Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[OB1]

With Silva out I'd struggle to pick an XI playing 4231. Swap Jovetic out for Nasri for the game at QPR. Not many other choices we can make.

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

Its what I'd do right now, I might play Navas rather than Nasri atm, just because I don't think Nasri is anywhere near fit.

I'd start Nasri. I think Navas is at his best coming on later in games when teams are tiring...

 

[BillyShears]

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

Its what I'd do right now, I might play Navas rather than Nasri atm, just because I don't think Nasri is anywhere near fit.

I'd start Nasri. I think Navas is at his best coming on later in games when teams are tiring...

We've missed Nasri in recent matches IMO. Our ball retention has been awful and him and Yaya are the best in our squad at it along with Silva.

 

[cleavers]

I'd start Nasri. I think Navas is at his best coming on later in games when teams are tiring...

We've missed Nasri in recent matches IMO. Our ball retention has been awful and him and Yaya are the best in our squad at it along with Silva.

I agree I with both, but I was just thinking fitness wise, and I don't think Nasri looks fit.

 

[FromPollockToSilva]

Where are the goals coming from in this team at the moment? Aside from Aguero, our other two strikers are seriously out of form, Yaya isn't chipping in like he was last season and Silva, Nasri and Milner should all score more than they do. Set pieces have been especially poor this season too. It says a lot that Lampard was becoming a key player just for his ability to actually put the ball in the net.

When you're not scoring many, you need to not be conceding many. I agree with several others who are advocating a 'back to basics' policy in the short term; defend properly, keep our shape, pass the ball well and for the love of God don't keep giving incredibly cheap goals away. Because unlike last season, the strikers aren't going to bail us out right now.

I'd love to see a midfield 3 of Fernando Yaya and Lampard on Saturday with Milner and Nasri wide. Keep the ball, work hard off it. It is a tight little ground so width isn't as useful so keep Navas in reserve. Bench Jovetic till he realises that he can't keep giving the ball away cheaply.

Fernando in front of the defence should be a given. That's his position, play him there. With that said, I don't feel that a combination of Yaya and Lampard would give us enough energy. I'd probably prefer Yaya and Fernandinho playing, with Lampard off the bench if necessary. I can't fault the rest of your suggestions though, and certainly agree about Jovetic. I think there's a good player in there but he really needs to focus. It's tough because I think game time is the only way to get him up to speed, but right now we're in a spot where he's proving to be a liability to the team. Just one of many, many difficult decisions for the manager to make.

 

[BillyShears]

I'd start Nasri. I think Navas is at his best coming on later in games when teams are tiring...

We've missed Nasri in recent matches IMO. Our ball retention has been awful and him and Yaya are the best in our squad at it along with Silva.

I agree I with both, but I was just thinking fitness wise, and I don't think Nasri looks fit.

Getting to the stage where he may need the minutes more than the training if that makes sense.

 

[OB1]

With Silva out I'd struggle to pick an XI playing 4231. Swap Jovetic out for Nasri for the game at QPR. Not many other choices we can make.

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

Back to basics with a team we have never put out before?

Personally i dont see Yaya playing behind Sergio as solving any of our problems, he prefers to have the ball facing goal not with his back to it.

I actually think pushing Fernandinho on could be the better bet, allowing him to link up with Yaya in midfield and also having the legs to press from the front

See Prestwich Blue's post on back to basics.

I don't see Yaya as having to play with his back to goal that much in such a formation; especially as I would expect Nasri and Milner ot come inside a lot and use the full backs for width, with the Ferns sat deeper to ensure we always have numbers available to defend. However, I would give Dinho license to move vertically whilst Nando would stay close to the centre backs and keep his movements lateral.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

Maybe for the remainder of the season Kidd will promoted or even Vieira,of this I dont know.

Maybe pigs will also fly.

I'll take your bet St Helens. Pellegrini will still be manager next season. Nailed on. Whatever you want the stakes to be, name them as I can't lose ;)

£10.. I dont like to bet big..To charity?

