Manuel Pellegrini (cont)

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He again underestimated a lesser side, not the first time is it? Wigan, Boro in Cup, and many more examples.

He thought Hull in their current form will still not be good enough to punish us, ad match is easy enough to bring back players from injury and give them playing time, like Nasri and dzeko. Nasri said after game he did not expect to play 90 minutes after his injury, Pelle thought probably 60 minutes will be enough for a celarly out of form Nasri and when we are 2-0 up we bring him off...

We gave up wideplay given Nasri and Silva just wont run down the sides and cross, they do that at most once in 90 minutes they like to pass around the middle, come inside, but when we have Fernando/Fernandinho is in middle too, again we thought it might be good enough against this shit Hull.

We should take these games extremely seriously. If we would we wouldnt see complete first halves without making a shot on target.
 
I'm always pretty tolerant of managers when we have them, but Pellegrini is starting to look like he's not really affecting the team enough anymore. All season almost, we've played without any shape at all, no discipline and no obvious strategy as to what we are supposed to be doing to score goals. The only time we've actually played with any shape was when all our strikers we're injured, so we had to be more disciplined and sharper with our movement to make up for it. The rest of the time we've been pretty much a shambles and it's no surprise that all our defenders are getting exposed and now all look terrified whenever they are asked to do anything.

We need to actually play with something resembling a formation, otherwise things aren't going to get any better.
 
lancs blue said:
Stoned Rose said:
tolmie's hairdoo said:
The frustration is getting the better of them and my overriding concern is the increasing stench from the manager and the club in putting all our eggs in the Champions League basket?

Been saying that since Xmas. It's blatant as fuck.

A very, very dangerous and arrogant game to play.

It was hard to spot this policy in the early group stage games when we seemed intent on going out of the CL asap.

Yeah. I guess we didn't get round to telling the players what the policy was until HT against Bayern at home. To be fair once the players realised they are meant to be concentrating on the CL and binning off the PL and cup competitions they have been doing a cracking job.
 
BobKowalski said:
lancs blue said:
Stoned Rose said:
Been saying that since Xmas. It's blatant as fuck.

A very, very dangerous and arrogant game to play.

It was hard to spot this policy in the early group stage games when we seemed intent on going out of the CL asap.

Yeah. I guess we didn't get round to telling the players what the policy was until HT against Bayern at home. To be fair once the players realised they are meant to be concentrating on the CL and binning off the PL and cup competitions they have been doing a cracking job.

Since we got through you balloons.
 
Damanino said:
He again underestimated a lesser side, not the first time is it? Wigan, Boro in Cup, and many more examples.

He thought Hull in their current form will still not be good enough to punish us, ad match is easy enough to bring back players from injury and give them playing time, like Nasri and dzeko. Nasri said after game he did not expect to play 90 minutes after his injury, Pelle thought probably 60 minutes will be enough for a celarly out of form Nasri and when we are 2-0 up we bring him off...

We gave up wideplay given Nasri and Silva just wont run down the sides and cross, they do that at most once in 90 minutes they like to pass around the middle, come inside, but when we have Fernando/Fernandinho is in middle too, again we thought it might be good enough against this shit Hull.

We should take these games extremely seriously. If we would we wouldnt see complete first halves without making a shot on target.


Hindsight, wonderful thing. Whilst, IMO he got some things wrong in his team selection, I'm sure most thought when the team sheet was read out, it was still strong enough to beat Hull and therefore afforded the ideal time to give those returning from injury some game time. That team was good enough btw, they just didn't turn up. Some blame to the manager and some to the players also
 
city91 said:
If Pellegrini is to be sacked in the summer then I would also flog Kompany, Hart and any other shit house who has a big influence at the club.

We fucked up last time by backing the players over Mancini and it looks like they are following suit again.

If Pellers loses his job then I sincerly hope that the players who have badly let down two successive managers also get the chop.

You mean by moving on Mancini and going on to win the league?
 
A team with Silva, Kompany, Zabaleta, Aguero etc. in it is taking it seriously though. We even fielded a strong side against Middlesbrough.


Everyone talks about how well we played last week at Chelsea. But dominating in possession doesn't necessarily mean we're playing well. It's all very Arsenal-esque.

Everyone knows how to set up against us, we control the game and if the opposition can hold out, they know fully well that we're going to make an error at some stage as we do play with a very high line. Last season we scored a lot of goals and also conceded many at the same time, we simply went out and outscored everyone we came up against, but everyone knows what to expect of us now.

We have to change the way we play. Every system in every team eventually becomes dated and has to be changed. I seem to recall Mancini's early days when he took over, we were extremely defensive, at one stage we went to Arsenal and got slaughtered in the press for our negative football. Then, the following season we became the most attacking side in the premier league. Both fullbacks were getting forward, Yaya running forward to join the attacks and Silva roaming around the box and pulling the strings, no one knew how to deal with it.
 
chesterbells said:
city91 said:
If Pellegrini is to be sacked in the summer then I would also flog Kompany, Hart and any other shit house who has a big influence at the club.

