Manuel Pellegrini

[mammutly]

The problem with creativity and flair is that teams like Stoke are happy for you to be as creative and as flairy as you want as long as it's 25 yards plus away from their goal.

The short passing game is very difficult when the final third or quarter of the pitch is so congested and the opposition is comfortable just staying there.

We had a big problem two years ago where we couldn't break defensive teams down efficiently. But we've eradicated it by introducing width and movement. That's what I'm trying to say. If we get a succession of these games like we did then then we have a problem. But we haven't. Every team comes to the Etihad to contain us, because they'd be fools not to. But we know how to break them down, by being patient and stretching the play and not panicking if the magic doesn't quite happen. Last season there were loads of games like yesterday's: remember the penultimate game against villa? Hull? Cardiff?

We are that good that if we stick to our guns, vary it a bit, keep the ball moving, look to overlap and play around the opposition's box, then once we get one we usually get a bagful. The days of us getting narrower and narrower as we get desperate are behind us.

There's no problem here. There's no effort or attitude or tactical problem. Maybe a bit of a lack of sharpness, but that's understandable.

That's what frustrates and annoys me. we did have this problem two years ago and we still have it, albeit less often. The overlaps, the edges are one way to deal with it, but yesterday we didn't play our best overlapping players (Zaba, Clichy and Milner) and we only had real width when Navas came on, so I do think there were tactical errors.

We are not that good (yet) that we can impose our style on the opposition and there have to be times that we play a more direct game. We saw this problem last season, against Hull and Wigan particularly. We can't afford to drop early season points this year lack we did last time. Chelsea look too sharp for that.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

The credit will come for him this season. As we continue to fulfil our true potential, the whole world will sit up and notice. And he will take enormous credit from all quarters because there's absolutely nothing not to admire and respect him for. He's intelligent, he's decent, he's popular, he's magnanimous...and his football is sublime.

The best manager I've ever had the pleasure of managing my club. How refreshing it is to turn up at the ground and feel pleased every week that he's picked the right team. How great it is to see him run rings around the journalists, sitting there on a higher plane, one step ahead. How superb it is to trust that he's looking after our prize assets, motivating them, making them hungry for more. And how superb it is to finally be off the front pages, and to be operating as a unit, a team.

What a decision by the club to appoint this man. He is making the sheikh's dreams, and mine, come true. He will lift the Champions league trophy for this club soon.

Dropped a ricket yesterday IMO DD not picking Dzeko from the off. Agree with everything else though

Did you think? I was happy with the side put out, I fact I predicted all eleven.

I thought the one sub that didn't work was dzeko for jovetic. Jovetic wasn't playing well but has that spark to open a packed defence. But dzeko does get goals in Those situations from loose balls I suppose.

Just one of those once-a-season games where all the key players underperform and the opposition ride their luck to me. No big deal.

I would pick Dzeko every time against bus parkers. He has a proven track record of breaking the deadlock in games like yesterday's (Palace and Villa last season being good examples). Might not have been as effective as usual without Zab in the team, but he still has a bit of much needed penalty area presence. I was dismayed that he wasn't playing from the start

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

City usually play the channels exceptionally well to pull central defenders out of position and to create space between defenders. The second goal against Liverpool was a good example. We have players who can change games in other ways, many other ways - the C1C final was a good example. And we have players who can simply get us bread and butter goals when we aren't playing well or we just need them. Yesterday none of these things happened, but to put it down to laziness is cretinously stupid, and is accurately dubbed "fan talk" rather than analysis. The team didn't play well, and it frustrated them more than it did us. What they will be working hard to ensure is that it doesn't happen again for a long time.

Good post as usual

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Dropped a ricket yesterday IMO DD not picking Dzeko from the off. Agree with everything else though

Did you think? I was happy with the side put out, I fact I predicted all eleven.

I thought the one sub that didn't work was dzeko for jovetic. Jovetic wasn't playing well but has that spark to open a packed defence. But dzeko does get goals in Those situations from loose balls I suppose.

Just one of those once-a-season games where all the key players underperform and the opposition ride their luck to me. No big deal.

I would pick Dzeko every time against bus parkers. He has a proven track record of breaking the deadlock in games like yesterday's (Palace and Villa last season being good examples). Might not have been as effective as usual without Zab in the team, but he still has a bit of much needed penalty area presence. I was dismayed that he wasn't playing from the start

Points taken, but he had to perm one striker from two, and jovetic would have been very disappointed not to start. He and aguero look our best pairing potentially to me. You don't know what personal issues the manager is juggling, and what he's said to jovetic, either, with regards to keeping the shirt or whatever.

