Manuel Pellegrini

[GaudinoMotors]

This thread is hilarious, and conclusive proof ( not that it were needed) as to just how breathtakingly little some of the forums biggest mouths know about football.

For a start, the manager got the big calls right before the game. The inclusion of Milner was right, navas was right and so was jovetic and de Michelis. He sent them out there aggressive but (unlike United) controlled and we were easily the better side. It could easily have been 4 or 5 nil and we defended well. When Nasri came on United were on the ropes and it was exactly the right change because big gaps were opening up in midfield, and he put him in a three man midfield in a 433. Soon after he came on he almost created a goal from that very hole.

we needed to get fernandinho on to steady the ship in central midfield, because they were starting to win a few battles there and our back four started panicking in possession. What pellegrini was doing was exactly what you balloons have been on his back for: shoring things up to see out the game.

I know you clowns don't see it like this, but substitutions are not 'he's playing shit, get him off'. They are tactical and that's what today's were. United saw a bit of the ball late on evacuee our back four stopped using the ball properly.

If the changes made had produced the goal they so nearly did (three times) you muppets wouldn't have been quite so desperate to come on here to berate the manager you resent.

Comical. Well done pellegrini for sending the right team out to win your third Derby on the trot. Just when the pressure was on.

As usual DD you write well but not necessarily factually.
Although I agree with all you say about team selection and mentality, in no way did the double substitution contribute to the win. The win was in spite of that change not because of it.
Everything else Pellegrini got spot on today and I couldn't be more delighted for him.
Some paranoid people on here who see every discussion or observation as something more sinister.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I was saying that the subs were done for a reason, not that they contributed to the win. I was quite happy with all of them when they happened - I could see what he was trying to achieve.

The biggest mistake pellegrini made for me was picking kolorov at left back. It might well have been a different story had he not got injured.

 

[Marvin]

I think most football fans would accept that Jurgen Klopp is one of the games best managers yet his team is now 2nd from bottom of the Bundesliga.
Barcelona also lost 1-0 at home in La Liga. So what? Good managers of good teams can lose games.

LVG is supposed to be one of the top managers in the game, but 5 minutes in I thought we're going to win this. Why? Because their back 4 were sat on the half-way line and it was meat and drink for Navas and Aguero.

 

[BlueAnorak]

I was saying that the subs were done for a reason, not that they contributed to the win. I was quite happy with all of them when they happened - I could see what he was trying to achieve.

The biggest mistake pellegrini made for me was picking kolorov at left back. It might well have been a different story had he not got injured.

The subs today were one of the worst sets of of substitutions I have ever seen by a City manager. Pellegrini took off both City's best players (Milner and Aguero) and as a result it should come as no surprise to anyone that we then tried our best to implode and hand a point to Utd.

 

[BobKowalski]

I know mate, and bottom line is we won, however that last 20 was pretty horrific.

Against 10 men we didn't need to take any risks and dominating with the extra man in the middle and Yaya further forward was by far and away what should have happened.

It was so bad that for a 5/10 minute period Dzeko was actually playing left wing with Nasri tucked in behind Sergio, until he got Dinho on.

I've watched the last 20 again since getting back and it was awful.

We were under the cosh, definitely, but I felt it was because we kept giving it back to them: A confidence thing.

When the wife's gone to bed I'm going to watch the 90 on telly. That's if she's Sky plussed it properly. Got back him from the last OT Derby, poured a beer and put it on only to find shed missed the first half and it had 'clashed' with one of her daft crime series before the third goal. Talk about gutted.

I'm feeling very optimistic. A good win on Wednesday and the season is very much alive again. We have got a great run of fixtures coming up to get the team collectively playing well again.

I thought there were loads of good things today: we defended well, pressed well and showed great composure for most of the game. Again we missed a bagful of chances, but any win without Silva will do nicely.

Not had chance to watch any of the TV coverage yet and doubt I will get through the whole game tonight; will watch some plus MotD. That won't change my opinion that there are some seriously miserable souls on here or that too much is being made of the subs. I wasn't thrilled to see Milner go off and would just have started by replacing Jovetic with Nasri but I agree with your comment that a manager cannot know for sure what will transpire when he makes subs and, what's more, what follows may not be all down to the changes made, which I believe was the case today: ridiculous lack of composure shown by City at the end could well have transpired if Milner, for instance, had been on the park. The players City had out there should have been perfectly capable of passing the ball to one another and making their extra man count but they let nerves get to them. This is not the first time, by any means, that they have displayed this fragility: it's a recurring problem and a maddening one but it is not Pellegrini's fault.

