Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini 2015/16

[crystal_mais]

I think he has also brought more respect to the club from outside, we don't see the Mancini, Tevez, Balotelli type headlines and I believe other managers coaches look at us differently because of respect he has from coaches, players and managers throughout Europe. We are now in a position to attract the very best coaches and players, because of these Pellegrini years we weren't when he took over. I will look back fondly as an important part of our progress just as Mancini was.

Absolutely agree with you there

 

[Shaelumstash]

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).

I think you mis read my post mate. I wasn't suggesting you'd said to drop Silva, I was just putting my point of view accross.

I think the statistics can be misleading. A superb example is the Everton away game in the league. You've used that as an example when Silva "hasn't set the world alight, eh?". He didn't score or get an assist, but have you actually watched that game? It's one of the best I've ever seen him play. Jamie Redknapp said he was that good that they should have given him the Man of the Match before the game started.

How many times could we have said that about De Bruyne this season? More specifically, how many times could we have said that about De Bruyne playing centrally?

The best two games I've seen from De Bruyne was the 2nd half against Newcastle, and the Sunderland game. Both times he was playing on the wing, and both times David Silva was equally as brilliant.

In fact the Newcastle game is the best example of how stats will only get you so far, it's better to analyse the game as you see it. For the first half an hour De Bruyne was playing centrally. We were dreadful. He was dreadful. He constantly gave the ball away cheaply, he wasn't always available for the pass, he was trying to play too direct and it made the rest of the team stretched and allowed Newcastle to find huge amounts of space as a result.

After half an hour Silva went central, he completely dictated play, knitted the team together and we scored 6 goals in 20 minutes. That's the difference.

If we're playing on the break, desperate for a goal in the last 10 minutes, De Bruyne is one of the first players in the world you'd want to throw on to grab you a goal. But to be the fulcrum of the team? The playmaker, the one who knits it all together? Not for me. That's David Silva's job.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Jesus, BM has turned into Punxsutawney. Apparently, we've never had it so bad. We have a shit team (all of whom are lazy, not motivated or not good enough), a shit manager (who is either deluded or senile, depending on the poster), shit senior management who should have been sacked for not signing Sterling, DeBruyne and Pogba and a rubbish media department. The kit is crap and the badge is wank. The stadium is rubbish, food is crap and the beer queue.... Oh, and nobody listens to the fans. Not only that, but everyone's out to get us and the refs are all bent. There's many on here been sounding like rags for weeks, if not months. Self entitled doesn't even begin to describe it.
I'm not deluded that everything is rosy in the garden but a little perspective is called for, I think.
We're run as a top quality football club, not a ramshackle outfit that reacts to crisis in that time honoured way, of creating another crisis! Even today, I see football that just makes me smile. Football played by a caliber of player I still cannot believe we have. When fit, Hart, Zabba, Kompany, Silva, Aguero, KDB and Fernandinho would get into most other teams as would YaYa, if he is prepared to play the same role that Lampard played for us last season. The manager has one of the highest win % in the Premier League and the highest ever by a City and Real Madrid manager. Not only that, but he has brought some much needed dignity to the Premier League. The very antidote to the likes of Mourinho(who many on here wanted as manager) Van Gaal and Wenger. In the last 5 full seasons we've finished 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 1st and 2nd. There will always be times where things are not going quite as one might have hoped but that's always been part of supporting a team. I rather suspect that, looking back on season 2015/16, things will turn out better than many dared to hope.
Should Senor Guardiola not arrive in the summer, the Samaritans will be on fucking overtime!
Finally, a sense of humour has always been a key to supporting City and that seems sadly lacking at the minute.

 

[Bluemoon115]

Fernando.

What?

 

[bondsman]

Mancini built a winning team pellegrini inherited one and disassembled it

 

[sh249]

Mancini built a winning team pellegrini inherited one and disassembled it

I didn't think we won anything in 2012/13?

 

[aguero93:20]

I didn't think we won anything in 2012/13?

Won the community shield.

 

[sh249]

Ah yeah. My mistake.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

If allowed mancini would have built an even better team/squad problem is now pep is going to have to build a new team here 3 years isn't long enough imo we need to replace zab, clichy, vinny, nando, diniho, delph, yaya, navas, silva(find a succesor) that's 9 players to buy/bring through hopfully pellers will give a few players the chance to shine

hart

maffeo
denyer
otamendi
kolarov

pogba
silva
diniho

kdb
aguero
Sterling

would be nice next season bring garcia through as well as silvas successor

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

I didn't think we won anything in 2012/13?

Thanks to the players pathetic efforts at Wembley