Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

[IWasHere]

Fernando in a midfield 2. Two of our best players from last week on the bench. No natural width. No pace. Taking Silva off when we're desperate for a goal. A tactical masterclass from the manager.

This pretty much sums him up.

i haven't watched it but please don't tell me he takes Silva off when we needed a goal... my days

He's a tactical genius after all.

 

[Richie]

What annoys me most is the style of play - it's always the same & teams have sussed us out. All this short passing along the back-four and across midfield gives teams the opportunity to put two banks of five between the ball and their goal meaning we are hitting a brick wall. It's not like today was the first time we've come across it - Stoke, Everton, Burnley, Newcastle in the Carling Cup and , Sheff Wed & Middlesbrough in the FA Cup have all done it & we've been caught out on a few occasions. Why don't we play more direct football - not the long-ball by any means, but actually try running at teams rather than try to play through them. When things were getting desperate today, we saw Sergio and Jimmy running at the defenders & creating space. I'm sure if I was a defender, I'd much prefer a team to pussy-foot around passing the ball in front of me rather than run at me - especially players with the ability of Sergio and Silva. We need to make the opposition players uncomfortable as this will lead to them making mistakes.

 

[chesterbells]

Listened to that in the car coming back from the game....was epic.

Wasn't it - best City caller I've ever heard.

It just went on and on..did make the trip home better, was some good calls this week though and didn't have Jimmy Wagg with his usual defence of telling us how nice a person the manager or player is.

Lads that was SHB off here I think

 

[Rösler von Stretfordbömber]

I am wondering whether it is Txiki who is the problem. We are playing like Barca a few years ago. So much possession. But with no Messi to get us out the shit.

The tiki taka has been exposed by Simeone and Ancelotti who both play a much higher tempo game.

If we are basing our whole club on an outmoded style of play I worry. I admit I haven's seen Vieira's boys so not sure if that is the case.

But I do think we need a more direct style from our first team. Yaya is the only one who can make the Tiki Taka work and he may be moving on.

Agreed as to all of this. Barca in that last Pep year looked incredibly bad against (ironically) Bayern. Then Bayern struggled a bit early in Pep's first year. (In truth they are a tough side to get a read on as there has been almost zero domestic competition for them for a few years now.)

Seems like Pep has tweaked his setup since then. More reliance on Ribery and that horrible twat Robben for pace down the wings.

As to Pellers and Txiki, they still may be hamstrung a bit by the overall construction of the team. Much of which predated them. I was thinking today - should have started Navas. But then you have SIlva and Nasri. And you need to try to get something out of Dzeko so he needs to start sometime. Then Aguero is an automatic for the XI so there are two strikers that need to be on. No Navas, then. And then without Yaya you need either the unsuited Fernando or the immobile Lampard or Milner in CM who has rarely played there in ages.

Point being - doesn't make a lot of sense to utterly write off Pellers and the Catalans right now. They are still remaking the team and have to do with what was left to them.

Going forward, I would cringe at the thought of doubling down on the tika-taka. It doesn't need Messi to work but I think the experience of Spain lately shows it has probably been found out at a high level.

 

[Dogtanian]

Wasn't it - best City caller I've ever heard.

It just went on and on..did make the trip home better, was some good calls this week though and didn't have Jimmy Wagg with his usual defence of telling us how nice a person the manager or player is.

Lads that was SHB off here I think

Well it was fantastic, its a shame we can't somehow put it on here for people to hear.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Wasn't it - best City caller I've ever heard.

It just went on and on..did make the trip home better, was some good calls this week though and didn't have Jimmy Wagg with his usual defence of telling us how nice a person the manager or player is.

Lads that was SHB off here I think

Can a techie post it on here please?

 

[chesterbells]

It just went on and on..did make the trip home better, was some good calls this week though and didn't have Jimmy Wagg with his usual defence of telling us how nice a person the manager or player is.

Lads that was SHB off here I think

Well it was fantastic, its a shame we can't somehow put it on here for people to hear.

You should hear his call to Ronnie Irani on TS the morning after we won the title vs QPR - its a classic - on youtube somewhere

 

[blueinsa]

It just went on and on..did make the trip home better, was some good calls this week though and didn't have Jimmy Wagg with his usual defence of telling us how nice a person the manager or player is.

Lads that was SHB off here I think

Can a techie post it on here please?

Dont want to get into an argument here but he lost any right to have his opinions heard on this forum a while ago im afraid.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Why make changes after a good performance V Chelsea?

Playing Nasri, Aguero, Kompany and Dzecko was stupid

Dropping Sagna, Navas and Milner was ridiculous

He makes too many change that don't need making! Today, he changed our defence, midfield and attack!

It was fucking stupid

 

[NQCitizen]

The players barely try in home games that aren't against top 10 clubs.

Find it hard to look past Pellegrini for that.