Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[MeatHunterrr]

I dont think its all down to Pellegrini. Surely some of the criticism must also be directed at Begiristain? With almost every game it seems that our recent signings deteriorate before our eyes.

Fernandhino's not a bad player but £30m? Managala might eventually come good but we needed a ready made centre back, not £32m on one for the future. We cant keep on saying that Jovetic will eventually come good. It was claimed that Mancini turned down the chance to go for Navas because "there's no end product" which seems increasingly a good summary. Why did we sign Sagna? Is Caballero any better than Pantillimon? Fernando might actually make a decent DM but not in this team. I

Hmm. You can't have only 1 right back in the team. Probably thats why.

 

[Stephenhakin]

I recall saying to a pal of mine that i'd never seen a City team press the ball like they did early on under Bobby. We have never pressed the ball under MP. I am not one for Bobby is better than Manuel but my point is the best sides always always press and harass ( Bayern now & Barca from a few years back )the opposition. Why don't we do it?

Is there any chance Patrick could be ready for the job? He is obviously highly regarded by the club & fans or is it too early or simply the wrong choice?

 

[George Hannah]

I dont think its all down to Pellegrini. Surely some of the criticism must also be directed at Begiristain? With almost every game it seems that our recent signings deteriorate before our eyes.

Fernandhino's not a bad player but £30m? Managala might eventually come good but we needed a ready made centre back, not £32m on one for the future. We cant keep on saying that Jovetic will eventually come good. It was claimed that Mancini turned down the chance to go for Navas because "there's no end product" which seems increasingly a good summary. Why did we sign Sagna? Is Caballero any better than Pantillimon? Fernando might actually make a decent DM but not in this team. I

Manuel was recruited to do a specific job and if it all goes jam side down he moves on. That's the deal.

 

[Stephenhakin]

I dont think its all down to Pellegrini. Surely some of the criticism must also be directed at Begiristain? With almost every game it seems that our recent signings deteriorate before our eyes.

Fernandhino's not a bad player but £30m? Managala might eventually come good but we needed a ready made centre back, not £32m on one for the future. We cant keep on saying that Jovetic will eventually come good. It was claimed that Mancini turned down the chance to go for Navas because "there's no end product" which seems increasingly a good summary. Why did we sign Sagna? Is Caballero any better than Pantillimon? Fernando might actually make a decent DM but not in this team. I

Hmm. You can't have only 1 right back in the team. Probably thats why.

Fernandino was great until getting dropped towards the end of last season to sure up by playing Garcia. I also think he has been damaged by the Brazil/Germany game. Not looked the same player since.

 

[jollylescott]

Being expelled from the CL could easily set off a chain reaction that would be hard to control. Aguero, Silva and Kompany might suddenly decide their other halves dont like the Manchester weather. We will be back to paying a City premium on transfers and will find that the players we really want aren't interested. Existing sponsorship deals will automatcically be scaled back, new deals will not be as lucrative. The one year expulsion could easily turn into a second expulsion.

The people in charge have struggled like hell over the last few years to get the finances FFP compliant. They're not going to take the risk of all that they have achieved unravelling.

I agree with Tolm's identification of the problems and how they came about.

In addition we need to be ruthless in our culling and regenerating of the team. There is little room for sentiment in football. You can quickly go from being a rooster one day, and a feather duster the next. That is why I think we have to be prepared to wear some losses on our investments in order to clear the decks. Players like Jovetic that were overpriced, I would get rid of at a probable loss. We can't afford to be Mr Nice Guy. It's not going to get us anywhere. But what will get us somewhere is if kids see a top shelf player signing for City. That's what attracts the initial interest and makes us more marketable.

So I think we will have to cut our losses in order to regenerate our team.

The aspect of Tolm's solution that I think is unrealistic is thumbing our noses at UEFA with a spending spree. As much as I would love that to happen, under our current leadership it's not going to happen.

We need to be much smarter, and far more ruthless, in the player marketplace. That doesn't mean a 200 million spending spree, but rather culling the deadwood and making the right kind of investment. One or two marquee players can make all the difference. You then build the team around them.

In the last 3 or 4 seasons we simply haven't been ruthless enough in relation to transfers in and out. It needs to start at the end of this season, if not in January.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

He plays Fernando whoto be honest has had a terrible start at City.
He plays Navas-A speed merchant with zero end product.
He plays Jovetic who people think will come good-Sorry not from what I have seen.

Nothing will convince me that we have the right man in place anymore.
I am sick of the tiredness,FFP,World cup excuses. It is clear for all to see that he has lost the players and they are just not playing for him. His tactics are simply baffling they really are.
CSKA Looked so dangerous every time they went forward. This is the most concerning aspect for me it really is.
Sorry but you do not win a double and go from that level to where we are now because of tiredness,a world cup. Poor excuses.
He has no idea what has gone wrong when questioned.Well best we get someone who does have an idea.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

So for the next few hours everyone gets positive again and discuss what he needs to change for Saturday-Just as we have done after recent weeks,yet the sum total of fuck all changes with him.
Take your head out of the sand.!!!
He is an arrogant old man who needs to just retire quietly back to Chili with his family.

 

[LJ75]

Or is it that this fish stinks from the head, so what about the spanish duo? What's their role in this?

Ferran Soriano is CEO of not just MCFC but the CFG, and he's neither going to sack himself nor his DoF after one bad result.

If you look at the way they handled rebuilding the Barcelona team, it's pretty clear to me what's going to happen next.

As I say, I'd expect minimum six out the door from the playing squad next summer. Should've happened this summer but I reckon FFP put the blockers on that.

