Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[Didsbury Dave]

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

City don't "shut up shop".

We won't be going gung ho and we need a solid team. But we also need creativity to get goals on the break. This is a game we want to win.

 

[hgblue]

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

Are we capable of going to Chelsea and doing a number on them like Arsenal did on us? Personally I can't see it, we're too open.

 

[Marvin]

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

City don't "shut up shop".

We won't be going gung ho and we need a solid team. But we also need creativity to get goals on the break. This is a game we want to win.

We'll play the same team we started against Arsenal and that will be fine by me. And that is a team built to shut a game down which is why it is so strange we started with that yesterday when we had other options

Biggest mistake of Pellegrini's time at City. I like him though. Who doesn't make a mistake?

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I answered that on the previous page, Marvin. To call it the "biggest mistake of his time" is laughable, to be honest:

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.

 

[John.des]

This was a depressing round for us and fear another one is coming.
United-Leicester, Arsenal-Villa, Pool-WHU, Soton-Swansea, home wins probably in all these games. And then Chelsea-City, if its a loss for us the 8 points gap is awful on its own but all teams going for 3/4th place are 6 points closer to us in two rounds. Thats only 2-5 points lead on them instead of 7-12 we had on them.

Chelsea at home is very tough team to beat and its clear to see they will try to earn corners, set pieces and use Fabregas pretty good crossing skills to hurt us where we are really weak. Its all about it, try to hurt your opponent where it has a weakness.

Will be a surprise if they dont score at least one from a Fabregas cross to Costa/Cahil/Terry/Matic's head...

Clearly they will make sure Silva is marked out of the game. Now with no Yaya or Nasri that pretty much means either some individual brilliance from Aguero or hoping Navas can cross but its our only hope at Chelsea away we are fucked. We need to create chances different ways, unfortunately corners/set pieces we cant hope anything from these...
(Chelsea scores lots of goals from these situations this year.)

I think we need to risk to try to win it instead of making sure we dont lose. Of course 8 points behind lot worse than 5 points, but given that Chelsea have easier away fixtures left (they played nearly all bigger/tougher teams away) even the 5 points behind status doesnt fill me with much confidence.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

This was a depressing round for us and fear another one is coming.
United-Leicester, Arsenal-Villa, Pool-WHU, Soton-Swansea, home wins probably in all these games. And then Chelsea-City, if its a loss for us the 8 points gap is awful on its own but all teams going for 3/4th place are 6 points closer to us in two rounds. Thats only 2-5 points lead on them instead of 7-12 we had on them.

Chelsea at home is very tough team to beat and its clear to see they will try to earn corners, set pieces and use Fabregas pretty good crossing skills to hurt us where we are really weak. Its all about it, try to hurt your opponent where it has a weakness.

Will be a surprise if they dont score at least one from a Fabregas cross to Costa/Cahil/Terry/Matic's head...

Clearly they will make sure Silva is marked out of the game. Now with no Yaya or Nasri that pretty much means either some individual brilliance from Aguero or hoping Navas can cross but its our only hope at Chelsea away we are fucked. We need to create chances different ways, unfortunately corners/set pieces we cant hope anything from these...
(Chelsea scores lots of goals from these situations this year.)

I think we need to risk to try to win it instead of making sure we dont lose. Of course 8 points behind lot worse than 5 points, but given that Chelsea have easier away fixtures left (they played nearly all bigger/tougher teams away) even the 5 points behind status doesnt fill me with much confidence.

We aren't going into this game as some lower division plucky underdogs praying for a miracle. For a start, if we get Aguero fit and at their centre halves they won't live with him. Yes, we need to stop them playing but we can do that with the back six we have. What will probably define the game is going to be more about creating and getting Silva running the game as he can - much better than Fabregas. That's why the inclusion of Jovetic behind Aguero is key for me. We will give them much more to think about.

 

[BillyShears]

This was a depressing round for us and fear another one is coming.
United-Leicester, Arsenal-Villa, Pool-WHU, Soton-Swansea, home wins probably in all these games. And then Chelsea-City, if its a loss for us the 8 points gap is awful on its own but all teams going for 3/4th place are 6 points closer to us in two rounds. Thats only 2-5 points lead on them instead of 7-12 we had on them.

Chelsea at home is very tough team to beat and its clear to see they will try to earn corners, set pieces and use Fabregas pretty good crossing skills to hurt us where we are really weak. Its all about it, try to hurt your opponent where it has a weakness.

Will be a surprise if they dont score at least one from a Fabregas cross to Costa/Cahil/Terry/Matic's head...

Clearly they will make sure Silva is marked out of the game. Now with no Yaya or Nasri that pretty much means either some individual brilliance from Aguero or hoping Navas can cross but its our only hope at Chelsea away we are fucked. We need to create chances different ways, unfortunately corners/set pieces we cant hope anything from these...
(Chelsea scores lots of goals from these situations this year.)

I think we need to risk to try to win it instead of making sure we dont lose. Of course 8 points behind lot worse than 5 points, but given that Chelsea have easier away fixtures left (they played nearly all bigger/tougher teams away) even the 5 points behind status doesnt fill me with much confidence.

We aren't going into this game as some lower division plucky underdogs praying for a miracle. For a start, if we get Aguero fit and at their centre halves they won't live with him. Yes, we need to stop them playing but we can do that with the back six we have. What will probably define the game is going to be more about creating and getting Silva running the game as he can - much better than Fabregas. That's why the inclusion of Jovetic behind Aguero is key for me. We will give them much more to think about.

Depending on his fitness I'd play Dzeko/Kun in Pellegrini's trusted 442. People calling for a defensive or pragmatic approach against Chelsea will be sorely disappointed as Pellegrini is NEVER in a million years going there for a point. He might take one at some point during the final 20 minutes but he won't go there for one. He ain't Mourinho thank God.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I do think the manager was guilty of chasing the game a little too early on the hour.

To reduce the legs further in midfield, when the two Ferns were already overrun, by introducing Lampard, gave Arsenal a real tonic. I felt he also had one eye on the Chelsea game and did not want to lose Fernandinho to a red card.

I believe he picked the best team on paper, but that does not mean the personnel are up to the actual task of getting a result against the top teams.

His loyalty is his greatest strength, but it is also his biggest weakness. You can sense his surprise and letdown when performances such as yesterday are on show.

He's not daft, he knows this team without ball retainers becomes attainable prey.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Pretty sure i saw a stat yesterday claiming that we are currently 1 point worse off than we were when Mancini was sacked in his final season

Anyone know if there's any truth in that? Would be surprised given the turmoil in the dressing room during that final season, and our spend since Pellegrini has come in

 

[Damanino]

Pretty sure i saw a stat yesterday claiming that we are currently 1 point worse off than we were when Mancini was sacked in his final season

Anyone know if there's any truth in that? Would be surprised given the turmoil in the dressing room during that final season, and our spend since Pellegrini has come in

Yep we had 48 points in Mancinis last season after 22 games, but also we were after an unacceptable CL group stage fiasco.

Btw we had 50 points after 22 games last season.

Only big problem that this Chelsea side to me seems much stronger than our biggest title rivals recently including Fergie's United in his last two seasons. And especially Pool.