Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[BlueMoonz1977]

Last night was actually comical to look at pellers totally bewildered with his dopey assistant.

At half time I finally thought he had grasped that 4-4-2 wasn't working. But we seemed to push both Yaya and Fernandinho forwards and then 10 mins later panicked and went straight back to his default 4-4-2.

He is tactically inept - we have to hope he has had a bollocking today. Everybody watching the game last night knew we were wide open to counter attack. Have been all season, will be on sat.

And that is what he will ultimately be judged on. Yes the players need to pull their weight because they are part of the situation. They have had long enough to adapt to how Pellegrini wants to have them playing.

The big issue is when it ain't working then that is when he needs to earn his crust and adapt. But through either sheer stubbornness or something else he wants them to remain rigid and pushing forward.

Sorry but it may have worked in the premiership last season, but teams at home now know how to combat our current game plan, and it does not work in European football as it has proved.

This is where he has failed because he has not adapted at all. He has stuck with the same way of playing that we did last season, but it has been found out. And I bet we can all say here and now what QPR's game plan will be - sit back in numbers, make City lose the ball high up the pitch and counter at pace possibly targeting the left flank if available.

It ain't fucking rocket science. Massive game this weekend which will either put to bed the questions or raise more

 

[BlueAnorak]

Pellers is wedded to 4-4-2.
It doesn't work with the personnel City have.

 

[Paul Lake's Left Knee]

You can leave Ruben out of this entirely

Why - honestly never seen him move during the game. At times I wonder whether he is asleep lol

Nobody, and I mean nobody, disrespects Ruben.

Capiche ?

Totally agree my good man

 

[cleavers]

Pellers is wedded to 4-4-2.
It doesn't work with the personnel City have.

He tried about 4 different formations last night, some of them I'm sure he copied and pasted right from the bluemoon experts on football patterns. None of them worked, and the best was the 332 we tried for the last 10 minutes or whatever it was, when at least some players took some responsibility and had a go, maybe he should start with that at QPR ?

 

[Blue Hefner]

Last night was actually comical to look at pellers totally bewildered with his dopey assistant.

At half time I finally thought he had grasped that 4-4-2 wasn't working. But we seemed to push both Yaya and Fernandinho forwards and then 10 mins later panicked and went straight back to his default 4-4-2.

He is tactically inept - we have to hope he has had a bollocking today. Everybody watching the game last night knew we were wide open to counter attack. Have been all season, will be on sat.

You can leave Ruben out of this entirely

I bumped into Ruben on Sunday at 11am - he was walking down Deansgate in a full City track suit. He stopped for a chat and a picture, nice bloke

 

[mosssideblue]

I'm probably talking crap but could Pellers coming to City after Bob be his downfall. Bob was autocratic to the extend he lost the dressing room and Pellers was brought in to rectify this. His calm persona and excellent man management skills were evident and the players lapped it up and wanted to demonstrate their football prowess for him. The players loved him and we did too for achieving the double in his first year. It's much easier as a boss to take a hard stance at the beginning of your tenure and then slacken off if appropriate rather than start easy and then try and take the hard line afterwards.

I agree with many others that others have now sussed how we play and have adapted to make things more difficult for us. Recent results and performances have been poor and I believe Pellers has tried to impose himself on the team, but because the players are used to his softly softly touchy feely approach, they cannot respect him if he tries the hair dryer treatment so they spit their dummies out on the field.

It's interesting that the worst performances we have seen have been in the one competition that the owners have targeted most, and the one which will undoubtedly have the most pressure bearing down on Pellers if he fails badly in it. In the league though, we continue to gather enough points to keep in touch with the Chavs and certainly enough to ensure we will be in the CL next year - maybe under a new manager. Player power maybe or like I said, I'm talking crap.

 

[blue ranger]

Last night was actually comical to look at pellers totally bewildered with his dopey assistant.

At half time I finally thought he had grasped that 4-4-2 wasn't working. But we seemed to push both Yaya and Fernandinho forwards and then 10 mins later panicked and went straight back to his default 4-4-2.

He is tactically inept - we have to hope he has had a bollocking today. Everybody watching the game last night knew we were wide open to counter attack. Have been all season, will be on sat.

