Manuel Pellegrini

[cibaman]

Why don't we play 4-3-3, like the rest of the club. It would prevent getting run over in midfield and still have numbers in attack and defence.

Hart
Zabaleta Kompany Mangala Kolarov
Fernandinho Toure Fernando
Navas Aguero Silva

In his post match comments, he is comparing the game against Hull and this, that we played well with 2 strikers. Its fucking Hull ffs, unbelievable that he is comparing Hull with Roma.

Neither Silva or Navas seem to me to be suited to playing in 4-3-3. Navas is an out and out wide player, Silva floats about too much, hence we were badly exposed on our left yesterday. 4-3-3 probably is the long term solution, but at the moment I dont think we have the players for it. And they're too accustomed to the default two striker option.

 

[dancity19]

In fairness to Pellegrini we have had our hands tied somewhat with the injury to Fernando, and to a lesser extend Jovetic.

He has to realise, though, that we can't play a 442 with Yaya in the middle in games like that; it almost always doesn't work.
There are plenty of other formations that can still be just as attacking, if not more so.

Fernando
dinho Yaya
silva
aguero dzeko

This would enable Yaya to attack a lot more due to the cover Fernando provides. Fernandinho would also be able to get forward more (very narrow though)

Fernando Fernandiho
Jov/nav/nas/milner Yaya Silva
Aguero

Key games now in the Champions League - we have to progress. We have had a below par to the season, and need to step up really.

 

[Gabriel]

First of October and we still haven't played a full game with our most powerful eleven (imo).

Hart
Zabaleta
Kompany
Mangala
Kolarov
Fernando
Fernandinho
Nasri
Toure
Silva
Aguero

Starting to wonder if we'll see them all together at all before ACON. :-(

 

[leighton]

I think Pellegrini will find it hard and pressure will be on if we go out of the champions league with a wimper. I think we can still do it I think we can go to Rome and win there if Pellegrini plays the right players and tatics we were over run in midfield and played poorly. MDM needs to replaced by Mangala and keep him and Kompany playing together we need speed in the defence more so against teams who counter attack us at speed. I have faith in Pellegrini to turn it around and for us to go on a winning run sooner rather than later. The group of death will go to the wire no doubting it.

 

[BillyShears]

I think the biggest factor is that with smaller clubs he had to take account of the opposition and set up his teams to counteract what he was facing. With City he seems to have a touch of arrogance based on always leaving it to the opponents to worry about us, it isn't such a bad mentality however it's being proven to come up short in the bigger games in the Chumps. We need to keep the opposition guessing a little and not be so predictable.

I think he was hamstrung by injuries last night. We've had a lot of fixtures over the last two weeks and I can understand the need to rest Milner and Mangala. The problem continues to be that creatively the left hand side of our attack is just a black hole which gets found out time and time again in Europe because we simply don't have a threat out there.

I haven't bothered to read everything from last night but I daresay it's all about "four four fucking two". I'm curious as to what kind of a team others would've picked. You can stick Milner in the middle with Toure and Fernandinho but we won't keep the ball any better than we did last night. Seeing how ineffective both Edin and Kun were for the most part I'm not sure playing with one of them as a lone striker would've made a heap of difference.

There's a lack of balance in the squad which is highlighted by the injuries to Nasri and Fernando. We miss an attacking creative midfield player and we miss a genuine world class central midfield player.

 

[CityFan94]

If we get knocked out of the CL in the group stages, the pressure will be on Pellegrini big time.

Our owners want CL success and they only have to look at PSG (I see them as similar) to see it shouldn't be as hard as we're making it.

 

[80s Shorts]

If he could do wonders with Malaga and Villareal,with the little resources that those clubs had and reaching the champions league SF,then why is he faltering when it comes to City,which is comfortably ahead of those two clubs in terms of the quality of players and the resources available? Players lack of effort is one thing,but getting tactically out witted in both the seasons is another thing.

Morning raggy. Did you enjoy your wumming last night.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I think the biggest factor is that with smaller clubs he had to take account of the opposition and set up his teams to counteract what he was facing. With City he seems to have a touch of arrogance based on always leaving it to the opponents to worry about us, it isn't such a bad mentality however it's being proven to come up short in the bigger games in the Chumps. We need to keep the opposition guessing a little and not be so predictable.

I think he was hamstrung by injuries last night. We've had a lot of fixtures over the last two weeks and I can understand the need to rest Milner and Mangala. The problem continues to be that creatively the left hand side of our attack is just a black hole which gets found out time and time again in Europe because we simply don't have a threat out there.

I have no clue why Clichy keeps getting a start ahead of Kolarov though. He's dreadful going forward and has been off form in defence all season. He offers absolutely nothing, whereas at least Kolarov can attack, put a cross in, shoot and take free kicks. Clichy can do none of those things. I nearly fainted when Clichy put his 1 cross in last night. First of the season I think.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

In fairness to Pellegrini we have had our hands tied somewhat with the injury to Fernando, and to a lesser extend Jovetic.

He has to realise, though, that we can't play a 442 with Yaya in the middle in games like that; it almost always doesn't work.
There are plenty of other formations that can still be just as attacking, if not more so.

Fernando
dinho Yaya
silva
aguero dzeko

This would enable Yaya to attack a lot more due to the cover Fernando provides. Fernandinho would also be able to get forward more (very narrow though)

Fernando Fernandiho
Jov/nav/nas/milner Yaya Silva
Aguero

Key games now in the Champions League - we have to progress. We have had a below par to the season, and need to step up really.

I think that Pellegrini will not change his philosophy regardless of what needs to be done on a match by match basis. I have been amused by the criticism before he actually signed that he had never won a title in Europe. Winning the PL and the C1Cup is a different kettle of fish than performing mightily in the CL. You cannot set up as though you were playing a bottom half of the PL team, and hope the inherent quality in the team will rise to the top. There are too many variables over which no manager, not even St Jose, has any control. The ref last night was one of the better ones we have had but he still ignored the handball, still didn't give Maicon the red card, still booked Zab and ignored similar challenges by Roma players.

 

[BillyShears]

If we get knocked out of the CL in the group stages, the pressure will be on Pellegrini big time.

Our owners want CL success and they only have to look at PSG (I see them as similar) to see it shouldn't be as hard as we're making it.

Pellegrini isn't going to be open to the same kind of scrutiny as Mancini was in his last season. I have absolutely no doubt that even if we don't progress from the group stages and we finish 3rd in the league he'll be given a hefty transfer budget and will see out the final year of his contract. Txiki and co employed him knowing what his footballing philosophy was and no matter how the results pan out it's clear overall he is an excellent coach and man manager who is a credit to both himself and the club.