Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[OB1]

Pellegrini got his selection wrong but how many times has that happened?

Thought his selection was pretty predictable tbh, not often you can guess the starting 11 but he didn't have too many options.

Hindsight being a wonderful thing, we'd have probably been better starting with Jovetic to help out Sergio and could have also had a shout for not starting Vince as he looked all over the place to me, which seemed to affect Demechelis who looked nervous as fuck.

No complaints with the starting line-up. I was plumping for Mangala to start ahead of MDM but that was a very close call.

I don't think the manager did much wrong in terms of the match itself but he may have been surprised by Arsenal's performance and tactics. Had a quick look at some of the post match stuff on Sky when I got home and they seemed surprised. The fact remains that we are not unused to playing a team that parks the bus and tries to break on us but although Arsenal did a good job of intercepting passes (had they worked on that?) and breaking on us; those breaks did not amount to much in terms of real danger. Vinnie did lose the ball in midfield in the passage of play that led to him conceding the penalty but it was not a breakaway move (it was barely a fricking penalty i.e. soft) and the free kick conceded for the second by Jovetic was most unnecessary as their guy was about to run into two defenders.

Arsenal did their job but we had too many players who did not play well enough.

What the coaching staff have to get sorted is set pieces both offensively and defensively.

The other thing Pellers needs is the chance to actually select his best team on a regular basis; something he has had very little opportunity to do in all his time at City.

 

[waspish]

This game reminded me of the chelsea game last season we had a lot of injuries that day to and we lost 0-1 just one of those games

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Pellegrini got his selection wrong but how many times has that happened?

Thought his selection was pretty predictable tbh, not often you can guess the starting 11 but he didn't have too many options.

Hindsight being a wonderful thing, we'd have probably been better starting with Jovetic to help out Sergio and could have also had a shout for not starting Vince as he looked all over the place to me, which seemed to affect Demechelis who looked nervous as fuck.

No complaints with the starting line-up. I was plumping for Mangala to start ahead of MDM but that was a very close call.

I don't think the manager did much wrong in terms of the match itself but he may have been surprised by Arsenal's performance and tactics. Had a quick look at some of the post match stuff on Sky when I got home and they seemed surprised. The fact remains that we are not unused to playing a team that parks the bus and tries to break on us but although Arsenal did a good job of intercepting passes (had they worked on that?) and breaking on us; those breaks did not amount to much in terms of real danger. Vinnie did lose the ball in midfield in the passage of play that led to him conceding the penalty but it was not a breakaway move (it was barely a fricking penalty i.e. soft) and the free kick conceded for the second by Jovetic was most unnecessary as their guy was about to run into two defenders.

Arsenal did their job but we had too many players who did not play well enough.

What the coaching staff have to get sorted is set pieces both offensively and defensively.

The other thing Pellers needs is the chance to actually select his best team on a regular basis; something he has had very little opportunity to do in all his time at City.

Yeah, before the game I felt there were two choices to be made:

MDM or Mangala, and we all agreed the best call was just about MDM.

The other call was effectively Milner or Jovetic, ie whether to play Silva or Jovetic off the striker. On this one we were split 50/50.

The last call was what caused us a bit of a problem: Silva played in the hole, and they shackled him, and the other players in the absence of Nasri and Yaya didn't have the creativity and tight passing. He changed it at half time and we came on strong and Jovetic gave us something different in the hole, but then Silva and he appeared to swap again after about 10 minutes.

The lesson for me for Chelsea is straightforward: Without Nasri and Yaya we are going to have to play Jovetic off Aguero or we will be too easy to nullify.

 

[cibaman]

Chelsea, playing at home, will not play anything like Arsenal did away from home yesterday.

Unless Aguero is on fire we usually struggle at the Etihad if we play one up front against defensive teams. The striker tends to become isolated. And with yesterday's line up it was a case of stop Silva stop City.

But yesterday's set up would be ideal for the Chelsea game. Silva will get more space, we'll be trying to catch them on the break rather than build pressure. We will need the bodies in midfield.

 

[Marvin]

No complaints about the starting line up?

You're all mad! Half fit Aguero and no Yaya Toure and no Nasri. Just who is going to create? Double up on Navas and closely mark Silva and that's it, City shut down

1st half = half fit Aguero totally isolated.

We didn't make the wrong decisions on the ball, we just had a preponderance of defensive players in the team and therefore you got exactly the 1st half that you should have expected

We've been watching Aguero for 3 seasons now. We know exactly how he reacts to injuries and the toll it takes on his game. He played the World Cup and the back end of last season under par and it was stupid to expect him to come back at his best.

Pellegrini got it totally wrong yesterday.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Our midfield is a huge concern for me. I've been saying for a few weeks we're short a quality midfield player/passer of the ball. Basically with Toure out our options are Nando/Dinho plus a 36 year old Lampard. That isn't a midfield that will win you the PL let alone the CL. We need to address that this summer as a priority. I'd have done it in Jan over a striker but I can see why they've gone for the striker with the injuries we have had up front.

