Manuel Pellegrini

[moomba]

1 up front and two or three of Silva, Jovetic and Nasri is more than adequate going forward for me. We've not looked solid in defense all year and I put much of that down to lack of numbers in midfield. 3 clean sheets (Villa, Newcastle and Sheff Wednesday) in 14 matches, and for me sorting that out needs to be a priority. If that means sacrificing a forward, then I'm fine with that.

 

[TGR]

Sorry folks, just how I feel at the moment. We don't look anywhere near our best at present. Previous Derby results mean nothing. Last season's results mean nothing. It's all about where we are now and right now we look apathetic, naive and even aimless for spells of games.

The manager seems content to sit on his hands and stroke his chin for too long before seeing we are getting exploited on the left or overrun in midfield.

I think if we turn up for the derby with this same mentality, attitude or approach we will cop a shoeing.

More than delighted to have a litre of custard with my humble pie if proved wrong but I just cannot see it being the case as things currently stand.

I understand that some people will simply be pessimistic because it's in the nature of many city fans. However read what has just been posted by Pablo zzz and look at those results. Now think again about your comments dismissing Pellegrini's tactics. Let's be honest, he doesn't sit there stroking his chin and doing nothing. He recognises when things need to change but he has faith in the team he picks and a lot of our play results in the opposition eventually tiring and the goals coming. The way we play does lead to chances being conceded. But it also leads to a lot more being created and when we take those chances we win. At 1-0 down we were playing well and hit the cross bar a couple of times. The goal wasn't far away and we showed that when we responded to going 2-0 down straight away. I think people need to give him credit for his tactics in actual fact because you can count on one hand the number of times he has got it wrong when options were available to him.

And that is part of the frustration. He sent out the wrong team with the wrong tactics at West Ham and only responded when we went 2-0 down and the game was virtually lost. Embarrassing as it is to say it but Fat Sam very easily outwitted him tactically (and then gleefully told the world how he did it!).
Even Mark Hughes came to the Etihad with a game plan and walked out of the ground with 3 points tucked away in his back pocket. Yes even our old friend Agent Clueless tactically out thought him. This is why there is a degree of negativity on here towards him as a tactically aware or tactically astute manager. Fat Sam & Mark Hughes are not the benchmark to measure our manager against these days.

 

[blueparrot]

Sorry folks, just how I feel at the moment. We don't look anywhere near our best at present. Previous Derby results mean nothing. Last season's results mean nothing. It's all about where we are now and right now we look apathetic, naive and even aimless for spells of games.

The manager seems content to sit on his hands and stroke his chin for too long before seeing we are getting exploited on the left or overrun in midfield.

I think if we turn up for the derby with this same mentality, attitude or approach we will cop a shoeing.

More than delighted to have a litre of custard with my humble pie if proved wrong but I just cannot see it being the case as things currently stand.

I understand that some people will simply be pessimistic because it's in the nature of many city fans. However read what has just been posted by Pablo zzz and look at those results. Now think again about your comments dismissing Pellegrini's tactics. Let's be honest, he doesn't sit there stroking his chin and doing nothing. He recognises when things need to change but he has faith in the team he picks and a lot of our play results in the opposition eventually tiring and the goals coming. The way we play does lead to chances being conceded. But it also leads to a lot more being created and when we take those chances we win. At 1-0 down we were playing well and hit the cross bar a couple of times. The goal wasn't far away and we showed that when we responded to going 2-0 down straight away. I think people need to give him credit for his tactics in actual fact because you can count on one hand the number of times he has got it wrong when options were available to him.

And that is part of the frustration. He sent out the wrong team with the wrong tactics at West Ham and only responded when we went 2-0 down and the game was virtually lost. Embarrassing as it is to say it but Fat Sam very easily outwitted him tactically (and then gleefully told the world how he did it!).
Even Mark Hughes came to the Etihad with a game plan and walked out of the ground with 3 points tucked away in his back pocket. Yes even our old friend Agent Clueless tactically out thought him. This is why there is a degree of negativity on here towards him as a tactically aware or tactically astute manager. Fat Sam & Mark Hughes are not the benchmark to measure our manager against these days.

Fat Sam beat Chelsea last season doesn't make him more tactically aware than Mourinho.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Come on Pellegrini
Come on Pellegrini
Come on Pellegrini

 

[chris85mcfc]

1 up front and two or three of Silva, Jovetic and Nasri is more than adequate going forward for me. We've not looked solid in defense all year and I put much of that down to lack of numbers in midfield. 3 clean sheets (Villa, Newcastle and Sheff Wednesday) in 14 matches, and for me sorting that out needs to be a priority. If that means sacrificing a forward, then I'm fine with that.

