Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[Didsbury Dave]

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.

Morning mate

It's a distinct possibility and you could argue that there would be more steel at the back of the midfield with the two Ferns rather than 1+ Yaya. Then you'd have Silva wide one side and one of Navas/Milner on the other. It would be lacking in creativity though, particularly if he took the more conservative Milner option. But that might suit him...keep it tight and look to get Sergio 1v1 on the break.

Both Vinny and Sergio will be two weeks fitter by then and that will make a difference.

I'd tactically go full strength at the weekend with the same side as we will be using against Chelsea. Use it as a dry run. I think we can get away without resting players given the week either side.

Morning - yeah I'd agree with most of that. Definitely think we should go full strength against Boro, and use it as a dry run for Chelsea. We need Edin back and fit asap IMO.

I feel like we were due a loss and yesterday to my mind wasn't a disgrace. We were shit, but our key players were out or unfit, and Arsenal scored from two set pieces but otherwise not sure what saves Joe had to make. It happens to the best teams now and again.

Pretty much my take. It was coming. Arsenal got "the rub", we didn't but there were many significant mitigating factors. On the face of it it isn't great news going into the biggest game of the season with key absences and on the back of a lack of continuity and patchy performances. And they've got the opposite: full strength and playing well.

But this team often delivers in adversity. Time to stand up and be counted. The two-week run with a winnable fixture helps us: we can work on the training ground and get the returnees fitter.

 

[stonerblue]

Milner was poor. Kompany rusty and at fault for out first goal. Navas was a constant threat but delivered poorly against a compact set of banks Arsenal set out.

We looked toothless and we massively wasted possession. Silva and Aguero were anonymous unfortunately and that's like tying a boxers fists behind his back.

Yesterday reminded us what we already knew already. We need a quality wide man and asap. We played too narrow and our only outlet was Navas. If I was Pellegrini I'd have used Kolarov rather than Lampard. We needed a threat on that left hand side.

The game screamed out for Yaya and Bony, that's what annoys most. Going forward we really have to work on breaking down compact teams and work on set pieces. We're useless at both to be honest.

Notable mention to Cazorla who was marvellous yesterday.

I told them in the pre-match thread to keep Cazorla quiet but did they listen ??

 

[BillyShears]

But this team often delivers in adversity. Time to stand up and be counted. The two-week run with a winnable fixture helps us: we can work on the training ground and get the returnees fitter.

Fully agree. I'd also like to think we're at least exploring the possibility of bringing one more player in this window whether it be a central attacking midfield player or a wide attacking midfield player.

 

[eversince 76]

Taking out the positives, Kompany and Aguero got 90 minutes under their belt. Dzeko got a few minutes showing he's on his way back to full fitness very soon. I'd give these players as many minutes as possible vs Boro and Hamburg to try and get them as fit as possible. It was not a surprise to see these players rusty without a decent game for over 6 weeks or more.

I don't think Pellegrini is to blame over the poor form in recent weeks. It's just a result for being unable to play your spine players (Hart/Kompany/Yaya/Silva/Aguero) on a regular bases. If our injuryrecord for these players fade somewhat I'm sure we will be in for a treat these last few months. If we win anything is another matter, but right now it's about getting these players fit or back-in and start playing like we all know this team is able to.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Hope manuel uses these full weeks to get his defensive set up right give a few players a kick up the arse ie vinny, zabba, fernandinho, navas, milner, jovetic can't believe how much off a backward step some of these players have took! Also set pieces need addressing we look more dangerous with a throwing! He's got to get a settled back 4! For me we looked a lot more solid when vinny was out can't have diving in so far up the pitch when you only have demi behind him! Agree with 4-4-2 at chelsea and its got to be dzeko need a bit of a physical presence up top!

 

[mastermind]

after 15 minutes it became clear we had a problem. the fact that we couldnt score against against a team that defend like stoke was not the problem .. the problem was that arsenal were getting away with counter attack after counter attack .. they were creating chances with ease .. you can blame kompany and fernando all you want but the fact is that they're mistakes were inevitable. mistakes occur when you are being outplayed .. and we was being outplayed from the first minute.

wenger respected us and got his team to defend deep and put a man on silva.. pellegrini did not respect sanchez, chamberlain and cazorla .. we pressed way too high up the pitch, leaving acres of space to exploit in behind .. that space in behind is a dream for any counter attacking team. if we defending deep, arsenal would not be able to create chances so easily , but pellegrini doesnt care about nullifying the oppositions strenghts does he ?