Said this word for word to my mate when we left the ground yesterday

Top class central midfielder, an attacking left back who can defend, and a top class wideman are priorities this summer

Luckily we have already got central defence (apart from a replacement for Demichelis) and the striker postitions covered, now we need to look to strengthen elsewhere

 

[Marvin]

Chelsea, playing at home, will not play anything like Arsenal did away from home yesterday.

Unless Aguero is on fire we usually struggle at the Etihad if we play one up front against defensive teams. The striker tends to become isolated. And with yesterday's line up it was a case of stop Silva stop City.

But yesterday's set up would be ideal for the Chelsea game. Silva will get more space, we'll be trying to catch them on the break rather than build pressure. We will need the bodies in midfield.

I don't mind going to Chelsea with that team, but at home we needed to win

Anyone who knows the strengths and weaknesses of City's team could have expected that 1st half based on that starting line up

 

[Marvin]

Thought his selection was pretty predictable tbh, not often you can guess the starting 11 but he didn't have too many options.

Hindsight being a wonderful thing, we'd have probably been better starting with Jovetic to help out Sergio and could have also had a shout for not starting Vince as he looked all over the place to me, which seemed to affect Demechelis who looked nervous as fuck.

No complaints with the starting line-up. I was plumping for Mangala to start ahead of MDM but that was a very close call.

I don't think the manager did much wrong in terms of the match itself but he may have been surprised by Arsenal's performance and tactics. Had a quick look at some of the post match stuff on Sky when I got home and they seemed surprised. The fact remains that we are not unused to playing a team that parks the bus and tries to break on us but although Arsenal did a good job of intercepting passes (had they worked on that?) and breaking on us; those breaks did not amount to much in terms of real danger. Vinnie did lose the ball in midfield in the passage of play that led to him conceding the penalty but it was not a breakaway move (it was barely a fricking penalty i.e. soft) and the free kick conceded for the second by Jovetic was most unnecessary as their guy was about to run into two defenders.

Arsenal did their job but we had too many players who did not play well enough.

What the coaching staff have to get sorted is set pieces both offensively and defensively.

The other thing Pellers needs is the chance to actually select his best team on a regular basis; something he has had very little opportunity to do in all his time at City.

Yeah, before the game I felt there were two choices to be made:

MDM or Mangala, and we all agreed the best call was just about MDM.

The other call was effectively Milner or Jovetic, ie whether to play Silva or Jovetic off the striker. On this one we were split 50/50.

The last call was what caused us a bit of a problem: Silva played in the hole, and they shackled him, and the other players in the absence of Nasri and Yaya didn't have the creativity and tight passing. He changed it at half time and we came on strong and Jovetic gave us something different in the hole, but then Silva and he appeared to swap again after about 10 minutes.

The lesson for me for Chelsea is straightforward: Without Nasri and Yaya we are going to have to play Jovetic off Aguero or we will be too easy to nullify.

Go to Chelsea and shut up shop. We don't need to win and if we open up too much we could get beat

 

[Didsbury Dave]

No complaints about the starting line up?

You're all mad! Half fit Aguero and no Yaya Toure and no Nasri. Just who is going to create? Double up on Navas and closely mark Silva and that's it, City shut down

1st half = half fit Aguero totally isolated.

We didn't make the wrong decisions on the ball, we just had a preponderance of defensive players in the team and therefore you got exactly the 1st half that you should have expected

We've been watching Aguero for 3 seasons now. We know exactly how he reacts to injuries and the toll it takes on his game. He played the World Cup and the back end of last season under par and it was stupid to expect him to come back at his best.

Pellegrini got it totally wrong yesterday.

I'd say that's classic "hindsight" stuff. I attend the game with a number of people who know their football inlcuding an ex-pro, and everyone was happy with the original selection. None of us envisaged Arsenal defending as a unit like that.

There was only one other option available to him, and that's what he changed to at half time. But there can be no doubt it was a very close call: they've had problems at the back of their midfield and Silva is the best in the league in that position.

The worst call Pellegrini made for me was withdrawing Navas for Dzeko. Whilst Navas was at his frustrating worse, he was an outlet, and Dzeko could just have got onto a cross. But his options were very limited at that point.

This was just one of those games where our absentees combined with patchy individual performances catch up with us. I sensed that this was coming over Christmas. Pressure's on of course now but we can easily go to Stamford Bridge and win despite missing key players.

 

[Marvin]

This game reminded me of the chelsea game last season we had a lot of injuries that day to and we lost 0-1 just one of those games

Last season we had pretty much no choice but to play the team we did. This time we deliberately went one up top hoping a half fit Aguero would do something in his own and virtually guaranteeing that he'd get no service as well. Stupid decision by Pellegrini