We fucked up last time by backing the players over Mancini and it looks like they are following suit again.

If Pellers loses his job then I sincerly hope that the players who have badly let down two successive managers also get the chop.

You mean by moving on Mancini and going on to win the league?

I mean by backing the players over the manager. You don't let the tail wag the dog and that's what we did. Also, as it stands we haven't really moved on in the sense that Pellers is having exactly the same post league win hangover as Mancini.

By all means sack the manager but don't let the players, who are just as responsible as the manager for poor performances, off scott free.

Kompany's post match interview after we won the league summed him up for the arrogant person that he is. When ever Souness or Neville praised Pellegrini, Kompany constantly shifted the praise onto the players. Funny how he never shifted the blame from Mancini's final season to the players wasn't it.
 
pardoeofftomexico said:
J_Bow said:
Time and time again he just plays one way and has no alternative. I don't get why we've gone from last season's quick, one touch football to slow, 9 or 10 touches possession game while trying to force it down the middle of a 9 man defensive box. It's like we've lost our width and are becoming a one way team, far too predictable and a reason why we've been so shit at home this year.

I can see why Milner would ponder quitting, he doesn't even get time at central midfield when Yaya is away, rather using Fernando when we're at home to Hull.

I just think Pellegrini isn't in the elite category of mangers who are tactically brilliant and can tweak things (Hate to say it but Mourinho, Ancelotti, Simeone, Pep) to get it done in different ways when needed.

Would that be the Ancelotti who lost 0-4 yesterday with Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale and Isco in his team.
That was against a team that's better than every single team in England, not Hull Boro Burnley Stoke and a Newcastle team with a number of reserve players in it.
 
The main criticism I had of Pellegrini after his first 3 months in charge is that he is not adaptable. He plays the same way, no matter who we are playing. It makes us predictable and easy to figure out for opposition managers. In fairness to him, when we were without a striker in December, he changed the make up of the team, adapted and we played well. Credit to him for that. But really we only changed out of necessity.

Yesterday against Hull, if Yaya was fit, is there any doubt in anyone's mind whatsoever that he would have started? It would probably have been a straight swap for Fernando. As I mentioned earlier, they couldn't really be more different as players. Except for both looking rather lethargic on occasions, Yaya dominates the ball, dictates play, powers through oppositions with his strength and power. Fernando trudges around the centre circle hoping nobody notices he's hiding.

Yet despite these differences in their style of play, Pellegrini will swap them, one for one and expect the same outcome. This is Hull at home, a relegation fighting team. Yaya would have dominated their midfield, we would have took the game to them. Instead we play the apparently defensive minded Fernando. Why? Lampard or Milner are both better on the ball than Fernando, more drive going forwards, better passers, Milner has a higher work rate, Lampard has a great eye for goal. Yet Fernando is picked. Why?

If we were playing Tottenham at home yesterday we'd have picked exactly the same starting line up as we did against Hull. This despite the fact Tottenham are a high pressing, front foot team who play 4 at the back. Hull are a lethargic, relegation threatened team play 3 at the back, which you would assume means we could do with some width and pace to exploit the space down their wings. But Navas, despite coming off the back of his best game for City, is on the bench. Why?

I think the answer to both questions is that Pellegrini doesn't even consider the characteristics of the other team. It's basically an irrelevance to him. He thinks as long as we have "trust" it will all work out in the end. I understand this may have been passed down from above as part of the "hollistic" approach. Well is you are Barcelona 2009-2012 which are probably the best team ever assembled, and you are playing in a league where realistically only two other teams have got any chance of giving you a game, it's fine to be arrogant enough to just stick to what you like and not consider the opposition. But this is the Premier League, the most competitive league in the world. Anyone can beat anyone, as is proven every single week.

You have to take in to account the strengths and weaknesses of other teams, the strengths and weaknesses of your team, and come up with a game plan for every single game in order to win it. Ferguson did this for years. He may have stuck to the same kind of ideals, but if a team had a slow fullback, you can guarantee he's play his quickest winger against him. Pellegrini doesn't look at the game like that.

Navas playing well against Chelsea wasn't by design. It was an accident of being the only right winger available. If Nasri had been fit, Navas probably wouldn't have been played. Navas should have started against Hull to expose the space down their channels. Lampard or Milner should have played instead of Fernando because our midfield should have been on the front foot, not sitting deep and defending against Hull. This is not some kind of specialist tactical insight, it's just common sense!

Whether these decisions are being made by Pellegrini, or above his head, one thing is for sure, with our strongest 11 available, we are good enough to stick to our favoured shape / way of playing and beat anyone in this league. But when that strongest 11 is not available, we have to adapt. We have to analyse our opponents, analyse who we have available, and figure out a game plan of how to win.

Winning is more important than being holistic.
 
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