Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[baildon blue]

Every time the opposition play a long ball we look at sixes and sevens .
At the moment are spine of the team looks a shambles .

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

One of my favourite football books is Eamon Dunphy's 'Only a Game', about his last 8 months at Millwall. It's a diary and he tells it as he sees it, with the team getting off to a good start in the old Div 2, looking for promotion then it all turns to shit. Part of it deals with confidence and he talks about a team-mate who has lost his and tries too hard to get back on his game. Dunphy's view is that the best way to regain it is to do some simple stuff right. Pass, receive the ball, pass again, receive it, pass. I agree that we need ot go back to basics and get some confidence by tightening up at the back and keeping some clean sheets. If that involves scraping a few 1-0 wins then so be it. But that's what we need at the moment.

Something we did only 4 days ago :)

We did, then we seemed to loosen the shackles in the last 20 minutes and let their 10 men back in the game, when we played like a bunch of headless chickens.

 

[hgblue]

With Silva out I'd struggle to pick an XI playing 4231. Swap Jovetic out for Nasri for the game at QPR. Not many other choices we can make.

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

I just don't see Pellegrini picking the three big men together. If he does and it works though there'll be one or two posters throwing champagne parties and starting various "I told you so" threads! :)

Haha, the line up above would certainly put a smile back on my face, but I'm not sure Pellegrini has it in him tbh.

 

[FromPollockToSilva]

Where are the goals coming from in this team at the moment? Aside from Aguero, our other two strikers are seriously out of form, Yaya isn't chipping in like he was last season and Silva, Nasri and Milner should all score more than they do. Set pieces have been especially poor this season too. It says a lot that Lampard was becoming a key player just for his ability to actually put the ball in the net.

When you're not scoring many, you need to not be conceding many. I agree with several others who are advocating a 'back to basics' policy in the short term; defend properly, keep our shape, pass the ball well and for the love of God don't keep giving incredibly cheap goals away. Because unlike last season, the strikers aren't going to bail us out right now.

 

[chris85mcfc]

One of my favourite football books is Eamon Dunphy's 'Only a Game', about his last 8 months at Millwall. It's a diary and he tells it as he sees it, with the team getting off to a good start in the old Div 2, looking for promotion then it all turns to shit. Part of it deals with confidence and he talks about a team-mate who has lost his and tries too hard to get back on his game. Dunphy's view is that the best way to regain it is to do some simple stuff right. Pass, receive the ball, pass again, receive it, pass. I agree that we need ot go back to basics and get some confidence by tightening up at the back and keeping some clean sheets. If that involves scraping a few 1-0 wins then so be it. But that's what we need at the moment.

Something we did only 4 days ago :)

We did, then we seemed to loosen the shackles in the last 20 minutes and let their 10 men back in the game, when we played like a bunch of headless chickens.

We were controlling the game up until the substitutions :)

 

[BillyShears]

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

I just don't see Pellegrini picking the three big men together. If he does and it works though there'll be one or two posters throwing champagne parties and starting various "I told you so" threads! :)

Haha, the line up above would certainly put a smile back on my face, but I'm not sure Pellegrini has it in him tbh.

Haha. I did think of you when I posted that. With regards Pellegrini doing it - i don't think he will either. I also don't necessarily think it'd be as successful as people make out.

As much as we like to think we can sit on the sidelines and know what's best all the time, sometimes you have to accept that the countless coaches, performance analysts etc who see the players day in day out might be better placed to decide what players should play where.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Other than Nasri (i'd persevere with Jovetic) that's the team i want to see,its our strongest,current, formation IMO.

 

[pavelsrnicek]

Where are the goals coming from in this team at the moment? Aside from Aguero, our other two strikers are seriously out of form, Yaya isn't chipping in like he was last season and Silva, Nasri and Milner should all score more than they do. Set pieces have been especially poor this season too. It says a lot that Lampard was becoming a key player just for his ability to actually put the ball in the net.

When you're not scoring many, you need to not be conceding many. I agree with several others who are advocating a 'back to basics' policy in the short term; defend properly, keep our shape, pass the ball well and for the love of God don't keep giving incredibly cheap goals away. Because unlike last season, the strikers aren't going to bail us out right now.

I'd love to see a midfield 3 of Fernando Yaya and Lampard on Saturday with Milner and Nasri wide. Keep the ball, work hard off it. It is a tight little ground so width isn't as useful so keep Navas in reserve. Bench Jovetic till he realises that he can't keep giving the ball away cheaply.

 

[cleavers]

One of my favourite football books is Eamon Dunphy's 'Only a Game', about his last 8 months at Millwall. It's a diary and he tells it as he sees it, with the team getting off to a good start in the old Div 2, looking for promotion then it all turns to shit. Part of it deals with confidence and he talks about a team-mate who has lost his and tries too hard to get back on his game. Dunphy's view is that the best way to regain it is to do some simple stuff right. Pass, receive the ball, pass again, receive it, pass. I agree that we need ot go back to basics and get some confidence by tightening up at the back and keeping some clean sheets. If that involves scraping a few 1-0 wins then so be it. But that's what we need at the moment.

Something we did only 4 days ago :)

We did, then we seemed to loosen the shackles in the last 20 minutes and let their 10 men back in the game, when we played like a bunch of headless chickens.

I think that is just the confidence thing, we should have scored twice after those subs, then they saw (allowed) rooneys run, and the de maria chance, and basically shit themselves, had we not been on this poor run, I think we'd have taken them apart in that last 20 minutes.

I found it interesting last night that after the 2 red cards, we improved noticeably, my mate with me, said that they suddenly started taking responsibility, something they hadn't been doing. Clichy (who has been slated) for instance, was suddenly everywhere, winning tackles, making passes, and doing runs, none of which he'd done previous to that, others, even Dzeko were busting a gut too, it could have just been that CSKA were spent, I don't know, but the last 10 minutes, 2 men down, was easily the best we had played all night. In reality CSKA should have gone on to score 2 or 3 more, but we stepped up, its a pity we hadn't for the previous 80 minutes.

 

[OB1]

With Silva out I'd struggle to pick an XI playing 4231. Swap Jovetic out for Nasri for the game at QPR. Not many other choices we can make.

Back four
Fern, Fern
Nas, Yaya, Milner
Aguero

I just don't see Pellegrini picking the three big men together. If he does and it works though there'll be one or two posters throwing champagne parties and starting various "I told you so" threads! :)

I don't think he is very likely to either but it's what I think he should do at the moment.