Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Unfortunately Rammy, the Chelsea game has come at exactly the wrong time. Our last 6 games record is w2 d2 L2 and only one of them an away game. We have scored 8 and conceded 10. We are off form and without Yaya and Nasri. Aguero is nowhere near full pelt and The two ferns look like dumb and dumber in the middle.

I will be amazed if we win there under these circumstances. I would happily take a draw.

If we lose we will have to start looking over our shoulder because the pack are closing in.

At the moment, the way we are playing, I would not confidently predict us beating anyone.

 

[Paulmcfc2703]

When was the last time Pellegrini picked the same back 5 for 3 consecutive games or even 2 games for that matter? It's no wonder they look like strangers every game when there are constant changes. I am all for rotation but you need some continuity at the back.

As for his signings I think only Demichelis has shown he is capable to play for us. Caballero at £6mill and a HG spot looks more ridiculous each game he plays, Fernando is worse than Garcia, Jovetic through injuries and persisting with pissing around with flicks will never reach the level we need here, Mangala the juries out but he hasn't been great to say the least (how much that is down to the first point I don't know) and Navas is a player who makes so many wrong decisions it's quite incredible to watch. As it's been said already, this summer we need an overhaul but would you trust Pellers to do that?

The tactics in the last few games have been woeful. It seems once silva is marked out the game the plan is give it to Navas. Then when that inevitably doesn't work we sub him but then have no idea what to do then. I am honestly believing Pellegrini's game plan is 'Yaya you have the ball and can you run the game and try and break them down' because without Yaya we don't have a clue.

Lastly set pieces. We clearly don't work on these. Not even mentioning the piss poor deliveries as we all know that's shocking but the attacking in the box is woeful. Where's the plan of attack? If we somehow fluke a ball into the box we have 4 or 5 players all challenging for it yet if it's flicked on there is nobody making the run towards the back post and nobody looking to block the keeper. Surely that can be easily rectified in training.

If we get beat on Saturday I hope that Ivory Coast get knocked out either before then or well in advance to Hull. We have been found out and if Hull follow Stoke, Burnley, Sunderland, Sheff Wed, Arsenal & Boro and sit deep and hit us on the break or from a set piece it could be the same old story.

 

[FantasyIreland]

There was no reason not to go full strength today.

There was every reason.

We were playing a very confident Boro team who many predicted would give us a very stern test.We had no game for 7 days and we needed our best players on the field,both to secure the result and also to inject some much needed faith into our own game.......i was adamant about that in the pre match thread.

Indeed it was both ridiculous and scandalous to play that back 5,we may have gotten away with one change but three? a joke.

Isn't Ric making the same point you are: There was no reason not to go full strength, i.e. there was every reason to go full strength?

Indeed he was,my mistake.

I'm glad he agrees;-)

 

[Deleted member 58678]

The trouble with the EDS lads they are still developing and they don't yet have the maturity needed for the first team.

The thing is, Newcastle came to our place with two 18 year olds up front and they convincingly beat us 0-2 with these lads playing well, causing us loads of trouble and closing down every player within ten metres of them. The young Jamaican lad ran himself into the ground he was so hungry to impress. And that desire is what feeds the rest of the team (and the crowd) to step it up and increase the intensity of their game (and noise).

Sometimes a young naïve hungry player is exactly what you need in the side. Especially in cup games.

 

[Gaz1105]

For me, I think MP was what we needed after Mancini and don't get me wrong he has taken us on but I don't think he can take us to where we want to be. I find him very tactically naïve and some what inept in the big games. I find he has a lack of respect of the opposition and his mentality of we'll just out football you doesn't work. We are so one dimensional and predictable, we've been 'found out' , as soon as we are met with 2 banks of 4, we struggle unless we get that early goal. I would like to see him adopt the performance in Rome more, be solid and organised and make us difficult to break down, but that selection was forced on him rather than his own judgment. The Chelsea game is now massive and a draw is the absolute minimum we require but surely he must change of tactics, do what Arsenal, Chelsea and so many other teams have done to us and pack the midfield and break with pace using Aguero, Silva and Navas. Personally I think he'll be gone at the end of the season and this squad is in need of a major overhaul, we need a manager more tactically astute , whether that's Guardiola, Simeone, Klopp or they take a chance with Vieira.

 

[hgblue]

The trouble with the EDS lads they are still developing and they don't yet have the maturity needed for the first team.

