Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini 2015/16

[flb]

What !!! He looked more accomplished last night than many many others and the lad always puts in more than a decent shift both going forward and helping out defensively.He wont be one of Peps casualties believe me.

2 goals in 67 games says otherwise, great work ethic but little end product.

 

[Big Yaya Wilko 12]

For me he's got to drop Yaya, not just on last nights performance but on the huge imbalance playing him has on the rest of the team. Also needs to choose Silva OR KDB.

Delph with Fernandiho, Silva or KDB in front of them with Navas (yes Navas) out one side and Sterling the other.

We lack pace out wide to stop teams fullbacks bombing at us with last nights selection plus KDB and Silva don't want to track runners from out there.

Yes he's been immense for us but it's time to move on, play him at home against certain opposition but for the big games it's the bench i'm afraid.

As for the back 4, Demichellis shouldn't play again, he probably will with the injuries to Kompany and now Mangala but i'd rather we tried to get Denayer back(?) or play Sagna there.

Time for Pellegrini to grow some balls with some of the first team squad.

I pretty much agree with all of this.

Problem is, I don't think Pellegrini has either the balls, desire or inclination to change anything.

I think we find ourselves in a depressing limbo until we (hopefully) get Pep.

If we don't get Pep, then it will be the biggest, most baffling, fuck up of the post-takeover era.

 

[halfcenturyup]

Think it goes back to this time last year mate to be honest, its affording the manager too much slack to say all this talk of that nasty man Pep coming is to blame for it all.

He's too stubborn to play to the players strengths at the expense of his ideology about how he thinks the game should be played-this is the PL not La Liga, the pace of the game over here is catching his system out-the players are fucked mate imo.

... and de-motivated, same as this time last year. Not sure they believe in what he is expecting them to do.

 

[WRicko]

What has been bothering me in the last lot of games is the misplaced passes that is nothing to do with the system or the manger and it is not down to the players ability so it's not Txiki's problem either. They seem to have some mental or physical flaw. Yaya looks shattered he is not that old and yet Delph Fernando are not in the same league as him. Fernando seems to improve looked to make us more solid and looked good but Liverpool did us for pace. Delph's better but not great.

 

[Saddleworth2]

What !!! He looked more accomplished last night than many many others and the lad always puts in more than a decent shift both going forward and helping out defensively.He wont be one of Peps casualties believe me.

We perform so differently just now to how Pep will have us playing. I think it's difficult to call who will flourish and who won't. He expects intelligence, fantastic technique, huge work rate and whilst all of our squad show some of those characteristics, not many show them all consistently. Fernandinho is the most obvious fit for his methods. So I do think that all of the squad will face a big challenge and we may see some that won't or can't step up to what he expects.

 

[stablemcfc]

If we need to rest Silva at home to a bottom 6 side, I'm sure KDB could come in and grab a couple of assists or goals which would help with goal difference.

But against a decent side, or away from home, De Bruyne has constantly flattered to deceive. He gives the ball away too cheaply, and isn't in the same universe as Silva when it comes to running a game and dictating play.

As many other posters have said, the first 5 games this season before we bought De Bruyne is the best football we've played under Pellegrini.

It's a straight choice for me, what's more important - playing De Bruyne because he cost £50m, or picking a balanced team and winning games.

I think you're totally misreading my posts then if you're reading what I've put as suggesting we play KdB in an unbalanced team. In fact I quite literally stated I'd drop him or Silva to field Navas so that we would have a balanced team. And in fact I am one of those posters who has been saying we played our best 5 matches without KdB & with Navas on the wing. Little confused why you're now repeating that back to me.

However on your valid point; I'd argue for the same reasons I'd have it the opposite way around. Against the better teams & away from home I'd like us to be far more effective on the counter, in which case KdB centrally wins out over Silva for me, he's far quicker to move the ball on, and with the pace of Sterling/Navas combined with his I'd fancy us to be more dangerous than if we try to go toe-to-toe and "dictate" the game; for example the game away at Arsenal, how did that go for us? Now don't misread this as me saying Silva is bad in these games, I'm saying it's far from a poor plan to have someone like KdB in a team for those sorts of matches.
Whereas against lesser opposition we need someone like Silva who can pick the lock against a packed defence & help us sustain pressure on an opposition, as KdB like you said often gives the ball away with his style.

You say KdB hasn't been effective in the big games, or away from home (you could also say the same for Silva, no?) however he's shoved out on the wing for almost all them matches, like I keep saying he's not a winger and neither is Silva - shoving them both out wide for matches, for me, is unbalancing our team & simply doesn't work. One or the other in the middle with 2 wingers (Sterling/Navas) out wide. Round pegs in round holes.

I think it's fairly disingenuous to suggest KdB is only good enough to pad stats against the bottom 6 teams at home only when Silva is tired. Silva has 7 assists 0 goals; all came against Sunderland (H), Newcastle (H), Watford (H), Chelsea (H) & WBA (A). He played against Arsenal (A), Everton (A) x2, Leicester (A), Stoke (A), also the CL matches; without exactly setting the world alight eh.
You could even argue KdB has performed better against the tougher opposition than Silva with goals against Spurs, Sevilla & assists in others, but really what I'm trying to show is that the whole team has underperformed in the big matches, thus picking out someone who probably statistically has performed the best whilst being in the wrong position for almost the entirety of the time doesn't ring true to me.

Summary if you don't want to read that:
Silva is absolutely my favourite player to have watched in a City shirt & still is, however KdB is also fantastic & both are easily good enough to play centrally & I think you're significantly underselling one of our best performers of the season (whilst playing out of position for probably >90% of the time).

 

[oakiecokie]

2 goals in 67 games says otherwise, great work ethic but little end product.

He`s a winger come midfielder and over the past 2 seasons has helped create more assists for his team mates.Little end product my arse.Look at KDB last night in hisn position,the fucker never got his crosses past the first man.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Strikes me as just wanting an easy ride at the moment. Iheanacho shoulda come on against leicester instead of bony but pelle didn't have the balls. I wonder if it was partly because Bony had a whinge in the press and he knew if he'd have played Kelechi Bony wouldn't have been happy, so he went with the easy option and took the draw knowing he wouldn't get grief off Bony

Then there's Yaya playing every single game when he was goosed last night and should not have played. Is it because Yaya wouldn't have been happy not starting a semi? He was hopeless last night, might as well have saved him for Saturday.

I thought last night was a good time to drop one of Silva or de Bruyne (who haven't particularly clicked together yet) in favour of having Navas and Sterling on the flanks but I don't think he's got the bollocks to drop Silva, Sterling or de Bruyne so we shoe horn them in and play a team lacking in width and work rate down the flanks. This will probably last until Pellegrini fucks off and will be detrimental to the team

His comments about the season starting in february also pissed me off and it's no wonder we're getting below par performances when he's too lazy/not arsed about kicking them into gear, instead hoping that things will just come together in february. Let's just hope we're not too far behind arsenal that we can't make the lost ground back up when pellegrini thinks the league starts, ey?

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Navas is key to this season being a success or not.

His pace, work ethic and desire to keep stretching the play affords our handful of lazy players more time to recover.

 

[PragueBlue]

Last night we could have played the same team that won comfortably at Everton earlier in the season (Kompany excepted) but for some reason Pellegrini decided not to do that and once again we had 11 individuals on the pitch instead of a team.