Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[cleavers]

I agree mate, but do you see Pellegrini risking youngsters in his current position?

Unless playing youngsters gets forced onto him by Txiki I cannot see when a few will get an opportunity.

In my opinion, Pozo and Lopes should be in the squad now.

Therein lies a problem, he won't, because he won't run the risk.

If he does "run the risk", and it fails, he'll be hounded by the very people who are already on his back, and those that keep saying play the youngsters too, and worse it could damage the youngsters more than the team.

The youngsters issue is easy enough for me, you only play them if you think they are good enough, or if you have absolutely no choice, but the coaching staff see them every day, most of us see them on the video, or at an EDS match for the few that go. I don't personally follow the youth much, I don't really have the time, but I've liked the look of Pozo on the few occasions I've seen him, so maybe we will see him get an chance.

On Lopes, I don't think he will ever be quite good enough for where we want to be, and he's not here anyway so can't be in the squad, hope to be proved wrong.

 

[supercity88]

I don't think any of them are ready for the permanent step up, but having someone like Pozo on the bench for Swansea while Dzeko is out surely wouldn't do any more harm than having Sinclair, even if he comes on for the last 5 minutes IF we are a few goals up. Just being in the squad would be a massive boost for those young lads

Yeah but then that's just romanticism rather than any real footballing development.

If there's a plan for the players in the EDS and a route for them into the first team, which I believe there is, then I'm good with that. PV, MP, TB, and BM will know when the time is right for each player. We have to trust their judgment and people shouldn't fear the media narrative that kids will never get a chance at City. It's obvious how important the academy is to the owners and Khaldoon.

There doesn't seem to be a plan though. One minute they might be included on the bench, the next they might be on loan at a club way below our level. Guidetti is banging the goals in at Celtic but what does that really tell us? Cole is at Barnsley. That's league 1. For me our loan policy has been pretty attrocious. Whilst game time is important, standards are too. Cole will learn a lot from his move but then where does he go? Having young players training with the first team would teach them a lot. Throwing them on here and there would also be a huge incentive for other academy players to stay motivated. There doesn't seem to be a strategy for players integrating at the moment. We've had Nasri and Silva injured in recent times and Pozo surely could have been on the bench to add some creativity. Plenty of young players have had poor performances in their first few games but have come good later on. It wouldn't ruin them to have some game time.

I do think our EDS squad is unlikely to provide many first team players. It will be the players at younger levels that might start to make an impact. The fact is though, we have an ageing squad that needs an injection of youth and we don't have any academy players proving themselves at a high level and suggesting they can come in and improve things. Denayer at Celtic is possibly the only one.

 

[sam-caddick]

I agree mate, but do you see Pellegrini risking youngsters in his current position?

Unless playing youngsters gets forced onto him by Txiki I cannot see when a few will get an opportunity.

In my opinion, Pozo and Lopes should be in the squad now.

Therein lies a problem, he won't, because he won't run the risk.

If he does "run the risk", and it fails, he'll be hounded by the very people who are already on his back, and those that keep saying play the youngsters too, and worse it could damage the youngsters more than the team.

The youngsters issue is easy enough for me, you only play them if you think they are good enough, or if you have absolutely no choice, but the coaching staff see them every day, most of us see them on the video, or at an EDS match for the few that go. I don't personally follow the youth much, I don't really have the time, but I've liked the look of Pozo on the few occasions I've seen him, so maybe we will see him get an chance.

On Lopes, I don't think he will ever be quite good enough for where we want to be, and he's not here anyway so can't be in the squad, hope to be proved wrong.

Lopes has got 2 goals and 2 assists in the 5 appearances he has played for us and in my opinion will make it with us as long as he doesn't get too ahead of himself and just keeps on improving.

Not many young players get their first loan deal to a club like Lille which is a club that aspires to be in the Champions League.

I think he can become similar to someone like Lavezzi in that quick, stocky winger type mould.

 

[FantasyIreland]

I had high hopes for Fofana this season but it seems he is struggling to make the leap,be it inconsistency or just a lack of required quality.Another who should really have gone on loan as playing in the EDS is a tad restricting imo.

Like the above post,Denayer seems the closest to a squad place.

 

[cleavers]

Lopes has got 2 goals and 2 assists in the 5 appearances he has played for us and in my opinion will make it with us as long as he doesn't get too ahead of himself and just keeps on improving.

Not many young players get their first loan deal to a club like Lille which is a club that aspires to be in the Champions League.

I think he can become similar to someone like Lavezzi in that quick, stocky winger type mould.

As I said I hope to be proved wrong, I just don't think he quite has it, but its on very limited viewings, its a big leap though, and its getting (in theory anyway) bigger each season.