You can leave Ruben out of this entirely

I bumped into Ruben on Sunday at 11am - he was walking down Deansgate in a full City track suit. He stopped for a chat and a picture, nice bloke

I'm pleased he is a nice bloke - but either him or kiddo should be telling pellers what he is doing isn't working.

 

[B\connellblue]

How can a coach with no tactical nous do with a Malaga team full of greenhorns and journeymen what he did against Dortmund? Over 180 minutes, he was one incorrect decision away from an aggregate win over a team that completely and utterly outclassed us not too long before.

I wonder how more managers before the inquest turns to the actual players...

I mean Mancini and Pellegrini are like chalk and cheese but both faced/facing the same problems in the "year after" with completely different approaches to the game.

Our football last season was probably the greatest in City history, now suddenly it isn't.

The tactical nous he showed at Malaga is all well and good but why isn't he showing it here? There's little doubt the players are just as much to blame but rarely if ever do players get sacked. Agree about the football we played last season being breathtaking but where has that intensity and fast tempo gone? What makes him think that navas or Jovetic is the answer. Wouldn't have either of them near the team. I wish he would just line us up for once like this.

Hart
Zabaleta Kompany MDM Mangala

Fernandinho Fernando


Silva Milner

Yaya

Aguero


If we didn't perform with this set up then I would concede i know nothing about football!

 

[Anonymous]

So, have we decided if Miguel "quatro-quatro-dos" Basset is good enough yet?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Last night was actually comical to look at pellers totally bewildered with his dopey assistant.

At half time I finally thought he had grasped that 4-4-2 wasn't working. But we seemed to push both Yaya and Fernandinho forwards and then 10 mins later panicked and went straight back to his default 4-4-2.

He is tactically inept - we have to hope he has had a bollocking today. Everybody watching the game last night knew we were wide open to counter attack. Have been all season, will be on sat.

You can leave Ruben out of this entirely

Why - honestly never seen him move during the game. At times I wonder whether he is asleep lol

Ruben doesn't need to move. He transmits his thoughts via brainwaves.

 

[BongoBlue]

You can leave Ruben out of this entirely

Why - honestly never seen him move during the game. At times I wonder whether he is asleep lol

Ruben doesn't need to move. He transmits his thoughts via brainwaves.

Ruben once told Chuck Norris to fuck off. And lived. Fact.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Why - honestly never seen him move during the game. At times I wonder whether he is asleep lol

Ruben doesn't need to move. He transmits his thoughts via brainwaves.

Ruben once told Chuck Norris to fuck off. And lived. Fact.

Ruben is Glauber Berti's father.

 

[Uptop]

Last night was actually comical to look at pellers totally bewildered with his dopey assistant.

At half time I finally thought he had grasped that 4-4-2 wasn't working. But we seemed to push both Yaya and Fernandinho forwards and then 10 mins later panicked and went straight back to his default 4-4-2.

He is tactically inept - we have to hope he has had a bollocking today. Everybody watching the game last night knew we were wide open to counter attack. Have been all season, will be on sat.

This is the thing that boggled my mind. I thought, great we are finally going 433, yet both Yaya and Ferd were playing way up the pitch, still leaving us with only 1 holding player. It was unbelievable.

 

[cleavers]

Last night was actually comical to look at pellers totally bewildered with his dopey assistant.

At half time I finally thought he had grasped that 4-4-2 wasn't working. But we seemed to push both Yaya and Fernandinho forwards and then 10 mins later panicked and went straight back to his default 4-4-2.

He is tactically inept - we have to hope he has had a bollocking today. Everybody watching the game last night knew we were wide open to counter attack. Have been all season, will be on sat.

This is the thing that boggled my mind. I thought, great we are finally going 433, yet both Yaya and Ferd were playing way up the pitch, still leaving us with only 1 holding player. It was unbelievable.

It was unbelievable how little difference it made, in fact how chaotic it looked with Milner, Nasri, and Yaya running about like headless chickens achieving next to nothing, we had 2 shots on target all second half, none in that period as I remember.

 

[hilts]

Last night was actually comical to look at pellers totally bewildered with his dopey assistant.

