BobKowalski said:
halfcenturyup said:
I am not saying a single footballing identity isn't important. Just that one element of that identity, style of play, isn't cast in stone and changing it wouldn't be giving up on long term plans.
I'll accept basic tenets of attacking football if you can accept they can be applied in many different ways.
I don't think Soriano and Begiristain are imposing anything on the club. That would be quite ludicrous.
They aren't or at least we think they aren't. Txiki has said the first team coach can play whatever formation he wants. The only caveat is that a) he must be successful and b) it should be entertaining. Right now it is neither. The entertaining part has always been the goal as Gary Cook talked about it and how he wanted City to be the 'Harlem Globetrotters of football'. The City brand with City credit cards (and whatnot) and overseas clubs were also part of the Cook blueprint.
That said Ferran's latest missive where he talks about City not abandoning the high press/high line approach does seem to restrict any coach from having a totally free hand. I remember we discussed this early on in Peller's reign when there was a suspicion he was 'under orders' as we watched the defence get done by a simple long punt up the middle but Peller's did start to show signs of a more pragmatic approach when he shoved Garcia on to help protect a lead or played Sergio on his lonesome for some of the bigger matches.
Peller's can be pragmatic its just that he doesn't seem to really want to do it that way and ever since the turn of the year when (imo) he knew he is off in the summer he has adopted a 'fuck it we are doing it my way' approach. Its not going well to be honest.
I've analysed every possible reason why MP would dogmatically stick to 442 when its obvious we've been found out. Its not too difficult to draw the conclusion as highlighted above, because the only other thing that would make sense is that he's lost the plot altogether. Either way, its City's fortunes that concern me and just like last weekend I fear we'll see the same 442 trotted out at Old Toilet on Sunday with a similar result to the one we suffered last Monday.
Someone needs to get a grip of MP & show him what everyone else can see before our season seriously turns into a CL qualifier/Europa League qualification only battle. How the fuck have we've allowed our season to come down to this beggars belief.
