

[Damocles]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

My only concern about the gaffer is the sheer amount of rotation he does on a match by match basis with it seemingly not based on any kind of form, rather its a case of you played this one so he gets the next.

I know that's simplistic and probably way off the mark but its clear something isn't right and we can see the lack of effort from certain players and its puzzling why he keeps on giving them opportunities to shaft him.

I looked at this a few pages back and it seems that he doesn't actually rotate a lot with the exception of the defence. Walked away last night without finding a pattern but it occurred to me afterwards that 90% of his rotation is his defence and of that 75% are the fullbacks. Other than that he has a pretty solid core team.

So suppose the question is why he is rotating the defence so much but keeping the men in front of them fairly stable?

None of this points though to what our main failing is this year - the collapse of our attacking threat.

Last year we played Kolarov over Clichy a lot more which balanced out playing Zab on the other side and made us a little on dimensional in terms of how we attack and the sides which we come in on. Navas/Zab compared to Silva/Clichy for width is extremely one sided. Kolarov got 7 assists last year which this year would make him our joint top and even when we banged in a bunch of goals last term he was third.

Just on this season alone, we have scoring 2.6 goals a game when Kolarov is in the team compared to 1.7 per game when Clichy is in the team instead. The sample sizes are too small to really draw any conclusions from but we all tend to generally agree that Kolarov is a much more attacking player just from watching him, and his absence looks to have been missed.

I've had an idea that we look a much more balanced team when Sagna is in it instead of Zab; more defensively solid and able to effect the game better. We could be looking at a scenario where Clichy and Sagna are the better pair when we need strength defensively and Zab and Kolarov should be used when we need an attracting threat from the wings. At the moment we're mixing and matching and it looks lobsided to me.

The left side is an area that'll certainly get sorted in the summer

Don't do this Dan, we've been hurt so many times before ;'(

 

[Marvin]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

And it makes sense to rotate at fullback because

1) It's a very physical demanding role

2) Its where we have two good alternatives.

Any more sacred cows left?

Tactics dismissed. Rotation dismissed

What else left is there?

 

[Damocles]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

And it makes sense to rotate at fullback because

1) It's a very physical demanding role

2) Its where we have two good alternatives.

Any more sacred cows left?

Tactics dismissed. Rotation dismissed

What else left is there?

It's not so much that we rotate the fullbacks that I was pointing too, more that we rotate them in such a way where we always seem to have one defensively minded fullback and one attacking minded fullback which leads to a predictable attacking build up. Any team with a decent defensive midfielder can just move across to help their winger/fullback versus our winger/full back knowing that a cross field ball to an overlapping fullback on the opposite side isn't coming.

 

[Marvin]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

And it makes sense to rotate at fullback because

1) It's a very physical demanding role

2) Its where we have two good alternatives.

Any more sacred cows left?

Tactics dismissed. Rotation dismissed

What else left is there?

It's not so much that we rotate the fullbacks that I was pointing too, more that we rotate them in such a way where we always seem to have one defensively minded fullback and one attacking minded fullback which leads to a predictable attacking build up. Any team with a decent defensive midfielder can just move across to help their winger/fullback versus our winger/full back knowing that a cross field ball to an overlapping fullback on the opposite side isn't coming.

Navas.

Wide ball to Navas must be our most used pass. Effective too, but predictable. Would be more effective if we played Bony in the middle and supported him with Aguero. I thought that would create havoc when we signed Bony

We do have the assets. More than enough to destroy most teams.

If we beat WBA it's still feasible we can win the league but recent performances suggest not!

 

[Danamy]

Re: Manuel Pellegrini (interesting interview pg 115)

And it makes sense to rotate at fullback because

1) It's a very physical demanding role

2) Its where we have two good alternatives.

Any more sacred cows left?

Tactics dismissed. Rotation dismissed

What else left is there?

It's not rocket science, it's horses for courses, you pick your team and play whats in front of you

It's no coincidence that when we played Everton & Southampton for example where they play with full backs that push forward in Coleman/Baines & Bertrand/Clyne respectively, we played both Clichy & Zabba along with Navas on the right to nulify their threat. It would've been the same at Barca but with Clichy being suspended this is an area that worries me and Barca will exploit.

I wouldn't say it's a demanding role, it's just another role that you should look at and pick the best player to play in that position depending on your opposition.