Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini 2015/16

[TCIB]

Yes, but who were Bayern playing in the CL? It certainly wasn't the Stoke's & West Ham Utd's of this world. With the talent we have, our team seem to rarely play to their potential. We seem defensively uncertain and don't seem to be anywhere as potent in attack as we used to be. Forget injuries and FFP as all teams have injuries to contend with and most teams outside the G14 have FFP to worry about.

Many posters (me included) conceded that our performance against Watford was way below expectations (no disrespect to an excellent Watford side), and many concluded that at this point of the season its more about points than performances which got me thinking.

At what point of the season is it acceptable to disregard the performances? The reason I'm asking is because we seem to have been saying this for some time now and we've only just reached the halfway point of the season.

Is this the future we face under Manuel?

Can Manuel take us to the next level or has his effectiveness with our squad plateaued?

These are the 'Holistic' questions facing our owner and his team. The answers I believe will determine Manuel's future if it hasn't already been decided.

It has been clear for some time this season we are not going to be like Barca, now you can keep ranting at that or accept it and re-evaluate your expectations.
It is folly to "forget injuries" that is just daft bud. It does however suit the narrative of disregarding all else and just point saying it is all the manager.
The dynamics involved are huge bud and they demand to be considered by any reasonable footy person.
Our injuries have almost been surgical in the way they have hampered us imo.

Nobody is disregarding performances but biding our time until summer when we may have the best manager in the world.
We are still right in it and have done this with our main men out for large chunks.

Nowhere is it written that you buy all the best players and everything goes swimmingly.
It sucks we are not rocking but nor are we on our arse. If we were dropping like a rock i can promise you i would be losing my shit like a right loon.
I can assure you bud i will be fucking raging if we keep up this apathetic attitude until the latter parts of games.
We can use this Watford win as a boost, well hopefully.

I think Pellegrini has reached his limits but those limits are very high and good enough to possibly win us another prem.

It is to early to get worried imo, as you say it is half way through the season.

For me the general tone of the club is something i take great happiness in. We are a robust business now in our own right and will be at the top fighting for the best prizes in football for the foreseeable future.
I am not a happy clapper by a long way but nor am i going to take the enjoyment out for myself right in the middle of the season when i should be enjoying it.

If you want a fan with something to really worry about go see a Utd mate hehe :-D

 

[pudge]

It has been clear for some time this season we are not going to be like Barca, now you can keep ranting at that or accept it and re-evaluate your expectations.
It is folly to "forget injuries" that is just daft bud. It does however suit the narrative of disregarding all else and just point saying it is all the manager.
The dynamics involved are huge bud and they demand to be considered by any reasonable footy person.
Our injuries have almost been surgical in the way they have hampered us imo.

Nobody is disregarding performances but biding our time until summer when we may have the best manager in the world.
We are still right in it and have done this with our main men out for large chunks.

Nowhere is it written that you buy all the best players and everything goes swimmingly.
It sucks we are not rocking but nor are we on our arse. If we were dropping like a rock i can promise you i would be losing my shit like a right loon.
I can assure you bud i will be fucking raging if we keep up this apathetic attitude until the latter parts of games.
We can use this Watford win as a boost, well hopefully.

I think Pellegrini has reached his limits but those limits are very high and good enough to possibly win us another prem.

It is to early to get worried imo, as you say it is half way through the season.

For me the general tone of the club is something i take great happiness in. We are a robust business now in our own right and will be at the top fighting for the best prizes in football for the foreseeable future.
I am not a happy clapper by a long way but nor am i going to take the enjoyment out for myself right in the middle of the season when i should be enjoying it.

If you want a fan with something to really worry about go see a Utd mate hehe :-D

 

[TCIB]

lol bastard.

tl;dr if we go into freefall go apeshit, otherwise hold fast and look forward to summer, but enjoy the now.

 

[natam]

Ironically we are still alive in the 4 competitions

Also I'm optimistic cause the team is playing so bad that almost it can't be worst, so everything from here should be an upswing , and maybe we will win a couple of titles at the end of the season

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Going totally gung ho is all well and good but it only gets us so far. In his first season it delivered the title, just, but teams quickly sussed us out and we were given an embarassing lesson in Europe by Guardiola's Munich team who ripped us to shreds. A big decision is needed and I said earlier in the thread that our stand out away performance this season came when we played a 433 in Seville, and that's no coincidence. Does the manager have the nous/bollocks to drop one of the famous five? It doesn't have to be the same player that misses out every time, so he can dress it up as rest/rotation to ease bruised egos, but it needs to be done.