If it was me I would have started with jovetic and aguero. Against arsenal it's a tough call. Interesting discussion, even more so if falcau joins!

 

[cibaman]

Dropped a ricket yesterday IMO DD not picking Dzeko from the off. Agree with everything else though

Did you think? I was happy with the side put out, I fact I predicted all eleven.

I thought the one sub that didn't work was dzeko for jovetic. Jovetic wasn't playing well but has that spark to open a packed defence. But dzeko does get goals in Those situations from loose balls I suppose.

Just one of those once-a-season games where all the key players underperform and the opposition ride their luck to me. No big deal.

I would pick Dzeko every time against bus parkers. He has a proven track record of breaking the deadlock in games like yesterday's (Palace and Villa last season being good examples). Might not have been as effective as usual without Zab in the team, but he still has a bit of much needed penalty area presence. I was dismayed that he wasn't playing from the start

Jovetic deserved to start after his display against Liverpool. Pellegrini probably thought that Aguero needed more than a substitute's appearance. Dzeko might not have been fully fit after his knock in the Liverpool game, And many of his deadlock breaking goals have been as a sub.

I think you could make a case for any of the possible striker permutations. I wouldn't really argue with the one that Pellegrini chose. I've expressed doubts before as to whether Aguero and Jovetic are suitable as a pairing but we will not know until they're tried a few times.

 

[supercity88]

The Jovetic and Aguero partnership is the one that many of us feel will be the most successful, but it is yet to take off. I think Pellegrini is still allowing players time to get back to fitness and I think with the squad we now have he is happy to allow players more time to recover. Last season Dzeko would have started but with Jovetic in form and Aguero scoring two in about 25mins of being on the pitch he probably felt those two deserved to start to allow Edin time to get over the knock.

It just didn't work. The best teams in the world have off days from time to time and it shows how far we have come that we generally just don't lose at home. It's a real pain though to beat Liverpool and then lose at home to Stoke. We really need to go and win at the Emirates to get back on track and will need to beat Chelsea to claw points back. They look very good already, Costa has really given them that extra spark and though it is early days and Everton weren't as tough as usual, they have put down a real marker. I am sure they will slip up at times and have a day like we did. But we need to be taking 4pts from Arsenal and Chelsea now, and ideally the 3pts come from Chelsea.

 

[cheddar404]

I had no problem with the starting line up, in fact I thought it was frighteningly good when it was read out. We started reasonably well, passing quickly and using the full width of the pitch and If we'd scored early, I'm sure we would have won. As it was, Stoke executed the perfect game plan to stop us from winning with the added bonus from their point of view of a freak goal which reminded me of some of the goals we conceded early on last year - schoolboy stuff really. There's no way we should concede directly from one of our corners. I don't think we need to read too much into the result or performance but Chelsea do look strong and with our relatively difficult start, this was a must win game. Oh well, we never do it the easy way.

 

[Zabbasbeard]

Maybe Navas could come on earlier but I've no issue with the selected team, especially if Dzeko is carrying an injury - he was in pain in the Liverpool game. We didn't move the ball quick enough, and the passes at the crucial time were misplaced.
We had a collective off day creatively and normally you wouldn't get Biram Diouf running past both our left back and covering defensive midfield player, then slip the ball through Joe's legs. Fernandinho was too square on and Joe's body shape was awful too,
Stoke worked hard and were organised, we had a bad day. Credit to Stoke. We'll just have to make up for in other games (Arsenal, Chelsea, Sunderland - maybe we'll beat the latter at SoL?)
Defeats like this happen in football sometimes.

 

[Len Rum]

In the MEN Pellers is reported as not blaming the ref's failure to give a clear penalty for our defeat yesterday. Of course he's right as there were many other reasons why we lost. I also remember him saying this in a previous game we lost.
But is he missing a trick here in that by being very fair and reasonable in his comments refs feel under less pressure to give decisions our way at the Etihad?

Good to see that Pellers has now decided to be more outspoken following that performance by Clattenburg.
This should put refs under more pressure when officiating in our games.

 

[Love Bites and Everything]

In the MEN Pellers is reported as not blaming the ref's failure to give a clear penalty for our defeat yesterday. Of course he's right as there were many other reasons why we lost. I also remember him saying this in a previous game we lost.
But is he missing a trick here in that by being very fair and reasonable in his comments refs feel under less pressure to give decisions our way at the Etihad?

Good to see that Pellers has now decided to be more outspoken following that performance by Clattenburg.
This should put refs under more pressure when officiating in our games.

It had to be done after today.

I'm not saying we were robbed, I think a draw may be a fair result, but Clattenburg showed a level of bias inconsistency today that goes beyond 'chance'.