Discussion: Manuel Pellegrini 2015/16

[gordondaviesmoustache]

He may have resiled but he's still resilient.

He is, George; as are you :-)

 

[Blue Coop]

Like most have mentioned, it's a huge issue for the club that his departure at the end of the season is looming, the club tried to mask that with his contract extension but the fact that it still features so heavily in stories across the press can only have a negative impact on the club.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Of course I am, it's pathetic how fucking grown men are upset that Silva was called disgraceful yesterday.

Why did you retract the word if you thought they were being pathetic?

 

[Neville Kneville]

Of course it is. We've got a very good manager, and if he wasn't he wouldn't be in charge of the club.

If is not a surprising achievement, for a club which has spent 300 mil plus on players, to still be involved in 4 competitions before Christmas, because they have had a few injuries! Especially when one of the competitions doesn't start til January & we have lost twice to the leaders of the group in another! It is a huge failure on the part of Manchester Utd that they aren't considerably better than they are currently & an even bigger failure on the part of City.

 

[Phil1]

Of course it is. We've got a very good manager, and if he wasn't he wouldn't be in charge of the club.

To constantly fail to get the best out of this set of players tells me he's not a very good manager. He's a capable manager who did a wonderful job of steadying the ship after Mancini left. He's not been able to move us forward though and we have the same problems time and time again. There's a reason he's in charge of the club but I doubt it's to do with his outstanding management.

 

[Carlos- the- jackal]

Of course it is. We've got a very good manager, and if he wasn't he wouldn't be in charge of the club.

Fred Karnos circus must be back in town.

 

[come-on-barney]

But this is my point, you can't have a player immune from criticism. I know for a fact if Yaya had been injured and yesterday was his second game back the abuse would be appalling.

I think the manager is between a rock and a hard place. His best team is unavailable, and we're down to the bare bones in terms of squad players. I don't buy into this notion that he's tactically poor, or a rubbish manager.

We'll win the league, but the truth is we're doing well to be where we are. Considering Aguero, Silva and Kompany have missed huge games and we've stilled remained in four competitions is because of the manager.

I don't disagree that players performances should be commented on and also agree that some of the abuse Yaya gets is uncalled for. I have said frequently he has been one of the architects of our success. Also don't disagree that without our best players it's been hard. But then as a manager he has not helped himself. Should have given some of the younger players more minutes over the past year so they can at least take some of the workload. Also the need for a more pragmatic approach if your best players are not available. Playing for a draw against Liverpool or yesterday is no shame if you have not got the players available. Yesterday Hughes copied Klopps game plan and even stated he had not not been brave enough to start with the three yesterday and play no recognised striker before. That is some statement. Pellers needs to counter this game plan as it will happen again and again. So whilst there is some mitigation for sure I think he just does not help himself. As I said if he gets it right and we win some trophies and some of us are eating humble pie in May.

 

[mosssideblue]

Now that wasn't so hard was it! It took me six attempts but it was worth it. Lol

Well let's explore our common ground. I agree with you that we shouldn't sack him now which is based on the disruption it would cause to the club and whom we would replace him with. Someone mentioned Capello yesterday and if the club took the unlikely decision to dispense with Manuel mid-season, I couldn't think of a better short term replacement until the summer out of who is currently available. But my default position will remain if the club wanted to dispense with Manuel, we should have done so in the summer so in that respect he and the club will continue to get my total support as always.

In respect to squad strength at the risk of boring everyone to death by presenting player by player comparisons, what I have done is taken a global view of the main 6 teams (imo) squads and based on what I can see I wouldn't swap ours with any of them, but if I had to choose again in common with you I'd probably opt for Arsenal's.

Every squad has its strengths and weaknesses but the main thrust of you calling our squad weak came when you compared our weakest team against our competitors strongest to underpin your opinion that our squad isn't as strong as many of us think. This is a ridiculous comparison imo as its obvious comparing other teams weakest teams to ours is a fairer comparison and even if you do so I still think we come out ahead.

If there's any confusion or misinterpretation, I'm afraid its come from you who has claimed our squad isn't as strong as many of us believe whilst comparing our weakest possible team to our competitors strongest. To stop any confusion, just list from 1 - 4 who you believe has the strongest squad in the Premier League. Its very simple really.........

Lets make sure we are discussing the same thing otherwise we will go round in circles. What is your understanding of a strong squad? For me it means being able to compete with any team when some of our core players are out, hence why I believe the relevance of facing other "first teams strongest". Yesterday was a case in point whereby Stoke had players IMO who were better than our squad players (Shaqiri & there scorer who I shall not attempt to spell) for examples.

 

[blueinsa]

That's like saying it was impossible to spot flaws in Brian Horton & Ardiles when City & Spurs had a tactically inept but end to end, goalfeast, thriller back in the day.

City were pretty inept at times even in some of the games we have ended up winning convincingly. If you were an oppsing manager watching v Newcastle for instance, you would spot big flaws which you would try to exploit, whilst also fearing City's attacking prowess.

Do we not allow for the standard of opposition any more?

Teams in the PL, even those towards the bottom are now able to spend big money on very good players. As of next year, the bottom side will get more money than this years winner iirc?

Its a sporting contest and as a Champion side with great players, teams and managers see us as a big scalp and no doubt raise their games and performances against us and sometimes, they are successful.

Take yesterday for example, yes, crap performance but fuck me, some of the attacking football and interchanges between Stoke up front was very very good indeed and sometimes in sport you hold your hands up and say well done.

 

[Sir Joe Aguero]

Go after either Ancelotti, Simeone or Guardiola and hurry up about it.