Re: Manchester City's problems are caused by players not man
He has a point. Any City manager has a huge problem picking a balanced team. I said at the start that City had the best team, but Chelsea had the greater balance and would win the league.
The problem is that City's 3 best players are also their three biggest problems tactically: Aguero, Silva and Toure are very hard to fit together in one team. They are all brilliant players. For me Aguero is the best in the league and Yaya Toure overall has been the best player in the league over the last 5 years, but they are all not complete players and have weaknesses, which a manager needs to balance out. It's no coincidence that your best performance in Europe this year came when all three did not start. Nasri is another problem when he plays with the others.
Aguero is an unbelievable striker, but he is not a complete striker in the mold of Benzema, Costa or Lewandowski. Aguero is very much a better version of Owen. Now in certain matches you are not going to get a lot of the ball. There are not many games City play like this, but Bayern, Barca and Madrid are examples. In other games like Dortmund, Liverpool, Leverkusen, Tottenham you are also going to be pressed very high up. In matches like this it's very difficult to pass the ball through midfield and you need an outlet. Aguero offers the ball over the top in which he can run on too, but he cannot flick on headers or hall the ball up. He needs a partner in such a game and the partner needs to be a physical presence or else the team will have limited outballs and lose possession at the back.
So if Aguero plays you need a big striker alongside him.
Toure is another brilliant player. The player he is most similar to is Fabregas, except Yaya is better, has a better shot and can power through the midfield. Still Yaya is very weak defensively (partly due to lack of effort in defending) and has a lack of agility due to his size. Yaya is such a great player you want him in the game, but you have to play him alongside 2 other defensive midfielders in a big game. If you had a hard working, super fit, super pressing team like Dortmund then you could probably still get away with playing Yaya next to a defensive midfielder. Chelsea sometimes get away with doing the same with Fabregas against the better teams not because of Matic alone, but because Willian, Costa and Oscar work like trojans.
Then there is Silva. Silva is another world class player, but he plays best behind a striker. The problem is Aguero needs a striker partner in a big game and Yaya needs two defensive midfielders alongside him. So how do you fit Silva in? If you play him out wide he drifts in too much and leaves a massive gap to be exploited. Under Mancini he was forced to work like trojan and I don't think he liked tracking back defensively. However, in a big game he is going to have to do so.
So a City manager wants to play his 3 best players, but he needs
A 3 man midfield to get the best out of Yaya
2 Strikers to get the best out of Aguero and the team
Silva to play in the same position as Yaya.
It just does not work. Pellegrin has to drop one of the 3 and my choice would be Silva since Yaya is a better physical presence and can control the midfield better. Not only that, but he has to move Aguero out wide and ask him to do a hard working job defensively.
A team like this would have balance and be a better bet in tough away and certain home matches.
Hart
Zabaleta Kompany Mangala/Demichelis Clichy
Milner----Fernandinho-Toure--Fernando--Aguero
-----------Dzeko/Bony
The problem for a manager is if he plays a team like that he needs to win or the fans will go crazy. Good luck dropping Silva away against the likes of Barca/Real/Bayern. Good luck telling Aguero he is playing out wide and will have to track Alves/Lahm. Dzeko and Bony are not the big men to press like crazy either, which is needed. Bony has speed, but he does not have the mobility and work rate of slower strikers like Mandzukic which is needed.
Even if you played a team like that you might lose against the likes of Madrid/Bayern/Real and the media would be even more merciless AND you would have a problem in the dressing room.
If these were young players like Liverpool you could experiment with a 3-5-2 formation like below.
Hart
Kompany--Toure--Mangala
Milner---Fernando--Fernaninho--Kolarov
-----------Silva
------Aguero Bony/Dzeko
However, there is no chance the players would buy that and the media would be on your back as soon as you lose a game. Not sure Toure would want to play at the back either (though he would have a lot of licence to come out with the ball). Aguer and Bony/Dzeko would also need to make lots of runs out wide.
Those problems apart it is hard to get world class established players to press, run hard and sacrifice themselves for the team. Zabeleta, Kompany, Mangala, Fernandinho, Fernando and Milner would naturally be great at pressing, but not so much Bony, Dzeko, Nasri, Silva, Toure, Kolarov. So depending on the line up their would be gaps in the pressing which is risky. On the other hand the team is not technically at the level of Barca/Bayern/Modric to pass the ball out under intense pressure. Only Toure (if he had options) and Silva could do this on a regular basis. Hart, Zabeleta, even Kompany, Mangala, Fernando, Milner, Clichy and Fernandinho just don't have the technical level for this. So like most teams ie Chelsea/Juventus/Atletico/PSG you need the big target man.