Our owners - next move?

[adr2.8i]

With regards to the Manager would you not agree that Pellers was always a stop gap until we got Pep?

That was my impression anyway

That was always my impression too.

 

[BobKowalski]

Whatever our owners next move is I trust it will be not to panic. Thats our job.

Actually we know what the next move will be. Grow the business on and off the pitch. You just have to look at what it was 5 years ago and where it is now and then project forward. It will not involve gutting the current squad. Chucking out half the squad is just fan talk.

Will repeat what I said in another thread:

This squad is good enough to compete in Europe. It has been good enough to compete in Europe for the past 4 years. Yes we have been hindered by FFP but PSG have been hit with the same FFP restrictions and they still compete. We are not talking about winning the CL we are talking about competing. We are talking about beating teams like CSKA Moscow which we can do right now and did so 12 months ago. We are not asking for much. Even our owners are not asking for the impossible. Just compete.

Compete. So why don't we compete? Last night we could have played whatever formation you liked and probably still lost. Its in their heads. For starters the players have so little faith in the way they prepare and set up for CL games we are pretty much beat before we get on the pitch. You can bring in a Di Maria or whoever right now and we would still be awful just as ManU were fairly awful on Sunday because for a lot of their players beating us is the impossible dream. Right now competing in the CL is the impossible dream. Nothing to do with pace, or formations. Right now its about confidence. Even Kompany has now got it into his head its about refs and conspiracies and once you start the match believing that well guess what? It will happen.

Confidence and belief allows you to think faster, move the ball faster, pass with better precision and so on. How many times did we play some aimless, pointless ball across field to god knows who? Clichy, Zabs, Fernando. Jovetic were bedevilled with so much indecision and hesitancy it was frightening.

Pellers said last night he had no idea why the team cannot play CL football. Unfortunately for Pellers having no idea isn't really an option. What Pellers has to do is instil the mentality necessary to do well in the CL. We have it in the PL because Mancini put it there. We have an excellent PL winning machine which took a season or two to build. Now Pellers has to do the same in the CL. If he doesn't then someone else will be employed to do so.

 

[blue banks]

Pellers said last night he had no idea why the team cannot play CL football. Unfortunately for Pellers having no idea isn't really an option. What Pellers has to do is instil the mentality necessary to do well in the CL. We have it in the PL because Mancini put it there. We have an excellent PL winning machine which took a season or two to build. Now Pellers has to do the same in the CL. If he doesn't then someone else will be employed to do so.

Agree with most of this paragraph - Manuel's quotes wouldn't have went down well - we've been poor for weeks and he still doesn't have any answers?

Slightly disagree with the PL winning machine - hasn't been as excellent this season.

 

[Mancityfans.net'er]

I feel much saner and much better reading posts like this.

Good to see in amongst the usual knee jerk crap there's a lot of well thought out and rational responses to what the future holds and requires.

On point 3, there's something which I think we cannot ignore. Look at what simply having Lampard play a few games did for our media coverage. The post Chelsea love in was unbelievable. It's my firm belief that to win hearts and minds, we need the next crop of ENGLISH talent in our squad. It's a reality which United and Chelsea have been aware of and very good at for a decade know. Understanding that that English core helps shape the narrative. We really need that. Barkley, Clyne, Ward Prose, even Rodriquez. All of them I'd take in a heartbeat and let Toure, Sagna, Jovetic, and Navas go.

Bayern do it with German players. Barca/Madrid with Spanish players. We let Luke Shaw go to the rags, Chambers to Arsenal. We need to look at this.

I've mentioned the English player problem plenty in the past - Unfortunately it seems difficult to discuss that as a genuine issue without replies like St Helens Blue, or people screaming about how they don't care what nationality they are as long as they play for City.

True to a point, and I don't think by fielding a team of English players we'll suddenly win the league with games to spare and conquer Europe, but I also don't think it's a coincidence that as you point out, the best German teams are full of Germans, the best Spanish teams are full of Spaniards, and the long term success of the rags (spit) was built on cores of English players. Might be worth taking a minute to consider two of our most committed players in Kompany and Zab are fully integrated into mancunian life; They're not just visiting. Sometimes to get you over that final hurdle you need a little more than skill or tactics - Why do you think the military make such a big deal of fighting for your country? You need to give players a reason larger than themselves to win things as a collective, and it's something with such a fragmented group I don't think we have.

