Manuel Pellegrini

[mancity1]

He will rise or fall on the performances over an extended period of time.

Today wasn't one of his better days.

The targets this season are pretty clear , if he fails to meet them come the end of the season his position will be under severe scrutiny and his past achievements won't be given much credence in the review process.

17 points from 9 games will have to do for now but clearly the trend will have to move upwards otherwise he clearly will fall short of what is required and what is acceptable from the owners point of view.

We will see should times get a bit tougher for MP what he is made of.

 

[Palerider]

Professional football is about winning, that's why they get paid for it. I like Pellegrini as a man but tactically he's just not flexible or responsive enough. I've read umpteen posts today and everyone is pointing out the same highly obvious things. Playing 4 - 4 - 2 against decent sides does not work. Playing an immobile Yaya Toure in a two man midfield does not work and constantly changing the back four does not work. We've conceded two goals against a West Ham side with 30% possession and two goals against a CSKA side with 40% possession. That suggests that we are defensively vulnerable. If our ultimate target is to win the Champions League then we have to have a solid defence. Not conceding is harder than scoring. We need to build a battle hard defence with a professional attitude to progress.

 

[blueparrot]

Big feelings of deja vu same people seem to making the same points a this time last year, now I accept we shouldn't have made the same start as last year, and that Chelsea will be harder to catch, but as last years position shows we can recover from it.

pos pl w d l f a gd pts
7 Manchester City 9 5 1 3 21 11 10 16

 

[HolisticJim]

My patience is wearing very thin with his stubbornness to keep playing 2 strikers, the difference in our play when we changed it was there for all to see, had he started like that we would have won the game comfortably IMO.

This. Getting a bit pissed off with it now tbh.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

tactically inept.nice guy but need a pep or klopp to take us to the next level alo g with two to three world class signings.

 

[pikku]

We have the perfect players in order to play in a three man midfield and yet he insists on persisting with two strikers up top . I can't make out whether he is stubborn or plain naive , anyways his lack of tactical awareness and stubborness is going to cost us more points this season.

 

[The slaughtered lamb]

MP is at fault for few things but is it his fault if players refuse to turn up like they did in second half in Moscow and here ?Blaming the manager is easy but players should have a long hard look at themselves to,same players in the mood like in last 20 mins,become very difficult to handle,I think its players complacency that is costing us more than anything
With that being said MP needs to be more flexible with his choices,there is no shame in changing ure preferd tactics
Over the past years many managers lost there job because of rigidity with systems they tried to bring in,and changing of the system was not an option for them and the result ended in disaster for them which begs the question wheather if its a matter of ego for them ?
Long live pellegerini

That sums it up really. I would have gone for Milner over Navas and 'dinho needs to play more but there isn't enough urgency from players. We need to earn the right to play whatever formation we start with. I had a feeling we would be outfought today by less talented players who wanted it more and that's how it turned out.

When the team turned in that kind of performance under Mancini many were quick to say the players no longer wanted to play for him. If they carry on like this, we'll end up like Chelsea a few years ago where the senior players basically hired and fired managers via their poor performances.

 

[Balti]

I see Bobby Manc is free ;=)

 

[Damanino]

Unfortunately this season the biggest title rival is lot stronger than last season. Rodgers never won anything, like 90% of Pool squad couldnt handle the pressure.

Chelsea/Mourinho is different animal. Of course they could drop 8 points lead from now to the end. But also equaully good chance we collect 5 points less than them from now to the end than them its over 10 points difference at the end...

They have good form on their side now and a ready defence, they can go into games expecting clean sheets (we cant...) and have enough pace, mentality, intensity to win tougher games too.

Hope Mourinho goes for the "not to lose" big game tactics away from home tomorrow and United gets a draw somehow.

 

[super_city_si]

He is purely to blame today. He picked the wrong team and refused to change it at half time when evry man and his dog could see it wasn't working.

We looked so much better with Jovetic and Kolarov but left it way too late for it to change the game.