BobKowalski said:
The players have to have faith and belief in what they are being asked to do. Odd things stick out for me. Kompany's comments after the CC final about the way we play and at least the fans will enjoy it. Milner before a CL game who insisted they were trying but they were doing what they were asked to do. All this season there has been an uncertainty and lack of 'trust' (to use Pellers words) and it has culminated in a shocking run of form over the last few months.
Now you can blame the players or Pellers or both but ultimately it is a failure of management when the employees don't deliver because it is managments job to ensure they deliver and to get the best out of what you have got. What is frustrating me most is that I am not seeing any leadership or management solutions to our current malaise and I have little confidence in them going forward.
The squad and players are flat, management looks lost and the fans are in low spirits. We need an injection of confidence, someone to take the lead and reignite the squad and right now I don't see that man as being Pellers.
From the outside it is hard to know exactly what the issue is but it does seem like the players find the way in which Pellegrini asks them to play hard; especially for our defenders. Mind you, winning titles is never going to be easy.
I would love to know if there has been a dialogue between players and manager if they are unhappy with tactics and formation and whether or not Pellegrini has adapted anything to meet concerns that might have been expressed?
In very simplistic terms, I do not subscribe to the idea that our players should need motivating: we should be employing
winners who are highly self motivated by the desire to crush every fucking opponent standing between them and the trophies. The manager's job then should be about not demotivating his players. Continually asking players to do things that they are not really capable of or to play in a way that they do not believe in would likely demotivate some.
What frustrates is that we won two trophies last season playing entertaining football so you have to ask why that approach would cause players such a problem? I happen to think if that is not something our players enjoy, they really should go elsewhere. That does not mean the manager should not have been more flexible, if that is what was required, in the interim.
I still think we need new players more than a new manager but a bit of a clean sweep all round and the start of new cycle - as blueinsa mentions - may be the best way to go. That's why, if we cannot get Pep, I would be happy enough to see someone like De Boer come in. I actually have more confidence that he would do the required job over the cycle than Klopp but - and this may be the wrong approach - Klopp's personality does look so well suited to City and I would hope he is a smart enough and progressive enough coach to develop a more possession based version of the Dortmund we saw at the Etihad.