Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[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 ?

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.

maybe the didnt create many clear cut chances but looked dangerous .

and we made them dangerous by being too aggressive and pressing too high.

 

[FanchesterCity]

Gone to Rome and won, gone to Munich and won, slapped everyone in the league senseless at some point since he's taken over with the exception of Chelsea. Think you're jumping to conclusions.

and causing mischief.....

Or just merely posting stats that show our record against the better sides isn't particularly great

But do carry on making excuses...

It's as good as Arsenal's and better than Liverpool's, not as good as Chelsea's, which is reflected in the current league table as it happens.
But you're also cherry picking your figures. You aren't showing other top teams against each other.

And all in all, it actually doesn't matter all that much where we get the wins, the league is the best of 38 games. A win at Sunderland is worth the same as a win at Liverpool.
Of course you can make a claim for 'six pointers' against our rivals, but all of our rivals have to play each other too and split the points accordingly.

 

[Rammy Blue]

Spot the difference

Bayern- Robben, Ribery, Muller
Real Madrid- Ronaldo, Bale, Jese
Barcelona- Neymar, Suarez, Messi, Pedro
Chelsea- Hazard, William, Schurlle


City- Milner and Navas

Is it really any wonder why we struggle if teams crowd the middle of the pitch?

Similar to what I said last night, we don't possess any players that can beat a man at pace. Makes us very one dimensional.

 

[mastermind]

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.

pellegrini doesnt like screeners. he wants his defensive midfielders to come out from their hole and chase the ball high up the pitch ..

you could see fernando running around the in the opponnents half ..trying to make a tackle .. but arsenal have clever players that will run rings around you.

it was another day pellgrinis tactics cost us.

 

[Sergi0 Na5r1]

Spot the difference

Bayern- Robben, Ribery, Muller
Real Madrid- Ronaldo, Bale, Jese
Barcelona- Neymar, Suarez, Messi, Pedro
Chelsea- Hazard, William, Schurlle


City- Milner and Navas

Is it really any wonder why we struggle if teams crowd the middle of the pitch?

Similar to what I said last night, we don't possess any players that can beat a man at pace. Makes us very one dimensional.

We need wingers. Sanchez would have gone a long way, but so can others such as Sterling, Jese, De Bruyne. WE should do everything possible to get one of these talents now. I am all for keeping Navas in certain games but the fact that we don't have a clear left-sider is a joke.

 

[BigOscar]

Spot the difference

Bayern- Robben, Ribery, Muller
Real Madrid- Ronaldo, Bale, Jese
Barcelona- Neymar, Suarez, Messi, Pedro
Chelsea- Hazard, William, Schurlle


City- Milner and Navas

Is it really any wonder why we struggle if teams crowd the middle of the pitch?

Similar to what I said last night, we don't possess any players that can beat a man at pace. Makes us very one dimensional.

True, we don't worry people down the flanks, so we can't stop them putting everyone in the middle. Bony might make a difference, as you'd hope that having him would allow Navas to actually lift a cross or two instead of having to try and drill impossible balls along the ground.

 

[chris85mcfc]

and causing mischief.....

Or just merely posting stats that show our record against the better sides isn't particularly great

But do carry on making excuses...

It's interesting that you've chosen Liverpool as a "top" side. Not Everton, not United, not Spurs, not Southampton. Is that because you genuinely believe that Liverpool are better than all those sides or because you know that your tenuous "he's not great against big sides" comment doesn't really hold up to any serious scrutiny.

Not sure if you read my original post, perhaps you were too busy frothing at someone posting something you didn't agree with, but i did actually state that it was last seasons top 4. If my memory serves me correctly, United finished 7th last season.

 

[OB1]

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.

maybe the didnt create many clear cut chances but looked dangerous .

and we made them dangerous by being too aggressive and pressing too high.

I'm pretty sure that our manager knows the risks of playing how we do and works on defending counter attacks. We did not concede goals yesterday as a result of not being able to defend against counter attacks.

Yesterday we had too many below par performances but we also had sod all good luck. Two good have gone anywhere swipes by Arsenal defenders went out for corners. When Navas put in a great low ball, the merest touch by an Arsenal defender meant it just eluded two of our strikers... We also did not make the most of some good situations, Navas should IMO have equalised but tepidly passed the ball back to their keeper.

There will be days when opponents get away with shutting up shop and yesterday was one of those; that does not mean that there are not things for the coaches to work on or that there is need to make playing personnel changes in the summer. For now the manager has to analyse carefully what went wrong yesterday that he can correct in training and ensure that his players are focused on the cup game, for which I would play all or most of the intended starting XI for Chelsea.

 

[BillyShears]

Or just merely posting stats that show our record against the better sides isn't particularly great

But do carry on making excuses...

It's interesting that you've chosen Liverpool as a "top" side. Not Everton, not United, not Spurs, not Southampton. Is that because you genuinely believe that Liverpool are better than all those sides or because you know that your tenuous "he's not great against big sides" comment doesn't really hold up to any serious scrutiny.

Not sure if you read my original post, perhaps you were too busy frothing at someone posting something you didn't agree with, but i did actually state that it was last seasons top 4. If my memory serves me correctly, United finished 7th last season.

Why don't we turn this around Chris. You tell me whether you think Pellegrini is a flat track bully or tactically inept against better managers (like Brenda and Wenger) ? Or maybe he's both in your eyes.

 

[blueparrot]

Spot the difference

Bayern- Robben, Ribery, Muller
Real Madrid- Ronaldo, Bale, Jese
Barcelona- Neymar, Suarez, Messi, Pedro
Chelsea- Hazard, William, Schurlle


City- Milner and Navas

Is it really any wonder why we struggle if teams crowd the middle of the pitch?

Similar to what I said last night, we don't possess any players that can beat a man at pace. Makes us very one dimensional.

True, we don't worry people down the flanks, so we can't stop them putting everyone in the middle. Bony might make a difference, as you'd hope that having him would allow Navas to actually lift a cross or two instead of having to try and drill impossible balls along the ground.

It is a problem that has been recognised by the club, but one we seem to have difficulty in addressing, We've been in for players and not got them , Hazard and Sanchez, then last summer we had other priorities with our restrictions. Hopefully this summer it will be a priority along with central midfield, but it seems like our first target Reus is off to Madrid.