At half time I finally thought he had grasped that 4-4-2 wasn't working. But we seemed to push both Yaya and Fernandinho forwards and then 10 mins later panicked and went straight back to his default 4-4-2.

He is tactically inept - we have to hope he has had a bollocking today. Everybody watching the game last night knew we were wide open to counter attack. Have been all season, will be on sat.

This is the thing that boggled my mind. I thought, great we are finally going 433, yet both Yaya and Ferd were playing way up the pitch, still leaving us with only 1 holding player. It was unbelievable.

It was unbelievable how little difference it made, in fact how chaotic it looked with Milner, Nasri, and Yaya running about like headless chickens achieving next to nothing, we had 2 shots on target all second half, none in that period as I remember.

What made me laugh and at this point anger had gone was when we had milner, aguero, nasri and ya ya all on the left and cska won the ball back passed it left and the only city player on the right hand side of the field was Zabaleta

The fact we played better with 9 men shows we are a team of individuals poorly coached by a nice bloke

 

[baildon blue]

Nice bloke
No idea .
I think the guy wants to spend Christmas in Chile .

 

[Chippy_boy]

Whilst at it, why was Fenando playing higher up the pitch than Fernandino? Fernando is never a playmaker and Fernandino not a holding mid. Just bizarre.

Given the scale of shitness last night I do wonder if that will prove to be Pellegrini's 1-8 away to Middlesborough? Losing at home in the tournament, THE tournament that the owner has prioritised for so long. And the embarrassment of the indiscipline and finishing with 9 men. Nasri nearly made it 8 men, which would have been even more embarrassing.

I think Pellegrini's going to have to win the league in order to survive this, and even that may not be enough.

 

[J_Bow]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJSEsC0vens[/video]

just by looking at a few goals you can tell the difference in the speed that we passed, moved and broke on teams. A million miles away now.

 

[OB1]

Whilst at it, why was Fenando playing higher up the pitch than Fernandino? Fernando is never a playmaker and Fernandino not a holding mid. Just bizarre.

The only bizarre thing is why you would make such a comment? Fernando's average position on the pitch was the bottom edge of the centre circle in the City half; Dinho's average position for the relatively short time the two were on the park was just inside the opposition half. So Nando was not higher up the pitch than Dinho.

You can see these things very clearly from the tactical line-ups available on the UEFA website.

 

[skybluepete]

A manager who plays a similar system at Atletico Madrid and is known to be a loose cannon,

I could deal with the loose cannon bit if he gets the best out of his players and he isn't tactically naive - i like a manager with some fire in his belly tbh

(Fast-forwards to Bluemoon circa 2015) "Simeone FFS always playing two strikers! Plays same way against every club!!!"

Because that is pretty much how he runs Atletico. Plus that Atletico system - you'd need to get rid of half the squad straight off and get in and bedded a whole new group of players that would fit it. One would be Dzeko - he would stay and a lot of our fans would just LOVVVVVE that I am sure.

Pellers is the least of the problem for this club. We are more or less exactly replicating the 2012-13 season both in England and Europe. Last time it was with a dictatorial hard case who fought with players on the training ground. And who mixed up his tactics much more (though interestingly if I remember correctly Mancini started at Bayern away with one striker as Pellers did this year at Bayern.)

This time - totally different manager. To me, one could be simplistic as all fuck and just put it down to "two strikers." Ooooh, so no Simeone and why don't we get Carlo Ancelotti! (looks at team sheet for Real-Liverpool match the other day with Tranny and Benzema in a 4-4-2). Uh, never mind that then.

No, it is the fucking players. It is the one thing that is a constant the last several years. If you want to say "Pellers" or his system is the problem I think your head is firmly in the sand.

I think our ownership and DoF are not the type to just go firing people after a couple bad results. And I am glad for that. That's no way to run a football club. Or anything else for that matter.

But yeah, a bad showing for the EPL and certainly I am sure they will look at making a change after the year.

Mate - 4-4-2 is good , like any formation if it works for that team, the trouble is 4-4-2 isn't working for us, we haven't got the players to play it or the right players aren't being picked to play it - yaya just cant play in a 2 man central midfield he needs to be in a 3.