 

[uwe rosler 28]

I'd start Nasri. I think Navas is at his best coming on later in games when teams are tiring...

We've missed Nasri in recent matches IMO. Our ball retention has been awful and him and Yaya are the best in our squad at it along with Silva.

I agree I with both, but I was just thinking fitness wise, and I don't think Nasri looks fit.

For me nasri slows down the play way to often he's no wide player and needs to play inside jovetic has to play for me he's a trier no scared to try a trick not scared to take players on! Got to be 4_2_3_1 for me as well with jojo yaya and milner as the 3 with silva replacing jojo when he's back fernando and anyone 1 of 3 as the other in the 2 man mid from nasri, nando, lampard.

 

[BillyShears]

Maybe for the remainder of the season Kidd will promoted or even Vieira,of this I dont know.

Maybe pigs will also fly.

I'll take your bet St Helens. Pellegrini will still be manager next season. Nailed on. Whatever you want the stakes to be, name them as I can't lose ;)

£10.. I dont like to bet big..To charity?

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Maybe pigs will also fly.

I'll take your bet St Helens. Pellegrini will still be manager next season. Nailed on. Whatever you want the stakes to be, name them as I can't lose ;)

£10.. I dont like to bet big..To charity?

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

For me he only has to improve our European form the prem is not bad at all unfortunately for him its Europe our owners want to conquer and if a big name manager with top European pedigree is available come the summer ie ancelotti or guardiola then pellers is a gonna no matter what he wins this season! All we can do is just give him our support till that decision is made!

 

[bernabias home shirt]

Maybe pigs will also fly.

I'll take your bet St Helens. Pellegrini will still be manager next season. Nailed on. Whatever you want the stakes to be, name them as I can't lose ;)

£10.. I dont like to bet big..To charity?

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

I really don't want to rake up old shit but it needs to be said, 2/3 months into the season after mancini won us the title there were mancini out threads, we were still unbeaten in the league at the time too.........Imo we are actually worse atm than back then at this stage under pellers

I'm not saying he has to go but if folk want to discuss it they should be allowed...

 

[BillyShears]

£10.. I dont like to bet big..To charity?

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

I really don't want to rake up old shit but it needs to be said, 2/3 months into the season after mancini won us the title there were mancini out threads, we were still unbeaten in the league at the time too.........Imo we are actually worse atm than back then at this stage under pellers

I'm not saying he has to go but if folk want to discuss it they should be allowed...

I'm not bothered about Mancini, that was a long time ago. I'm talking about this time last season. History repeating itself. Chelsea drop points, we win, and the complexion in the league changes completely. I'm pretty sure most of the people in this thread think the league's more important than the CL. The title is still in our sights.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

I just don't see Pellegrini picking the three big men together. If he does and it works though there'll be one or two posters throwing champagne parties and starting various "I told you so" threads! :)

I don't think he is very likely to either but it's what I think he should do at the moment.

Agreed. I keep contemplating our options, and thinking to myself "is that all we've got?", like I've forgotten someone! I would certainly go with Nasri over Jovetic, as I don't rate the latter one iota. Like you though, I don't think Pellegrini will, and ultimately I think that stubbornness is gonna cost us all. We're so reliant on Aguero and Silva at the moment, it's unbelievable, and despite our pressing concerns in midfield, another forward's a must for me in January. Give me a buzz if you're going on Saturday by the way

 

[Marvin]

£10.. I dont like to bet big..To charity?

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

For me he only has to improve our European form the prem is not bad at all unfortunately for him its Europe our owners want to conquer and if a big name manager with top European pedigree is available come the summer ie ancelotti or guardiola then pellers is a gonna no matter what he wins this season! All we can do is just give him our support till that decision is made!

Our League form is good.

But this result threatens to undermine everything and the next game is on Saturday. Zero recovery time, and the CSKA Moscow manager said
"
Obviously City had a very important match against Manchester United at the weekend and they probably didn’t have time to recover. We had an extra day and that probably had some impact on the match.”