This is where im leaning towards

It's not neccesarily a case of taking Dzeko out and putting 2 Ferns and Yaya into the midfield, its more a case of playing 3 of the likes of Silva, Nasri, Jovetic, Milner and Navas, and getting the combination of those 3 right based on the opposition

For example, on Sunday I would have Yaya and Fernando/dinho with Milner, Silva and Nasri (if fit)

Against West Ham I would have had Milner, Silva and Jovetic, against the lesser sides at home id probably play Navas instead of Milner

Its horses for courses and you do have to adapt to the opposition, but it doesn't neccesarily mean playing 3 solid central midfielders, playing 3 of the above ensures we keep the ball and make good use of it in the final third, but if you get the 3 wrong then were back to square one

 

[Quinny851]

Ahh right so you're sensibly forgetting the 30 PL games we played before we 'started to dominate'

Do you not remember the 20 odd game unbeaten run over December - February :)

Some proper numpties come out of the woodwork after a couple of poor results. Derby can't come soon enough.

Thing is the silly sod has picked Everton and Palace away as his examples, am I right in thinking we started Kun and Dzeko in both those games

You really really couldn't make it up :)

Apologies, I got it wrong. Aguero got injured just after he scored to make it 1-1 against Everton which we then brought Fernandinho on. Palace away we started both. So I'll hold my hands up.

Whilst I accept that I am a "numpty" and a "silly sod" last season wasn't as fucking perfect as we like to make out. Being 2-0 down at half time against Watford, getting knocked out by Wigan, drawing away at Blackburn are just a few examples.

We deserved to win the league on merit. We got the most points, scored the most etc etc but had the scousers not bottled it against Palace or Chelsea not bottled it at Palace away & Sunderland at home then no matter what we did we wouldn't have won the league.

The majority of that was down to poor tactics by the manager.

If you're happy with the way this season is going so far then you crack on. For me personally we look a shadow of what we were at the start of last season. We look slow, pedestrian and one dimensional.

See how the derby goes but if we play the way we have done in the last 2 games then the same people supporting Pellegrini in this thread will be the same one's back on here slagging him off.

 

[pavelsrnicek]

For me there are 2 related issues.

Firstly if we play without tempo, which we have a few times this season, we struggle to break teams down as is it is very hard to find gaps when playing static football. We have some amazing players so often we get by despite not quite firing on all cylinders.

The second is that teams have looked at us and tried to create a game plan to combat us more effectively than simply parking the bus. The way we play leaves space so that if we team presses well, defends well and breaks in the right areas we can look vulnerable. The key for us is this really works best when we play the slow laboured football that dogged us 2 seasons ago. If the tempo is high no matter what the opposition do we will find space and even if they press hard if our passing is good we can simply run them into the ground.

On Saturday it took us far too long to get going and once we did we were in control but it was too late.

Need to get out tempo right on Sunday, hopefully we will see Fernandinho playing like last season, not the slightly off version we have had this season. He was far more important to us last season than most realise. I would be happy to seem himself and Yaya in the middle on Sunday with Yaya supplying the control and Fernandinho the tempo with Nasri, Milner Silva playing behind Kun.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Some proper numpties come out of the woodwork after a couple of poor results. Derby can't come soon enough.

Thing is the silly sod has picked Everton and Palace away as his examples, am I right in thinking we started Kun and Dzeko in both those games

You really really couldn't make it up :)

Apologies, I got it wrong. Aguero got injured just after he scored to make it 1-1 against Everton which we then brought Fernandinho on. Palace away we started both. So I'll hold my hands up.

Whilst I accept that I am a "numpty" and a "silly sod" last season wasn't as fucking perfect as we like to make out. Being 2-0 down at half time against Watford, getting knocked out by Wigan, drawing away at Blackburn are just a few examples.

We deserved to win the league on merit. We got the most points, scored the most etc etc but had the scousers not bottled it against Palace or Chelsea not bottled it at Palace away & Sunderland at home then no matter what we did we wouldn't have won the league.

The majority of that was down to poor tactics by the manager.

If you're happy with the way this season is going so far then you crack on. For me personally we look a shadow of what we were at the start of last season. We look slow, pedestrian and one dimensional.

