Manuel Pellegrini

[ianw16]

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.

Who is next in line-I hope the club are planning for life after Pelle and I am sure they are.
I'd love Klopp or Simeone

Please God, not Simeone. Have you seen how AM play? Worse than watching Mourinho's lot. We obviously want to play in a certain way, and Simeone does not fit that blueprint.

 

[Chippy_boy]

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.

I think it's because he played Demechelis and didn't want to be exposed for pace down the left. Hindsight he'd have been better going with Mangala and AK.

Often we've heard that Clichy is preferred over Kolarov for his pace and defensive abilities, but he's on a terrible run of form and offers nothing at the moment.

That he would be terrible again last night is not hindsight, it was pretty obvious before a ball was kicked. Kolarov should have started all day long, and in front of MDM if needs be. Yes we may have been exposed defensively. More than we were anyway? No.

 

[BillyShears]

He could have played Yaya, Fern and Lampard in the middle, with Jimmy and Merlin. 1 up top.

It might on one hand seem a tad negative but you need control in these chumps games.

One other element I'd like to see is a bit more "in-game" flexibility from MP. He should be capable of switching to a different system if things aren't working which in theory would have been done pretty early in the first half.

That's the change he made in the first 15 minutes of the second half, and we didn't look any more threatening IMO.

In terms of in game flexibility, well he made the changes that you are suggesting he should've started with, and one of them came at half time.

Think you're being a tad harsh here mate. If Fernando, Nasri, Jovetic had been fit, and he'd have picked that team I'd be agreeing with you, but with the injuries we had it was difficult. For all the shit that Nasri takes, he is there precisely to control games and to control the football. Something which neither Milner nor Navas do with any great effect because they're dynamic direct running players.

 

[supercity88]

To give credit to Pellegrini he doesn't stick to the 4-4-2 regardless of the opposition. He has shown respect to teams before by altering it, and even if we do play a 4-4-2 in broad terms, often it is altered so that off the ball we have a bolstered midfield. Last night we were poor. I think given the quality of the two sides, a 4-4-2 from us, when we are passing well and getting forward quickly, would win that game. We didn't do that though, and it was easy for Roma to keep the ball. Pellegrini did change it though and we improved. Oddly, despite having a more settled side this season - we haven't got that balance quite right yet. Kompany is still making mistakes with the high line defending - often getting caught out when trying to win the ball. I think Fernando has been a real loss of late as with Yaya clearly being off the pace, Fernandinho is having to cover the both of them and just can't do it. When Fernando is back hopefully it will help Mangala settle and our play be a bit more balanced.

In the CL, because we don't have that player who can run rings round the opposition and bang it in the net (unless Yaya steps up) then we should play 4-2-3-1 with Fernando and Fernandinho bossing the midfield and not giving the opposition anytime on the ball. We can then play Silva, Yaya and Milner (or a variation on that) across the 3 and Aguero or Dzeko up top with Lampard coming on late to help get a hold on the game and make those runs into the box. Games come thick and fast though and you have to win, or try to win them all. Milner probably needed a rest if Pellegrini plans to play him at Villa, as he should.

 

[Delia Smith]

Anyone moaning about Pellers needs their head testing. He needs a good few years in charge, we can't keep changing managers.

He's still learning and to be honest hasn't got a squad equipped for CL yet.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I know you're not the biggest fan of the "four, four, fucking two" argument, however I think the reason it has an element of "legs" about it is just due to how ineffectual Yaya is at the moment, and has been in most of our champs league campaigns. Teams just know to keep it away from him with little triangles and close him down quickly when he's got the ball. It's just all too predictable and MP needs to mix it up a bit. Obviously lack of Fernando was a huge blow but there's plenty of other stuff he could have tried.

I think he's too dogmatic in his insistence on using 442, but that's not a criticism of the system, and I guess the point I'm making is that the squad is to a greater or lesser extent shaped in that way. We have three central midfield players in total and one of them is currently injured. We've got three creative midfield players, again one of them is injured. I take your point that he could try other things, but he's not that kind of manager. It's been said oft enough but he isn't Mourinho, he won't set up a team for the result, he's got his belief in the way football should be played and his team will play that way. In many respects he was employed because of his footballing beliefs.

I'm deeply disappointed about the result last night, but I don't think we're "out" by a long stretch. Our top players aren't on top form which considering we're into October is a bit disappointing, but it will come. Roma will have to be more adventurous when we go there and we have the players to make them pay.

We shall see.

I think there is some kind of paradox here. His footballing beliefs will not win the CL against middling kind of sides who do the basics well. Roma are not a great side. Bayern in their pomp should see them off, unless we get another signing of an Axis Pact and they play for a couple of results that shaft us!

I cannot see, even now, that if we need three points out of the last game Pellegrini would look to tighten the ship and try and nick it. It'll be the 'total football' approach and we'll shoot ourselves in the foot by the most reliable player indulging in a moment of footballing madness.

 

[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.

Who is next in line-I hope the club are planning for life after Pelle and I am sure they are.
I'd love Klopp or Simeone

12 months is a long time in football. However on last night's showing I'd suggest that Garcia would be high on any list of potential replacements for Pellegrini.