At the start of the season everyone's main aim was to defend our title

That is still possible. Back to back titles would be a huge achievement for the club, and we can still do it.

It's important we get beyond Saturday intact otherwise it will be open season on City.

 

[Deleted member 58678]

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

For me he only has to improve our European form the prem is not bad at all unfortunately for him its Europe our owners want to conquer and if a big name manager with top European pedigree is available come the summer ie ancelotti or guardiola then pellers is a gonna no matter what he wins this season! All we can do is just give him our support till that decision is made!

Our League form is good.

But this result threatens to undermine everything and the next game is on Saturday. Zero recovery time, and the CSKA Moscow manager said
"
Obviously City had a very important match against Manchester United at the weekend and they probably didn’t have time to recover. We had an extra day and that probably had some impact on the match.”

At the start of the season everyone's main aim was to defend our title

That is still possible. Back to back titles would be a huge achievement for the club, and we can still do it.

It's important we get beyond Saturday intact otherwise it will be open season on City.

Our results and league table position are good but our form is poor. David Silva has been excellent and Kun and Milner very good too, but those three aside I think we've put in half an hour against Chelsea where we've looked anything like what we can in our whole season so far. The rest of the time I don't think we've really played well once.

 

[PragueBlue]

£10.. I dont like to bet big..To charity?

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

I really don't want to rake up old shit but it needs to be said, 2/3 months into the season after mancini won us the title there were mancini out threads, we were still unbeaten in the league at the time too.........Imo we are actually worse atm than back then at this stage under pellers

I'm not saying he has to go but if folk want to discuss it they should be allowed...

Exactly and the loudest calls for him to go were from the same people who now say it's too early to judge.

 

[moomba]

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

That'd do for me. I'd have Yaya in a mid 3 see with the Ferna twins but thats just being pedantic as he'd play much the same role as an attacking midfielder. For me I'd have fernando as the sitter, and Yaya/Dinho taking it in turns for one to move forward and one the hang back a bit more.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Perfect. Lets keep it clean until then. I know you wouldn't wish a manager out without good reason and if you want pellegrini gone that's your business. But it's still very early in the season. Way too early to be talking about drafting in Kidd and Viera. We all get frustrated after a poor result, and I'm no Pellegrini apologist. I've got no emotional attachment to him whatsoever. He may well be a very nice guy but if he can't find a way around the problems he keeps coming up against he'll have to go. That's the standard we have to have. But IMO we're a long way from there yet.

First we see what this weekend throws up. Chelsea go to Anfield and we go to QPR. The manager's got some decisions to make with regards selection, and the players have got some balls to show.

I really don't want to rake up old shit but it needs to be said, 2/3 months into the season after mancini won us the title there were mancini out threads, we were still unbeaten in the league at the time too.........Imo we are actually worse atm than back then at this stage under pellers

I'm not saying he has to go but if folk want to discuss it they should be allowed...

Exactly and the loudest calls for him to go were from the same people who now say it's too early to judge.

Didn't take the Mancini inners long to get their cocks out I see. Seriously though, is there a point to that post, unless you think his position was tenable in the long term?

 

[ginjajack24]

I've just written an article which I feel speaks volumes about Manuel Pellegrini.

His signings haven't been good enough for Manchester City, his judgement is poor. No matter what was said about Roberto Mancini the Italian always had an eye for a signing.

 

[PragueBlue]

I really don't want to rake up old shit but it needs to be said, 2/3 months into the season after mancini won us the title there were mancini out threads, we were still unbeaten in the league at the time too.........Imo we are actually worse atm than back then at this stage under pellers

I'm not saying he has to go but if folk want to discuss it they should be allowed...

Exactly and the loudest calls for him to go were from the same people who now say it's too early to judge.

Didn't take the Mancini inners long to get their cocks out I see.........

I didn't want Mancini to go at the time but accepted that he made his position untenable. Don't want Pellegrini to go either at the moment. He's made mistakes but unless we go into fretful, he should be given the season to see if he can sort it out

Just think a few of the posts are a tad ironic.