Now, given that today's football is a business, you'd wonder which Key Performance Objectives are set for FS and his team. Pls bear in mind that e.g. winning a trophy is a tool here, rather than an objective. I'd say:

- Club revenues
- Club EBIT / Net Contribution
- Recruitment (i.e. new supporters entering the franchise)
- Merchandise revenues
- Stadium revenues
- Rights (TV) revenues
- Return on invested capital
- Sustainability factor ( a measure of several indicators, i.e. players bough, players from own academy, players sold...)
- MCFC Brand Equity indicators (e.g. attractiveness of play, goals scored...)

I am just saying that losses like the one from last night inflict a huge blow to Club's overall performance, and CEO is to blame for that.

Se let's ll hope that this can be put behind ASAP and moved on.

 

[BobKowalski]

A perfect storm has been contrived, and we've simply not been able to wing it.

We've been doing it since the day that ball left Aguero's foot.

Due to the restrictions imposed on the club by UEFA, the owners thought we could get away with treading water, adding family staples to the small supply of fine foods we had previously bought.

Baked beans taste fine and dandy, every now and again. What they don't taste great with is being slopped on the same plate as caviar.

We have put together an ill-conceived menu for the last 24 months and much as I love our owner and chairman for everything they have done so far, I would now urge them to take stock of what they really want out of this association?

If it is to win friends and influence people, they are shit out of luck. They have enabled Manchester City, of previous ridicule, to bring out the very worst of British and European traits - envy and spite of someone else's success.

They have allowed their eye to be taken off the ball, trying to jump through hoops, in the hope of presenting a more acceptable, watered-down threat to the so-called establishment of the game.

Mancini, for all his faults, and he had many, knew that a team that had come from nowhere, still needed to spend on the very best, however vulgar it may be perceived by people who will never find City acceptable, regardless of what we do off the pitch.

Mancini managed his final season with one hand tied behind his back and cut his throat with the other one.

I could not believe the team when it was announced last night, although was relieved to see Pellegrini make the correct decisions at half time in replacing the appalling Jovetic and Nasri, in terms of addressing an extra man in the middle and also trying to introduce Nasri's ball retention.

But to then undo that thought process by taking off Fernando pretty much summed up the manager's state of confusion this season. He is wasting substitutions because he is simply not setting the team up with the correct platform from the outset.

I stand by what I observed on Sunday, the removal of Milner against United was tactical naivety in the extreme.

Sadly, results dictate, but this current group of 'over-ripe' players won't allow me to be fooled for a second time, with or without David Silva, they should be good enough to beat the majority of cannon-fodder.

Pellegrini, if he can somehow make it through to January, needs a frank discussion with Khaldoon and Begirsitain. He should not be made the patsy for players such as Clichy, Fernandinho, Dzeko, Nasri and Jovetic.

Perhaps Pellegrini does deserve the absolute backing from Abu Dhabi to address the weaknesses in this squad, regardless of cost?

I'm on the fence if Manuel has it in him, but the solution remains the same, somebody needs to decide if they want City to wither on the vine, or go again, regardless of the consequences.

I think most blues would accept the trade-off being expelled from Champions League football for a year if the result is a couple of hundred million (and that's what it will take) to set a City team up for the next five-year cycle.

You can only be a nice guy for so long, or it starts to stink of weakness.

Possibly the best post I have seen on Bluemoon ever...... maybe?

No. Not even close. As much as everyone after a bad reverse or a few months of indifferent form likes to throw the baby out with the bath water it is not realistic given the core of the squad has just being signed to new contracts, a fact that had champagne corks popping on here not so long back. Remember those heady days when we had signed up the double winning PL champions and how we all had faith in this group under this calm assured manager? Now the same people want half the squad gone and/or a change in manager. The reality lies in the middle. Our squad and this manager are never quite as good as we think they are when we are tonking teams nor as bad as we think they are when we are stinking the place out.

Yes this squad is good enough to compete in Europe. It has been good enough to compete in Europe for the past 4 years. Yes we have been hindered by FFP but PSG have been hit with the same FFP restrictions and they still compete. We are not talking about winning the CL we are talking about competing. We are talking about beating teams like CSKA Moscow which we can do right now and did so 12 months ago. We are not asking for much. Even our owners are not asking for the impossible. Just compete.

Compete. So why don't we compete? Last night we could have played whatever formation you liked and probably still lost. Its in their heads. For starters the players have so little faith in the way they prepare and set up for CL games we are pretty much beat before we get on the pitch. You can bring in a Di Maria or whoever right now and we would still be awful just as ManU were fairly awful on Sunday because for a lot of their players beating us is the impossible dream. Right now competing in the CL is the impossible dream. Nothing to do with pace, or formations. Right now its about confidence. Even Kompany has now got it into his head its about refs and conspiracies and once you start the match believing that well guess what? It will happen.

Confidence and belief allows you to think faster, move the ball faster, pass with better precision and so on. How many times did we play some aimless, pointless ball across field to god knows who? Clichy, Zabs, Fernando. Jovetic were bedevilled with so much indecision and hesitancy it was frightening.

Pellers said last night he had no idea why the team cannot play CL football. Unfortunately for Pellers having no idea isn't really an option. What Pellers has to do is instil the mentality necessary to do well in the CL. We have it in the PL because Mancini put it there. We have an excellent PL winning machine which took a season or two to build. Now Pellers has to do the same in the CL. If he doesn't then someone else will be employed to do so.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

CSKA Looked so dangerous every time they went forward. This is the most concerning aspect for me it really is.

Newcastle Reserves did too and that is even more worrying. Roma did and Spurs had 19 attempts at our place the other week!

All it seems you need to do against us now is work hard and the extra work put in pressing us, forces us to turn to shit.