See how the derby goes but if we play the way we have done in the last 2 games then the same people supporting Pellegrini in this thread will be the same one's back on here slagging him off.

And had we not lost silly games against Villa, Sunderland and Cardiff early in the season we would have been streets ahead

It just so happened that Liverpool and Chelsea chose the wrong time of year to drop their clangers, while we steam rolled through at the final hour

At no point have I said im happy with this season, but one thing im not going to do is throw my toys out because we're playing poorly and blaming everything on the formation and tactics of the manager, a few months after he has won us a league and cup double

We have looked every bit as slow and pedestrian as you have mentioned, the only difference to last season is we haven't given anyone a tonking at home like we were last season, but look at our home fixtures and tell me which one of them is a game which is straight forward?

If we don't get a decent result on Sunday then im sure there will be more people coming on here to jump down Pellegrini's throat, but im 99% sure that if we win you and the rest won't be on here saying what a good job he did, you'll hang on until we have another rocky patch

 

[Quinny851]

Thing is the silly sod has picked Everton and Palace away as his examples, am I right in thinking we started Kun and Dzeko in both those games

You really really couldn't make it up :)

Apologies, I got it wrong. Aguero got injured just after he scored to make it 1-1 against Everton which we then brought Fernandinho on. Palace away we started both. So I'll hold my hands up.

Whilst I accept that I am a "numpty" and a "silly sod" last season wasn't as fucking perfect as we like to make out. Being 2-0 down at half time against Watford, getting knocked out by Wigan, drawing away at Blackburn are just a few examples.

We deserved to win the league on merit. We got the most points, scored the most etc etc but had the scousers not bottled it against Palace or Chelsea not bottled it at Palace away & Sunderland at home then no matter what we did we wouldn't have won the league.

The majority of that was down to poor tactics by the manager.

If you're happy with the way this season is going so far then you crack on. For me personally we look a shadow of what we were at the start of last season. We look slow, pedestrian and one dimensional.

See how the derby goes but if we play the way we have done in the last 2 games then the same people supporting Pellegrini in this thread will be the same one's back on here slagging him off.

And had we not lost silly games against Villa, Sunderland and Cardiff early in the season we would have been streets ahead

It just so happened that Liverpool and Chelsea chose the wrong time of year to drop their clangers, while we steam rolled through at the final hour

At no point have I said im happy with this season, but one thing im not going to do is throw my toys out because we're playing poorly and blaming everything on the formation and tactics of the manager, a few months after he has won us a league and cup double

We have looked every bit as slow and pedestrian as you have mentioned, the only difference to last season is we haven't given anyone a tonking at home like we were last season, but look at our home fixtures and tell me which one of them is a game which is straight forward?

If we don't get a decent result on Sunday then im sure there will be more people coming on here to jump down Pellegrini's throat, but im 99% sure that if we win you and the rest won't be on here saying what a good job he did, you'll hang on until we have another rocky patch

I will give credit where it's due. Always will but I will voice my concerns when like another poster said both Fat Sam and Lesley have tactically out done our tactically astute leader.

Like Strongbow said I will eat a massive slice of humble pie if he proves me wrong.

Here's the thing I genuinely hope he does!!!!!

 

[uwe rosler 28]

1 up front and two or three of Silva, Jovetic and Nasri is more than adequate going forward for me. We've not looked solid in defense all year and I put much of that down to lack of numbers in midfield. 3 clean sheets (Villa, Newcastle and Sheff Wednesday) in 14 matches, and for me sorting that out needs to be a priority. If that means sacrificing a forward, then I'm fine with that.

This is where im leaning towards

It's not neccesarily a case of taking Dzeko out and putting 2 Ferns and Yaya into the midfield, its more a case of playing 3 of the likes of Silva, Nasri, Jovetic, Milner and Navas, and getting the combination of those 3 right based on the opposition

For example, on Sunday I would have Yaya and Fernando/dinho with Milner, Silva and Nasri (if fit)

Against West Ham I would have had Milner, Silva and Jovetic, against the lesser sides at home id probably play Navas instead of Milner

Its horses for courses and you do have to adapt to the opposition, but it doesn't neccesarily mean playing 3 solid central midfielders, playing 3 of the above ensures we keep the ball and make good use of it in the final third, but if you get the 3 wrong then were back to square one

I feel its about playing the right players in the right games we played the 4-2-3-1 agajnst spurs and were ripped apart at times maybe a change in approach is needed a bit less attacking aggression now and again.