 

[FanchesterCity]

At the moment, we don't seem strong enough to be able to absorb younger players into the squad, let alone the starting 11.
Until we are truly dominating the league (if ever) it's going to be a struggle to bring young players through.

If we changed manager, things wouldn't change on that front. There'd be just the same amount of pressure (rightly so) to succeed. Not only that, but there's a certain amount of pressure to add marquee players to the team too, in order to keep our image as a top team, and to have the media spotlight on us (for good reasons!).

At the moment, our form isn't great - but we've been this way before and bounced back. Maybe FFP didn't help, and maybe some transfer targets went amiss, we'll never really know, but we're certainly not alone in questionable performances this season.

I'd like us to stick with a manager, after all, we suffered decades of short term managers and it coincided with our worst period in history. But, if we do choose to adopt the Chelsea model of swapping managers frequently, so be it, but I'm not convinced Klopp or Simione are any safer bets than Pelligrini.

 

[cibaman]

Just so we're clear. Who thinks a 3rd place finish and no trophy will get him sacked and who do those people propose the club approach to replace Pellegrini?

I wouldn't know because until we see how we actually perform over the whole season and what luck befalls us and how other teams fare, it is not possible to judge.

Furthermore, a lot does depend on the plans that the club have. If, for instance, my dreams are to come true and Txiki has already had a nod and a wink from Pep that he will come to us after his contract expires at Barcelona, City are going to need someone new in the summer who is either explicitly or implicitly on a one year contract, which may cause recruitment (and other) issues. You could also question whether having an incumbent manager with only one year left on his contract causes issues. The world is not perfect though so sometimes you have to make the best of it.

The end of the season though is a long way off and you have to judge things as you go along but without ever pressing the panic button. The team are on a bad run of form and we do not know how long it will last but I would be appalled if our club decided it had been long enough to prompt a decision to sack the manager. If it continues, a point will come where a change has to be made but I could not say how long that should be; just that I do believe the club should be patient and be seen to be very patient.

I am in favour of contingency planning so the club should have a strategy for dealing with the early exit of the existing manager.

If we make decisions based on a nod and a wink from Guardiola we really are in trouble. He's turned us down once, unless we have his signature on a contract I wouldnt believe anything he told us.

He might decide at the last minute that he wants to stay at Bayern, take another sabbatical or, horror of horrors, decide that the chance to rescue United from mid table mediocrity is a more appealing challenge.

 

[cleavers]

If we make decisions based on a nod and a wink from Guardiola we really are in trouble. He's turned us down once, unless we have his signature on a contract I wouldnt believe anything he told us.

He might decide at the last minute that he wants to stay at Bayern, take another sabbatical or, horror of horrors, decide that the chance to rescue United from mid table mediocrity is a more appealing challenge.

I agree, and I'd be amazed if the professional people, owning, in charge of, and running the club day to day, are that stupid, which is why I never bought into this Guardiola thing. We might aspire to have him here, but whilst he's at another club anything could happen, even if there is some nod and a wink agreement (which I very much doubt there is).

 

[Bill]

Serious question.Would you give him the whole season to "arrest the slide" as you say?
If and if it's a big if a top notch manager became available for whatever reason,would you not consider trying to save the season before it has gone?

He'd have to win the Fa cup and get close to last seasons points haul of 86 to have any chance.......

If it was a 2 or 3 game blip I could sort of have it mate but our form has in general been really poor all season despite our points tally. Of course it all about winning games but is that just papering over the cracks?
Quite a few teams bar Chelsea seem to be struggling so maybe it isn't just a City thing or a managerial thing. What concerns be is the way we have gone from destroying teams confidently to struggling formwise in a matter of months.

we have been poor but only by our standards. we've lost games due to refs,own goals and deflections. add a couple of crucial injuries and i'm thinking we've not done that bad to be where we are. a change of luck will bring the players back up, i'm sure of it.
the manager will be judged over a whole season, and judged properly, not because another man becomes available.

 

[bernabias home shirt]

He'd have to win the Fa cup and get close to last seasons points haul of 86 to have any chance.......

If it was a 2 or 3 game blip I could sort of have it mate but our form has in general been really poor all season despite our points tally. Of course it all about winning games but is that just papering over the cracks?
Quite a few teams bar Chelsea seem to be struggling so maybe it isn't just a City thing or a managerial thing. What concerns be is the way we have gone from destroying teams confidently to struggling formwise in a matter of months.

we have been poor but only by our standards. we've lost games due to refs,own goals and deflections. add a couple of crucial injuries and i'm thinking we've not done that bad to be where we are. a change of luck will bring the players back up, i'm sure of it.
the manager will be judged over a whole season, and judged properly, not because another man becomes available.

He wont be judged on a whole season if our poor form continues, he will be toast....