Every plan seems equally flawed at the moment unfortunately. The team selection and game plan in Seville worked because we were up against technically accomplished opponents, who despite the perverse scoreline had given us a footballing lesson at our place, and they were always likely to have us on the back foot. In the Premiership however, we seldom enjoy less than 60% possession and we seldom encounter teams with better players than us. Leicester was a case in point. Do you think Villa, Watford et al, are simply going to gormlessly overcommit and play into our counterattacking hands if we opt for a deeper defensive set up? Horses for courses works better for me; press forward against some teams, sit back against others. I do agree that at least one of Silva, KDB or Ya Ya needs to be dropped against particular opponents though

 

[BillyShears]

Every plan seems equally flawed at the moment unfortunately. The team selection and game plan in Seville worked because we were up against technically accomplished opponents, who despite the perverse scoreline had given us a footballing lesson at our place, and they were always likely to have us on the back foot. In the Premiership however, we seldom enjoy less than 60% possession and we seldom encounter teams with better players than us. Leicester was a case in point. Do you think Villa, Watford et al, are simply going to gormlessly overcommit and play into our counterattacking hands if we opt for a deeper defensive set up? Horses for courses works better for me; press forward against some teams, sit back against others. I do agree that at least one of Silva, KDB or Ya Ya needs to be dropped against particular opponents though

Pellegrini is much more 'horses for courses' than people make out. He's consistently shifting the overall shape of the side before and during games. Personally I think it was wise to play 442 against Leicester and Watford. The point was I suspect to match them up across the park and then expect individuals to win their battles. It also afforded them space to attack us at times, but the pay off being that in theory we should've also been able to counter attack them when they did pour forward. What fucks me off is that if our attacking players were on form then we'd have scored more than a couple against both sides.

The Silva, KDB, Toure conundrum is definitely a conundrum. People won't like this, but my gut feeling is that Silva's the one who's going to miss out, especially if we bring another attacking midfield player in this window.

 

[dasein]

Pellegrini is much more 'horses for courses' than people make out. He's consistently shifting the overall shape of the side before and during games. Personally I think it was wise to play 442 against Leicester and Watford. The point was I suspect to match them up across the park and then expect individuals to win their battles. It also afforded them space to attack us at times, but the pay off being that in theory we should've also been able to counter attack them when they did pour forward. What fucks me off is that if our attacking players were on form then we'd have scored more than a couple against both sides.

The Silva, KDB, Toure conundrum is definitely a conundrum. People won't like this, but my gut feeling is that Silva's the one who's going to miss out, especially if we bring another attacking midfield player in this window.

Have we all just accepted that playing only 2 of our 3 midfield 'playmakers' allows us better balance than all three?

 

[cibaman]

Ironically we are still alive in the 4 competitions

Also I'm optimistic cause the team is playing so bad that almost it can't be worst, so everything from here should be an upswing , and maybe we will win a couple of titles at the end of the season

I don't really see us putting together a consistent run of form for the rest of the season, either bad or good. I expect we'll continue to be inconsistent. We have so many top class players that we're bound to win most of our games, often very impressively. But we also have some fairly glaring fundamental weaknesses that do not look like they're going to be addressed this season. Weaknesses that our opponents are fully aware of and will target. The question really is whether the bad results, when they come, will prove to be fatal or merely setbacks.

 

[Newman Noggs]

For what it's worth, I think that, very quietly, we're a team in transition, a team that has begun to recruit younger players to replace those in their 30s and who have served us so well. One of the consequences is that we can't leave either the replacements or the senior players on the bench and are trying to accommodate them all. The result is that the team is unbalanced and disjointed. The time is fast approaching when Toure, Zabs and Silva will be let go and it is imperative that their replacements are embedded when they are. The transition, though, was never going to be easy on the eye. If we pick up trophies during this period it will be very impressive work by all concerned.

 

[yankcitizen76]

For what it's worth, I think that, very quietly, we're a team in transition, a team that has begun to recruit younger players to replace those in their 30s and who have served us so well. One of the consequences is that we can't leave either the replacements or the senior players on the bench and are trying to accommodate them all. The result is that the team is unbalanced and disjointed. The time is fast approaching when Toure, Zabs and Silva will be let go and it is imperative that their replacements are embedded when they are. The transition, though, was never going to be easy on the eye. If we pick up trophies during this period it will be very impressive work by all concerned.

A world without Silva I don't want to imagine!