Manuel Pellegrini

[jollylescott]

perhaps the manager should try a new angle.
try this.

play your best 11, i know people will say we are in 4 comps and they need rest etc but perhaps it might just work.

Can't play your best 11 every 3 or 4 days, so best we get knocked out of something quickly.

You play your best team and formation,which,imo,is one up front.If first choice players aren't fit enough,then others step in,but still retaining the same set up.

We played well with Kun and the beast last season, but there is no doubt that other teams have been studying videos of our games, and it's certainly not rocket science that we are being worked out.

When I saw the way MP set us up yesterday it emphasised that if we do play two up front, then much depends on the work rate of those two players. As a team we have to defend from the front. If the front two stand and watch proceedings then the better teams will always expose our weaknesses. When you combine that with two relatively immobile midfielders in Yaya and Fernando, then no wonder we look fragile defensively when teams come at us.

The other issue is where MP is playing Merlin. I believe there is a consensus that his best position is as a number 10, in the hole behind the striker. It's quite heartbreaking to see him shunted out on the left wing where he is far less effective. MP needs to build the team around his best player, rather than try and fit Merlin somewhere into the 4-4-2.

My final point is about Fernandinho. In my opinion he is a class above Fernando, so I can't understand why Pellers seems to prefer Fernando in a 2 man midfield.

 

[Bill]

Can't play your best 11 every 3 or 4 days, so best we get knocked out of something quickly.

You play your best team and formation,which,imo,is one up front.If first choice players aren't fit enough,then others step in,but still retaining the same set up.

We played well with Kun and the beast last season, but there is no doubt that other teams have been studying videos of our games, and it's certainly not rocket science that we are being worked out.

When I saw the way MP set us up yesterday it emphasised that if we do play two up front, then much depends on the work rate of those two players. As a team we have to defend from the front. If the front two stand and watch proceedings then the better teams will always expose our weaknesses. When you combine that with two relatively immobile midfielders in Yaya and Fernando, then no wonder we look fragile defensively when teams come at us.

The other issue is where MP is playing Merlin. I believe there is a consensus that his best position is as a number 10, in the hole behind the striker. It's quite heartbreaking to see him shunted out on the left wing where he is far less effective. MP needs to build the team around his best player, rather than try and fit Merlin somewhere into the 4-4-2.

My final point is about Fernandinho. In my opinion he is a class above Fernando, so I can't understand why Pellers seems to prefer Fernando in a 2 man midfield.

i like both players but to me the problem is we should never play with only 2 in midfield. which 2 doesn't come in to it.

 

[MeatHunterrr]

He will continue with this 442 shit. Because after the comprehensive hammering Bayern gave us last season, he didn't change. So why would he change now? Not a chance.

 

[raymondkl92]

A 2 (with YaYa) and without Milner somewhere else on the pitch.

Thanks, but you said "never", yet we have already won twice in the league this season with exactly that team, and we'll win more I'm sure.

Milner can't play every game, no player can when its every three days, he played all of Villa, Spurs, and CSKA, plus half of Roma, and we need players available midweek this week v Newcastle, and against united, then CSKA, so MP has to manage the squad, so some players have to be given breaks, no matter how good they are playing, or we burn them out, and they're either injured and/or under performing. Milner is having a great season, but he also had a full England game in there too.

No matter how poorly we played today, and it clearly wasn't good enough, the stats (a favourite of yours) tell you we should still have won the game, we just simply didn't take the chances we got, that's a player problem.

Has silva missed any game this season apart from Sheffield?

 

[FantasyIreland]

Can't play your best 11 every 3 or 4 days, so best we get knocked out of something quickly.

You play your best team and formation,which,imo,is one up front.If first choice players aren't fit enough,then others step in,but still retaining the same set up.

We played well with Kun and the beast last season, but there is no doubt that other teams have been studying videos of our games, and it's certainly not rocket science that we are being worked out.

When I saw the way MP set us up yesterday it emphasised that if we do play two up front, then much depends on the work rate of those two players. As a team we have to defend from the front. If the front two stand and watch proceedings then the better teams will always expose our weaknesses. When you combine that with two relatively immobile midfielders in Yaya and Fernando, then no wonder we look fragile defensively when teams come at us.

The other issue is where MP is playing Merlin. I believe there is a consensus that his best position is as a number 10, in the hole behind the striker. It's quite heartbreaking to see him shunted out on the left wing where he is far less effective. MP needs to build the team around his best player, rather than try and fit Merlin somewhere into the 4-4-2.

My final point is about Fernandinho. In my opinion he is a class above Fernando, so I can't understand why Pellers seems to prefer Fernando in a 2 man midfield.

You make a good post.Unfortunately,the luxury of Negredo is now not an option,and with his departure should have gone a formation that doesn't suit us.Like you say,Negredo made it work last year,now Pellegrini has to best utilise the players he has,and its bleedin obvious that means playing just the one up front and Silva/Jovetic supporting.

Pellegrini seems determined to try and fit square pegs in round holes,it doesn't make sense and its no wonder,when his players are probably thinking similar to us supporters.....that they are showing signs of discontentment.

 

[Rammy Blue]

To play with 4 in midfield requires players who have great engines, I'd really only class Jimmy and Dinho in that bracket and funnily enough neither started yesterday.

 

[waspish]

Top 3 and a trophy is a Decent season even with our high standards these days..

 

[coleridge]

Top 3 and a trophy is a Decent season even with our high standards these days..

Top 3 is the minimum. Adding a trophy would be decent. Yes, the standard set means that only winning the title [or the CL] counts as a good season now. That's just how it is.

 

[waspish]

Top 3 and a trophy is a Decent season even with our high standards these days..

Top 3 is the minimum. Adding a trophy would be decent. Yes, the standard set means that only winning the title [or the CL] counts as a good season now. That's just how it is.

Yep but you can't win the league every year so just winning 1 trophy out of the 4 available plus a top 3 finish is a minimum now and why I said it would be a "Decent" season

 

[meltonblue]

For all the disgruntlement at the system and I get it to a certain extent), Aguero could and should have had three or four goals yesterday. Sometimes, I do think that the end result can sometimes influence what the opinion is of the system a bit too much - had Aguero scored the chances he should have, I doubt people would be being so critical of the system today.

I get the openness it can lead to. At the same time, we have played our best football in both title winning seasons playing a 442 and for all the flaws in the system, that could have been 5-2 yesterday. The fact it wasn't was as much down to poor finishing as it was any tactical issues.