+1

plus 10.

we have moved on from the mentality of Robinho, Adebayor, Yaya...

THe only fight we have is from vince, zaba and MILNER (don't forget). And arguably aguero.

Trouble is even zaba is gash this year. We need a central midfield Gerrard type figure. I don't know who this is but it certaintly isn't yay or either of the fern's.

Can we really bring in a foreign big name and expect him to die for the cause?

For pellers first 6 months we pressed and fought like fuck. Now not a single player does. TXIXI's signings are not 'big name mercernarys' but they lack both quality and fight?

 

[blue banks]

I've mentioned the English player problem plenty in the past - Unfortunately it seems difficult to discuss that as a genuine issue without replies like St Helens Blue, or people screaming about how they don't care what nationality they are as long as they play for City.

True to a point, and I don't think by fielding a team of English players we'll suddenly win the league with games to spare and conquer Europe, but I also don't think it's a coincidence that as you point out, the best German teams are full of Germans, the best Spanish teams are full of Spaniards, and the long term success of the rags (spit) was built on cores of English players. Might be worth taking a minute to consider two of our most committed players in Kompany and Zab are fully integrated into mancunian life; They're not just visiting. Sometimes to get you over that final hurdle you need a little more than skill or tactics - Why do you think the military make such a big deal of fighting for your country? You need to give players a reason larger than themselves to win things as a collective, and it's something with such a fragmented group I don't think we have.

+1

For pellers first 6 months we pressed and fought like fuck. Now not a single player does. TXIXI's signings are not 'big name mercernarys' but they lack both quality and fight?

There does seem to be mixed messages coming from the club - current team is all short-term.

 

[BobKowalski]

Pellers said last night he had no idea why the team cannot play CL football. Unfortunately for Pellers having no idea isn't really an option. What Pellers has to do is instil the mentality necessary to do well in the CL. We have it in the PL because Mancini put it there. We have an excellent PL winning machine which took a season or two to build. Now Pellers has to do the same in the CL. If he doesn't then someone else will be employed to do so.

Agree with most of this paragraph - Manuel's quotes wouldn't have went down well - we've been poor for weeks and he still doesn't have any answers?

Slightly disagree with the PL winning machine - hasn't been as excellent this season.

Its been in misfiring mode. But we have finished 3rd, 1st, 2nd and 1st last 4 seasons. We have outperformed every other PL team in that 4 year period so I'm sticking with 'PL winning machine'. Oh and it sounds sexy too.

 

[citytill1die84]

I'd seriously spend shit loads and get thrown out of the Champions League i hate the corrupt thing anyway.

 

[Matt the Giant]

What worries me more than anything atm, is the infamous "holistic" approach. The idea is that every team in the City group is going to play in the same way, right? And that particular way is dictated by the owner and board right? A manager is brought in expecting to follow that way.

But what if that style of football is the wrong one? I think our owner and our chairman might have watched Barcelona a few years ago, saw the best assembled football team in history and figured "that's the way we are going to play". But it doesn't work, even Barcelona has been found out the past two years.

Every great side I watch these days, is built on insanely high pressure and speed in abundance. Two features severely missing from our style of play, especially pace.

So I hope instead of buying new players to fit our desired style, we look at the squad we have, make a few additions, two or three, and come up with an efficient gameplan. Our players are good enough to be dominant in 95% or our games, no matter if we plat at home, away, in domestic cups or in the CL.

Bring in tenacity and desire to our midfield, Barkley for example. Add pace, directness and finishing to our left side, Reus for example, and we will have one of the best sides in Europe.
And we really need a new lb.

 

[BillyShears]

Whatever our owners next move is I trust it will be not to panic. Thats our job.

Actually we know what the next move will be. Grow the business on and off the pitch. You just have to look at what it was 5 years ago and where it is now and then project forward. It will not involve gutting the current squad. Chucking out half the squad is just fan talk.

Will repeat what I said in another thread:

This squad is good enough to compete in Europe. It has been good enough to compete in Europe for the past 4 years. Yes we have been hindered by FFP but PSG have been hit with the same FFP restrictions and they still compete. We are not talking about winning the CL we are talking about competing. We are talking about beating teams like CSKA Moscow which we can do right now and did so 12 months ago. We are not asking for much. Even our owners are not asking for the impossible. Just compete.