The thing is, Newcastle came to our place with two 18 year olds up front and they convincingly beat us 0-2 with these lads playing well, causing us loads of trouble and closing down every player within ten metres of them. The young Jamaican lad ran himself into the ground he was so hungry to impress. And that desire is what feeds the rest of the team (and the crowd) to step it up and increase the intensity of their game (and noise).

Sometimes a young naïve hungry player is exactly what you need in the side. Especially in cup games.

Cup games are an ideal opportunity to blood youngsters and to promote youth development. We're talking the talk but not walking the walk unfortunately. This would involve fans understanding that this is club policy and accepting that short term results in these competitions may suffer for long term benefits, which may not be reaped by the manager involved. Our focus should be on winning the League and Champs League, and bringing through talent from the academy should be an integral part of the plan.

 

[GoMancini7]

Form is one thing and now current bad form certainly costing us points and also competitions as yesterday showed it.

But to look at the big picture I dont think we improved one bit compared to last season or lets say this time last year. We dont attack better, actually we are less prolific, score lot less, we waste lot more chances, less clinical. Not only in this bad form since few weeks but generally.

Then we went and crashed out of CL with two losses vs Barca and the conclusion was summer needs to be about strengthening the defence first, and we already the plan of getting Octopus (lol) and Mangala in January. They were targeted/scouted etc. Also Sagna came in, also Caballero.
So defensive department were spent on clearly.

Yet cant say our defending is any better. (PL teams defending is pretty shit compared to European rivals by the way imo. Pool/MU/Arsenal level of defending does not come close to the Barca,, Real, Bayern elite level or even the next tier like Atletico, Juve...)

Lots of chaos in our defending, not only from defenders, midfielders too. Open midfield starts the problem, or easily given away balls more accurately, then midfield is open, they run at our defenders with pace and bammm the trouble is there.

So easy to put our defenders into awkward situations and teams like Burnley, Boro, Sunderland showed it recent weeks (or Newcastle reserve in LEague Cup or CSKA two times in CL.... )These arent the Barca, Atletico level of teams that we might face in CL.


We won the double last season, which was great, but certainly teams was able to change the way they play versus Pellegrinis tactics, and he finds it hard to react.We had a whole summer to improve and we did not do that. Defence is not better than it was. New signings didnt add much apart from squad depth.
At least we dont have to play Zaba 100 times as Richards always injured but now Sagna is in mediocre form since he arrived and Zaba has played so much better recent seasons than this one. Especially in his defending game I can see a bad pattern this seasons. Going forward usually ok.

 

[richards30]

Manuel has become like ranieri did at chelsea and has become the tinker man!!! The back 4 cant build an understanding/relationship with it getting changed every bloody game! Playing boyata yesterday was also suicidal as boro are top 3 of the championship and were always gonna be up for it. Where the hell was mangala yesterday?

 

[SuperSilva]

Manuel has become like ranieri did at chelsea and has become the tinker man!!! The back 4 cant build an understanding/relationship with it getting changed every bloody game! Playing boyata yesterday was also suicidal as boro are top 3 of the championship and were always gonna be up for it. Where the hell was mangala yesterday?

Manga had groin problems yesterday...

I would have partnered Demichellis with Komps to give him some kind of decent aid to return of form whilst keeping Komps on his preferred right side of CB...

 

[nmc]

The corners were woeful again yesterday. We worked one short in the first half that was better but then didn't try it again. The first Boro corner resulted in a free header. At the back we are a shambles at times but the all important triangle at the back of two centre backs and the keeper changes all the time - partly because Kompany has been injured but that's not the only reason.

Our attacking play is so slow and labored we pass it 20 times to get out of our half and consequently Silva is crowded out. Navas keeps running inside so the oppositions defense doesn't get stretched and it becomes too narrow and too congested.

I don't like to get on players backs but Fernando is incredibly slow and however well he reads the game I just don't think he has the game for this league. Yesterday he was just treading water in no mans land - no where near the attack - sitting too deep, but when we lost possession easily by passed and formed an ineffective screen for the defense.

We can and will turn this around but second place in the league is our best hope. I fear what Barca will do to our back line. In the summer we need to refresh the squad - the real quality - Yaya, Silva, Nasri etc deserve better players around them. I'm not sure why but I always thought we looked mentally strong under Mancini and the early days of MP but just recently we look mentally fragile - particularly when we go ahead or concede - yesterday we fell apart after the goal - no shape, no composure and errors all over the place. MP will earn his money this week.