There's no such thing as luck.
Also very often, it's the team with the least injury problems that win the league. Only because we've been realistically aiming to be up there or started being up there ourselves that I've taken notice but I think five of the last seven titles have been won by the team with the least injuries.
You're quite right that it can never be proven that he got it wrong on Sunday. But again, I'll go back to it, I don't understand why people assume you can only discuss things if you can offer tangible and irrefutable scholarly evidence that what you're saying is correct. I'm not going back to University and doing a thesis, I'm discussing football on a football forum.
It's sometimes like having a conversation with Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory with some people on here (I'm not directing that at you in particular). We're discussing football, a game regularly described as "all about opinions". Sometimes my opinion differs to the manager, the CEO, the players, whoever. Some people are too insecure to disagree with a an expert, or don't dare offer an opinion without scholarly referenced research. Good for them, but personally I'd rather have an opinion, and I'm happy to listen to other people's opinion, that's why I come on a football forum.
Your second point that "the only judgement of Pellegrini can be at the end of the season if we win the league or not" I completely disagree with. That's the only judgement of whether he's reached his target, but there are many other judgements to be made along the way. I'm happy to give him credit when he does very well, as I did after the Sevilla game. I'll also criticise him when he gets it wrong. He got it wrong on Sunday, and even if he wins the league, that won't change that.
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Evidence of what? That it wasn't 1-0 or that it wasn't 0-1. It's not evidence ,we can never know the outcome of what would have happened if he'd done things your way or my way.
It's not when you sit back and watch the game again. I do appreciate you've got your own point of view and you tend to argue well even when up against plenty of opposing viewpoints.
This particular game though I can't agree that the fact the game finished 0-0 is compelling enough evidence as to Pellegrini getting it so wrong.
The first sub, although subjective and you're not alone in thinking Nacho should have come on, was the correct call for me. I'm sure it would have been in Pellegrinis mind to hold Nacho back and bringing Navas on would keep our shape easier whilst giving us more width a solidity on the right.
The first half as a whole was pretty unspectacular tbf.
I'd have brought yaya off at HT personally and looked to have made the change with Nacho. As poor as we'd been, Villa had offered nothing and sacrificing one of the three in the middle for a forward wasn't a big risk.
Seeing how the second half developed I can understand him holding on with any changes as it was pretty much one way traffic and it seemed a case of 'when' we score as opposed to 'if'
The point is, he didn't roll the dice as early as I'd have liked but watching the game I understand why, even if I'm not in full agreement.
I didn't ask for evidence I just replied to your post that the Villa result was evidence. I don't mind your opinions and enjoy discussing it. My point was you can't compare Sugar and the iPod to Pellegrinis decision because for one we have evidence and for Sunday's result there can be no evidence.So why are you asking me for evidence then, if it can never be proven either way?
Your argument if you strip it all back is that we shouldn't discuss things or have an opinion unless it can be backed up with statistical evidence. It must be a very cold, clinical and boring world to inhabit, and I don't want to ever visit it.
I'm going to carry on discussing opinions on football with other people who like discussing football. No statistics required.
How can the 0-0 be his fault? The players let him down we didn't concede a shot on target we were really solid! As so many of use have asked us to be and we missed some glaring opportunities and had some bad look in front of goal. It was actually a decent all performance but not as good as we have been at times! I for 1 would be happy if pellers was still here next season! And I have been 1 of his biggest critics!
He didn't get any grief from me, mate.None of which indicates he was at all "naive". People can differ in their views without either being clearly wrong. Navas instead of Kelechi was a very fair call as evidenced by the impact the former had on the game (arguably our best player). Could Kelechi have come on early in the second half? Yes maybe, but the only person you could have realistically taken off was Toure - and he has unlocked many a stalemate game in the past - including the exact same fixture last year close to the end. The other thing you could question was bringing on Delph instead of Kelechi. But I am pretty sure the reason MP did that was to preserve 3 in CM so Fernandinho had more license to get forward - and after his marauding runs in Sevilla, that was also a reasonable decision.
So you have there 3 decision points, where there are pertinent arguments on both sides. To suggest it was a slam/dunk and throw tirades of abuse at Pellegrini (as was the tone of 80% of the posts after the match) is plain ridiculous IMHO.