 

[Didsbury Dave]

after 15 minutes it became clear we had a problem. the fact that we couldnt score against against a team that defend like stoke was not the problem .. the problem was that arsenal were getting away with counter attack after counter attack .. they were creating chances with ease .. you can blame kompany and fernando all you want but the fact is that they're mistakes were inevitable. mistakes occur when you are being outplayed .. and we was being outplayed from the first minute.

wenger respected us and got his team to defend deep and put a man on silva.. pellegrini did not respect sanchez, chamberlain and cazorla .. we pressed way too high up the pitch, leaving acres of space to exploit in behind .. that space in behind is a dream for any counter attacking team. if we defending deep, arsenal would not be able to create chances so easily , but pellegrini doesnt care about nullifying the oppositions strenghts does he ?

I felt Arsenal created very little. Two set pieces, two goals. The bigger problem was creativity and the link between defence and attack.

You don't "defend deep" against a below par Arsenal team. You go out there to beat them.

 

[Danamy]

The root cause for me was a poor performance from Fernando, without Yaya he's the screen and in the second half he looked spent and we looked like we were playing with 10 men for the last 20 mins.

A bit like Garcia, he found himself the wrong side of the ball and play too often and the game just passed him by with little input.

The position is too important to us who play a high line for someone to have a 6/10 performance, a similar thing happened to Chelsea the other week, Matic had a poor game at Spuds and it cost them dearly.

Without Yaya in the team Fernando needs to be on his game (like in Rome) or we get found wanting.

 

[Zaba's Busted Nose]

after 15 minutes it became clear we had a problem. the fact that we couldnt score against against a team that defend like stoke was not the problem .. the problem was that arsenal were getting away with counter attack after counter attack .. they were creating chances with ease .. you can blame kompany and fernando all you want but the fact is that they're mistakes were inevitable. mistakes occur when you are being outplayed .. and we was being outplayed from the first minute.

wenger respected us and got his team to defend deep and put a man on silva.. pellegrini did not respect sanchez, chamberlain and cazorla .. we pressed way too high up the pitch, leaving acres of space to exploit in behind .. that space in behind is a dream for any counter attacking team. if we defending deep, arsenal would not be able to create chances so easily , but pellegrini doesnt care about nullifying the oppositions strenghts does he ?

I felt Arsenal created very little. Two set pieces, two goals. The bigger problem was creativity and the link between defence and attack.

You don't "defend deep" against a below par Arsenal team. You go out there to beat them.

Couldn't agree more.
Yes Arsenal played well at times, but their two goals were set pieces resulting from poor defending. They defended well more importantly, by their standards recently, but we allowed them to play. We took the ball off them in possession so many times and did nothing with it, then they took it back off us and broke. If we'd have made more out of their sloppiness it would have been a very different game. The reason we lost that game wasn't because they were better, it was because we were worse.

 

[BillyShears]

The root cause for me was a poor performance from Fernando, without Yaya he's the screen and in the second half he looked spent and we looked like we were playing with 10 men for the last 20 mins.

A bit like Garcia, he found himself the wrong side of the ball and play too often and the game just passed him by with little input.

The position is too important to us who play a high line for someone to have a 6/10 performance, a similar thing happened to Chelsea the other week, Matic had a poor game at Spuds and it cost them dearly.

Without Yaya in the team Fernando needs to be on his game (like in Rome) or we get found wanting.

We conceded from two set pieces and Joe had pretty much nothing to do other than those set pieces. So i'm not sure that Fernando's defensive work was the issue. As I posted elsewhere the larger issue was him and Fernandinho's inability to be/pass like Yaya when it mattered.

2nd half we had zero options and one of Dinho/Fernando needed to go since they were both on bookings and in danger of getting red carded. Made sense that it was Dinho because he'd made a couple of fouls which pretty much ensured the next one was a booking/red card for him.

We're short of quality in centre mid, particularly when our two ball players are out.