In fairness that lack of composure drove me insane. Subbing Milner for Nasri precipitated the collapse in composure. It was a chain reaction and ended up with Pellers subbing Sergio for Fernandinho to try and put a halt to the debacle. It didn't. That lack of composure or bottle or simple failure to control the game a goal and the man to the good caused me more grief then the loss to West Ham or Newcastle. In those games the opposition played better and won. It happens. There was no excuse for that abomination that was the last 20 mins of today's game.

But 8 hours or so later and having calmed down and watched MOTD I now blame the ref for his failure to award at least one out of the half dozen or so penalty incidents. Such is life and its fickle ways.

Our fragility though is a recurring problem and I am not sure I see a solution to it. Kompany talked about gradually returning to form and how the way we play makes it difficult when the players are out of form. So either we adapt the way we play to get the players over this loss of form, as positive results and performances enhance confidence and with confidence we can get back to playing the way the club ethos dictates, or we carry on and battle through it.

Personally I think the players need a bit of help but I doubt Pellers is for turning given he mentions about continuing with the 'way we play' at every presser these days.

 

[Marvin]

I was saying that the subs were done for a reason, not that they contributed to the win. I was quite happy with all of them when they happened - I could see what he was trying to achieve.

The biggest mistake pellegrini made for me was picking kolorov at left back. It might well have been a different story had he not got injured.

The subs today were one of the worst sets of of substitutions I have ever seen by a City manager. Pellegrini took off both City's best players (Milner and Aguero) and as a result it should come as no surprise to anyone that we then tried our best to implode and hand a point to Utd.

I agree that the balance of play swung towards Utd in the last 15 mins, but that's not because of the subs. It was because Utd had nothing to lose and at 1-0 nerves and tension creep in.

Half of Bluemoon lost the plot in the build-up to this game

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Subs can change games for better or worse. The reason you make them is to change the system, replace players who are tired or aren't playing well and/or give players recovering from injury some game time.

Jovetic wasn't playing well so using Nasri to replace him at around 65 minutes would have been quite logical. Fernandinho to replace Navas to tighten things up in the middle for the last 15 minutes also would have made sense. Yet he took Milner off who had been protecting Clichy and doing an excellent job generally and there was no need to bring Dzeko on at all, particularly given the way he stunk the place out on Wednesday and at West Ham. Aguero was doing fine and neither him nor Milner seem to need a rest.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Subs can change games for better or worse. The reason you make them is to change the system, replace players who are tired or aren't playing well and/or give players recovering from injury some game time.

Jovetic wasn't playing well so using Nasri to replace him at around 65 minutes would have been quite logical. Fernandinho to replace Navas to tighten things up in the middle for the last 15 minutes also would have made sense. Yet he took Milner off who had been protecting Clichy and doing an excellent job generally and there was no need to bring Dzeko on at all, particularly given the way he stunk the place out on Wednesday and at West Ham. Aguero was doing fine and neither him nor Milner seem to need a rest.

Quite.

 

[Marvin]

Subs can change games for better or worse. The reason you make them is to change the system, replace players who are tired or aren't playing well and/or give players recovering from injury some game time.

Jovetic wasn't playing well so using Nasri to replace him at around 65 minutes would have been quite logical. Fernandinho to replace Navas to tighten things up in the middle for the last 15 minutes also would have made sense. Yet he took Milner off who had been protecting Clichy and doing an excellent job generally and there was no need to bring Dzeko on at all, particularly given the way he stunk the place out on Wednesday and at West Ham. Aguero was doing fine and neither him nor Milner seem to need a rest.

Aguero had a great game but he had run his legs off.

We had to use our subs during an intense game. Sadly some have painted themselves into a corner now and are looking to criticise everything.

Utd were chasing the game but took off RVP. Tiredness is a factor

 

[stony]

Subs can change games for better or worse. The reason you make them is to change the system, replace players who are tired or aren't playing well and/or give players recovering from injury some game time.

Jovetic wasn't playing well so using Nasri to replace him at around 65 minutes would have been quite logical. Fernandinho to replace Navas to tighten things up in the middle for the last 15 minutes also would have made sense. Yet he took Milner off who had been protecting Clichy and doing an excellent job generally and there was no need to bring Dzeko on at all, particularly given the way he stunk the place out on Wednesday and at West Ham. Aguero was doing fine and neither him nor Milner seem to need a rest.

Aguero had a great game but he had run his legs off.

We had to use our subs during an intense game. Sadly some have painted themselves into a corner now and are looking to criticise everything.

Utd were chasing the game but took off RVP. Tiredness is a factor

He was hardly pulling up trees, in fact he looked fucking dogshit. A shadow of the player who won them the league a couple of years ago.