Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini 2015/16

[cheddar404]

A top class manager makes a team greater than the sum of its parts and we certainly aren't. I like Manuel a lot and think he carries himself well but he's not getting the best out of this squad.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

You can just tell Klopp is on a different planet to him. The way he has turned an average Liverpool side around so quickly just proves that. He did his homework but also the way he is on match days. He is passionate, he never leaves his technical area, the way he wrapped an arm around their sub and gave him some advice before he went on. You can tell those players would crawl through broken glass for that man. Meanwhile Pellegrini is sat on the bench like a decomposing corpse.

He was the same at Burnley last season. Sat there like a lonely old man at a bus stop with no timetable on show so he has no clue when the last bus comes, might have already gone, but he'll just sit there in case he's not missed it.

 

[Bluenobby]

Klopp saw Pellegrini coming a mile off. Talk about doing one over on the opposition manager. Utterly fucking schooled like an amateur.

It needed changing after two and a half minutes, yet it got to 1-0. Okay so let's change it then? Nope! Then it was 2-0. Alright so let's not let it get any worse let's make a change...time passes, no changes...3-0!

Talk about fucking clueless. Ask him what day it was yesterday and I'd bet it would have taken him three guesses.

They played with no striker with Firmino dropping in, we played with two wide men and the other midfielder was just hiding up top, making 6, yes SIX, against two (no that's not a typo, it was 6 v 2) in midfield!

That was obvious after two and a half minutes, I said it, about a dozen others around me said it. Pellegrini made he much needed change...AT HALF FUCKING TIME! The game was over by then, why did it take him so long? It needed changing at 0-0, in the first few minutes. It was CLEAR AS DAY what was going on after their first attack.

Absolute disgrace from the manager!

That's the worst I've ever seen from a manager since Pearce. And Pearce had a shit team. Even Pearce would have stopped that rot after the first few minutes. Utter utter disgrace!

I'm APPALLED at Pellegrini after that!

Management doesn't get any worse than what we saw yesterday!

Nail on the head. Liverpool were nothing special but when you are outnumbered like that at any level you will get overrun and passed around. Absolutely pathetic management and team selection.

 

[Steve68]

He was the same at Burnley last season. Sat there like a lonely old man at a bus stop with no timetable on show so he has no clue when the last bus comes, might have already gone, but he'll just sit there in case he's not missed it.

Perfect summation.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

I've slept on it and I'm still furious at him. And especially his comments after the match where he basically just said he'd do the same thing again and could see no reason why we played so shit. I seriously hope we fuck him off soon.

That bit's the clincher as regards his continued credibility as a manager at this exalted level, if only because it's far from the first time it's happened. Pellegrini's big game management has been shocking for some time now, the lone exceptions being Seville away, where just for once we set up to counterattack, with Ya Ya out of the central midfield duo, and Chelsea at home, where Mourinho's instinctive caution and focus on not losing away to his rivals played into our hands.

In virtually every other game of consequence in the last 12 months, he's picked Ya Ya in a central midfield duo and then then stood there looking bemused as we've been overrun in midfield. Arsenal shredded us at the Etihad and could have scored 6 (I think Ya Ya was away for that one though), the dippers outclassed us at Klanfield where we somehow got away with only a 2-1 defeat, Barca made mugs out of us home and away, and only Joe Hart prevented a cricket score, we got gubbed 4-1 against a shit United team where Toure's reward for the most disinterested (verging on the criminally negligent) 45 minute contribution I think I've ever seen from a City player was not the shepherd's crook but the captain's armband, we got picked off 4 times at Spurs, we should have been 3 down at Monchengladbach before Pellers put Ya Ya out of his misery and we rallied, we were comprehensively outplayed at home by Seville only to snatch an ill deserved winner, and yesterday we could have had no complaints if Liverpool had scored 8.

None of the above is particularly aimed at Ya Ya. He is what he is, a fabulous talent, but one who is closer to 33 than 32, weighs 14 stone at a conservative estimate, and is as ill suited to coping with athletic, pressing, counterattacking teams as you could possibly imagine, and yet Pellegrini has deployed him in a role that actively weakens us as a unit again and again and again. In the past we've been able to get away with it, but even against Newcastle recently we could have been 3-0 down before the Sergio show began. Every team in the Premiership has bundles of cash now - Leicester sit top of the table FFS - and there is an increasing trend toward blanket defence coupled with lightning counterattacking. It was reported yesterday that we have seen record levels of victories from teams enjoying less than 50% of the possession. Sending one's team out without paying specific heed to how the opposition plays then looks increasingly foolish, and in doing so Pellegrini appears naive and arrogant in equal measure. Yesterday I think marked a watershed and I don't think anyone in the upper echelons of the club's hierarchy will have been impressed with his post match comments.

 

[mosssideblue]

3-0 down at home,getting battered and looking like conceding more, looked over at the management area and he just sat there,no movement, no gestures,no instructions, he just sat there whilst Klopp with a far inferior team never once left his technical area.

I agree the team selection was baffling to say the least, but if you believe being in the technical area makes you the better manager? OK

 

[Steve68]

I agree the team selection was baffling to say the least, but if you believe being in the technical area makes you the better manager? OK

Well it beats just sitting there looking glum.

 

[Paulmcfc2703]

Perhaps the manager thought a fit Demichelis was a better option than an tired Otamendi who hadn't trained. But a tired Otamendi was better than no sub CB.

There's the problem

 

[mosssideblue]

Well it beats just sitting there looking glum.

Go on, why does it?

 

[Eaglechief]

Nutty as Mancini was, I really miss Fortress Etihad.

Yeah, I agree, I miss Mancini's pre and post match interviews, (I rarely watch Pellegrini's interviews, he's just too boring). I miss the way we used to play possession football at home, possessions stats would regularly be 60%+ for us, whereas now we play too much hoof it up football and give the ball away far too easily.

I simply preferred our style of play under Mancini.