Manuel Pellegrini

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Team V Rags

Hart

Zabba Kompany MDM Kolarov

Milner Fernandinho Yaya Silva

Aguero Jovetic

Subs Willy, Mangala, Fernando. Navas, Dzeko, Lampard,, Nasri

Dzeko, Navas and Clichy certainly shouldn't play based on this weeks performance. Not sure if Jovetic or Fernando should play.

 

[Balti]

well at least the players are happy now and he's not nasty to the poor things

 

[OB1]

There are only two coaches who could definitely a). take us even further than MP has and b). continue our style of entertaining football, and they are inconveniently occupied at 2 of world football's biggest jobs - Guardiola and (maybe) Ancelotti.

You could throw names around all day... Koeman, Klopp (doing a terrible job at the moment), Simeone (probably does not correspond to our club style), Vieira, De Boer... but only those two would offer any guarantees. And they aren't available. So get behind Pellegrini and support him till the day the club decide a change is needed (and the right manager is available).

Wise words.

The manager has got some issues to deal with but he clearly does not go in for knee jerk reactions, unlike some suporters.

He is not getting the performances that he wants from his players and he has to so something about that but he deserves to be allowed a decent amount of time to to so.

For once we'll disagree. It's all very well blaming the players, but when you keep picking teams that accentuate very obvious weaknesses within the squad, the flak is well deserved. Fernando isn't exactly light on his feet, he's an out and out defensive midfield enforcer, and continually putting him alongside the even more immobile Toure and expecting the pair of them to get up and down the pitch as a functional midfield partnership, is daft enough. To then compound that by adding Navas, a lightweight touchline hugger, to the mix (as we did today), so that the space infield for the opposition to play in is even greater, borders on outright idiocy. It's open season on our back 4 at the moment, with players running at them from all angles.

I am also uncomfortable with the idea of a club style. I don't want dogmatic inflexibility imposed either on or by a City manager. I want someone, who can adapt his style to account for the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition, not gormlessly opt for the same formation come what may and in the face of all reasonableness. Football is a constantly evolving affair, and a bit like dealing with the Borg on Star Trek, you only get a certain amount of time before the enemy adapts. Right now we look increasingly like a team that has been sussed and one which is overly reliant on the genius of one or two individuals at domestic level, and the concern is that we are just starting on a slow downward path much as we did under Mancini. Like you I wouldn't be keen to pull the trigger mid-season, but I would hope our owners are monitoring the progress of people like Simeone and Koeman in the event that an improvement is not forthcoming. I know I've got a tendency to flap, but there are plenty of alarm bells going off. Roma, CSKA, Stoke, West Ham, 2 clean sheets, etc etc

Be boring if we agreed on everything but we don't because you have mostly crap taste in music ;-)

What we do agree on is that you flap too much. However, I will not pretend that I am not concerned by our form this season and the similarities to our last title defence season, which will, in part, bring me back to questioning the mentality of some of our players.

As to today, I was not concerned or surprised by his team selection and until they scored, City were comfortable, despite being pressed: the Hammers barely touched the ball up to that point. The goal, which was a combination of poor defending and officiating, rocked City and boosted West Ham.

The question mark against Pellegrini today, for me, was did he respond quickly enough to the way that the game went away from us? He did make tactical adjustments and we did get back on top but then failed to take our chances.

I agree that the game evolves and City and Pellegrini have to evolve with it. I also sympathise with your view on club style to a degree but I do not think what City are looking for in that regard is so rigid as to be a problem and has far more pluses to it than minuses.

I repeat that Pellegrini and Co have to find answers to our current under-performance but we should afford them some time to do so. Tactics will need to be adapted and I am damn sure that, to get to where we want to go, the playing staff will need to be continually upgraded but some things cannot be done overnight.

Our next game will presumably see a very different line-up so let's see how they get on.

 

[bluechampion7891]

Team V Rags

Hart

Zabba Kompany MDM Kolarov

Milner Fernandinho Yaya Silva

Aguero Jovetic

Subs Willy, Mangala, Fernando. Navas, Dzeko, Lampard,, Nasri

I'd go with either:

-------------------Hart----------------------

Zabba Kompany Mangala Kolarov

-------- Fernandinho--- Yaya-------

Milner---------Silva------------Jovetic-----
------------------Aguero---------------------

Moving Silva infield allows him more freedom and Jovetic being a taller stronger lad should be able to provide better cover than Silva does on the flank.

Milner to contain Dobby, I think Fernandinho and Yaya should be able to deal with Blind and Herrera. If they play 442 diamond then we could easily shift to 433 by having Milner tuck in as a CM and Silva moving wide to match up with their numbers in Midfield. Mangala starts because if his pace, I dont think Demi can contain both Dobby and Mercenary Falcao.

 

[Blue Haze]

There are only two coaches who could definitely a). take us even further than MP has and b). continue our style of entertaining football, and they are inconveniently occupied at 2 of world football's biggest jobs - Guardiola and (maybe) Ancelotti.

You could throw names around all day... Koeman, Klopp (doing a terrible job at the moment), Simeone (probably does not correspond to our club style), Vieira, De Boer... but only those two would offer any guarantees. And they aren't available. So get behind Pellegrini and support him till the day the club decide a change is needed (and the right manager is available).

I'll take a manager who can get us playing at a higher intensity. MP is a good manager but too laid back, and too often our players look just as laid back on the pitch.

 

[FantasyIreland]

well at least the players are happy now and he's not nasty to the poor things

Why post inflammatory shite like that?

 

[Blankomania]

Was this the first time he used jovetic on the left of a five? Its a bit early to judge whether it works but hopefully it will turn out to be a good option

 

[LoveCity]

There are only two coaches who could definitely a). take us even further than MP has and b). continue our style of entertaining football, and they are inconveniently occupied at 2 of world football's biggest jobs - Guardiola and (maybe) Ancelotti.

You could throw names around all day... Koeman, Klopp (doing a terrible job at the moment), Simeone (probably does not correspond to our club style), Vieira, De Boer... but only those two would offer any guarantees. And they aren't available. So get behind Pellegrini and support him till the day the club decide a change is needed (and the right manager is available).

I'll take a manager who can get us playing at a higher intensity. MP is a good manager but too laid back, and too often our players look just as laid back on the pitch.

Pellegrini's former teams played with good intensity, just look at his overachieving Malaga team. Two completely different managers have now struggled to get this band of players to show the intensity of the great teams, whether because of the brutal schedule (extra competition to Spain) or something else. As I said after Tuesday night, I think the mentality of certain players has to be looked at. You see players who look like they would do whatever it takes for a win, but perhaps there are too many who seem to play with a sort of ambivalence as if it's a job rather than life-and-death to them. Some of Pellegrini's former players say he always demands hard work and full commitment but some of ours seem to give that only sporadically.

 

[Blankomania]

There are only two coaches who could definitely a). take us even further than MP has and b). continue our style of entertaining football, and they are inconveniently occupied at 2 of world football's biggest jobs - Guardiola and (maybe) Ancelotti.

You could throw names around all day... Koeman, Klopp (doing a terrible job at the moment), Simeone (probably does not correspond to our club style), Vieira, De Boer... but only those two would offer any guarantees. And they aren't available. So get behind Pellegrini and support him till the day the club decide a change is needed (and the right manager is available).

I'll take a manager who can get us playing at a higher intensity. MP is a good manager but too laid back, and too often our players look just as laid back on the pitch.

Do we have the players for high intensity?

 

[Balti]

well at least the players are happy now and he's not nasty to the poor things

Why post inflammatory shite like that?

why is it inflammatory?

the dressing room is happier by all accounts