Compete. So why don't we compete? Last night we could have played whatever formation you liked and probably still lost. Its in their heads. For starters the players have so little faith in the way they prepare and set up for CL games we are pretty much beat before we get on the pitch. You can bring in a Di Maria or whoever right now and we would still be awful just as ManU were fairly awful on Sunday because for a lot of their players beating us is the impossible dream. Right now competing in the CL is the impossible dream. Nothing to do with pace, or formations. Right now its about confidence. Even Kompany has now got it into his head its about refs and conspiracies and once you start the match believing that well guess what? It will happen.

Confidence and belief allows you to think faster, move the ball faster, pass with better precision and so on. How many times did we play some aimless, pointless ball across field to god knows who? Clichy, Zabs, Fernando. Jovetic were bedevilled with so much indecision and hesitancy it was frightening.

Pellers said last night he had no idea why the team cannot play CL football. Unfortunately for Pellers having no idea isn't really an option. What Pellers has to do is instil the mentality necessary to do well in the CL. We have it in the PL because Mancini put it there. We have an excellent PL winning machine which took a season or two to build. Now Pellers has to do the same in the CL. If he doesn't then someone else will be employed to do so.

Bob, I've often argued the opposite of your theory that there's a mental problem within the squad with regards the CL, however I'm rapidly coming round to your way of thinking.

To a greater or lesser extent I think you're right that the squad is good enough to compete in Europe and we've been turned over by too many nothing sides under both Pellegrini and Mancini for it to be purely a managerial problem. That's not to say that they both haven't made mistakes but at the root of it, there's a deeper malaise at play.

For me the reason I believe the squad will be broken up next summer and why i think it's necessary is because collectively the problem has grown to such an extent that the only resolution left is to look at rebuilding. We've had different managers with different styles of management and the problem in Europe has remained the same.

 

[The slaughtered lamb]

Whatever our owners next move is I trust it will be not to panic. Thats our job.

Actually we know what the next move will be. Grow the business on and off the pitch. You just have to look at what it was 5 years ago and where it is now and then project forward. It will not involve gutting the current squad. Chucking out half the squad is just fan talk.

Will repeat what I said in another thread:

This squad is good enough to compete in Europe. It has been good enough to compete in Europe for the past 4 years. Yes we have been hindered by FFP but PSG have been hit with the same FFP restrictions and they still compete. We are not talking about winning the CL we are talking about competing. We are talking about beating teams like CSKA Moscow which we can do right now and did so 12 months ago. We are not asking for much. Even our owners are not asking for the impossible. Just compete.

Compete. So why don't we compete? Last night we could have played whatever formation you liked and probably still lost. Its in their heads. For starters the players have so little faith in the way they prepare and set up for CL games we are pretty much beat before we get on the pitch. You can bring in a Di Maria or whoever right now and we would still be awful just as ManU were fairly awful on Sunday because for a lot of their players beating us is the impossible dream. Right now competing in the CL is the impossible dream. Nothing to do with pace, or formations. Right now its about confidence. Even Kompany has now got it into his head its about refs and conspiracies and once you start the match believing that well guess what? It will happen.

Confidence and belief allows you to think faster, move the ball faster, pass with better precision and so on. How many times did we play some aimless, pointless ball across field to god knows who? Clichy, Zabs, Fernando. Jovetic were bedevilled with so much indecision and hesitancy it was frightening.

Pellers said last night he had no idea why the team cannot play CL football. Unfortunately for Pellers having no idea isn't really an option. What Pellers has to do is instil the mentality necessary to do well in the CL. We have it in the PL because Mancini put it there. We have an excellent PL winning machine which took a season or two to build. Now Pellers has to do the same in the CL. If he doesn't then someone else will be employed to do so.

Totally agree re confidence. Most sport is won and lost in the head and we look distinctly short of confidence. We've never really had a great performance in the CL against a top team where you can say we thoroughly deserved to win and that's what we need. People will say the away game at Bayern but even that was more or less a dead rubber. I haven't seen a performance from us in the CL like the one against Hamburg a few years back where you can feel the desire of the team to win. Hopefully we've hit rock bottom with last night's performance and the players will take a serious look at themselves.