For me it would have to be Klopp though. Everyone else comes a distant second to him. Anyway lets not throw the baby out with the bath water. This time last year don't forget you were calling Pellegrini a clueless old fucker who was never going to win anything at City. ;)

 

[Damocles]

I think we need to be a bit careful here in how we use hindsight to judge the team he set out. When the first XI came out, I was positively excited at the idea of Silva and Navas running at two 32+ year old full backs who lack pace and like to get themselves forwards. In addition to Aguero playing off Dzeko and our strongest defensive fullbacks then it looked like a promising and ambitious team.

Many times in the CL I do think that we often lack the ambition to really go out and have a go at teams like we do in the PL, and Pellegrini to his credit wanted that forward thinking mentality. Unfortunately for him it didn't pay-off as Cole and Maicon rolled back the years and turned in excellent performances that were somewhat unexpected, leaving us looking extremely light defensively with Silva and Navas.

I thought Silva had one of his worst games in a City shirt defensively and he has this really irritating habit of McManaman like pointing. He is great defensively when he has to track runners and get a foot in but when he has to press them face on then he tends to stand around and point to other people. On the other wing, I don't know how good Navas is defensively because I've never seen him defend to any degree.

Pellegrini certainly made some big changes that made a huge difference to the game; Lampard and Milner coming on flipped the story of the game and we really should have won it from that point. I thought he took off the wrong player when bringing on Lampard and Dzeko should have stayed on whilst Aguero went off who was ineffective. This would have allowed Dzeko to still give us an aerial threat up front that we badly lacked and he is better than Aguero in connecting from wide play that Milner would give us and I think Lampard benefits from his type of attacking football better than the tippy-tappy that Aguero seems to want to play.

Speaking of tippy-tappy play, I'm reminded recently of our time under Mancini late on where at times we are putting three or four passes together in the 18 yard box. It seems that any time our team is under pressure they revert to this style of football which is enormously frustrating to watch and does nothing to help our own problems with atmosphere.

Lastly, I've become really really pissed off with our attacking set pieces this year. We always have numerous corners per game and we very rarely put a shot on target either due to poor delivery or because we play it short then get caught in two minds and the attack breaks down. A good example of this was the Milner free kick which was about 25 yards out last night; instead of just challenging the keeper, we tried to perform some intricate training ground routine that involved 8 passes and it just went nowhere and gave them the opportunity to counter. That's actually the worst thing about our terrible set pieces, not only are we not challenging the opposition enough but they are becoming a negative because teams are countering us effectively from them. What should be a huge positive to our chances of winning are becoming not an even thing but are hurting us. This season so far we would have been more successful if when we gained a corner, we just kicked it out immediately for a goal kick and not allowed them the chance to counter.

 

[ianw16]

To give credit to Pellegrini he doesn't stick to the 4-4-2 regardless of the opposition. He has shown respect to teams before by altering it, and even if we do play a 4-4-2 in broad terms, often it is altered so that off the ball we have a bolstered midfield. Last night we were poor. I think given the quality of the two sides, a 4-4-2 from us, when we are passing well and getting forward quickly, would win that game. We didn't do that though, and it was easy for Roma to keep the ball. Pellegrini did change it though and we improved. Oddly, despite having a more settled side this season - we haven't got that balance quite right yet. Kompany is still making mistakes with the high line defending - often getting caught out when trying to win the ball. I think Fernando has been a real loss of late as with Yaya clearly being off the pace, Fernandinho is having to cover the both of them and just can't do it. When Fernando is back hopefully it will help Mangala settle and our play be a bit more balanced.

In the CL, because we don't have that player who can run rings round the opposition and bang it in the net (unless Yaya steps up) then we should play 4-2-3-1 with Fernando and Fernandinho bossing the midfield and not giving the opposition anytime on the ball. We can then play Silva, Yaya and Milner (or a variation on that) across the 3 and Aguero or Dzeko up top with Lampard coming on late to help get a hold on the game and make those runs into the box. Games come thick and fast though and you have to win, or try to win them all. Milner probably needed a rest if Pellegrini plans to play him at Villa, as he should.

In all honesty, I was gobsmacked that Milner didn't start last night. He's not one of these namby pamby showhorses who needs a rest after playing a couple of games in a row.
If we play a 4 man midfield, and Silva and Toure are 2 of those 4, then you cannot start with Navas. We just ceded the midfield. Thankfully we got a penalty early on, or we'd be out of the competition for sure by now. I really thought he'd swallow his pride and play a 4-5-1. But no, same old same old. Without Mangala and Fernando in the team as well, it just looked naive in the extreme.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

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.

Who is next in line-I hope the club are planning for life after Pelle and I am sure they are.
I'd love Klopp or Simeone

12 months is a long time in football. However on last night's showing I'd suggest that Garcia would be high on any list of potential replacements for Pellegrini.

For me it would have to be Klopp though. Everyone else comes a distant second to him. Anyway lets not throw the baby out with the bath water. This time last year don't forget you were calling Pellegrini a clueless old fucker who was never going to win anything at City. ;)

And I was proven wrong however this Champs league thingy.......