Our Tactics Under Pellegrini

[SWP's back]

I didn't notice anything new in the way Aguero played. He has always cut in from wide positions and tried to shoot. That's a feature of his game

The biggest change last night came through the introduction of the two new players. We had the energy of Fernandinho in midfield, and the pace and width of Navas and some very good crosses from Navas

I like the new manager, but let's not endow him with magical powers or put him on a different level to his predecessor until we have seen something of significance

Are you kidding? We played a world away from the style of play under Mancini.

Even Mancini's man Savage can see it:

This was pretty much a perfect start for City and their new manager.

I was at Etihad Stadium for a first chance to see some of City's summer signings and also their playing style under Pellegrini, and they played with a purpose and energy that we did not see from them under Roberto Mancini last season.

Newcastle's defending was pitiful at times and they took a battering.

But City were more impressive than any other Premier League team on the opening weekend. It is early days but they put out a real statement that they want their title back.
High tempo and hard work

The biggest difference between City under Pellegrini and City under Mancini was that, against Newcastle, they worked as hard without the ball as they did with it.

Time and time again they won the ball back high up the field, which was completely different to what we saw last season. Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero were both breaking up Newcastle's passes in the Magpies half - and David Silva and Jesus Navas also covered a lot of ground.

When they did have possession, the movement and the fluidity of those attacking four players was too much for Newcastle to deal with, even before Steven Taylor's red card on the stroke of half-time.

Pellegrini played with two strikers in Dzeko and Aguero but their formation was more like a 4-3-3 than a 4-4-2 because Jesus Navas hugged the right flank and stayed almost as far forward, and they did not have an equivalent to Navas on the left - David Silva was more often found behind the front two.

City's passing was quicker, and more accurate than we saw under Mancini last year - at 90% their pass completion was better than all but one of their 38 Premier League games last season.

And they were not passing for the sake of it, either. When Fernandinho or Yaya Toure had the ball in midfield, they had four willing runners looking to get in behind the Newcastle defence. City always had so many options.
New faces make a difference

For me, Navas was exactly what City missed last season. His pace and the quality of his delivery from the right added an extra dimension to their attacks.

I had already picked him out as a player to watch after I saw a stat that he had made 71 chances in La Liga for Sevilla last season, more than any other player from open play. Against the Magpies, we saw why.

He made four chances against Alan Pardew's side and his cross-completion rate was 100%, and there was no luck involved. He picks people out with his crosses - all 10 of them found another man in a blue shirt - and his link up with Dzeko was particularly promising.

His pace gives City something else extra too. He goes towards the ball, spins, and runs into space.

That means his team-mates can put a ball into an area and they know he will get on the end of it.

Fernandinho was the other new boy to start and he was more solid than spectacular, although this was never going to be a game where he could shine.

He and Yaya Toure were City's platform in midfield. Further forward he looked less comfortable but he did his job which was to protect the back four.

It was a solid debut but a relatively simple game for him.

Dzeko was my man of the match and his performance was almost a complete striker's display.

In terms of his hold-up play, link-play, power and movement, it was the best all-round display I have seen from him since he scored four times against Tottenham at the start of the 2011-12 season.

He did not score against Newcastle - and he could have had a hat-trick - but he did everything else. He covered so much ground, set up two of City's goals and his eight shots were more than he managed in any top flight game last season.

His pass completion was also better (81.48% against Newcastle compared to 69.22% last season) while he won 53.85% of challenges (39.38% last season).

Overall, Dzeko looked a different player to last year under Mancini which demonstrated what a boost it is when your manager has confidence in you.

That is another difference that Pellegrini has made since taking over. All in all, this was an extremely impressive Premier League debut.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

I just liked the fact that the players' first thought seemed to be "can I pass the ball forwards." It made a nice change.

 

[teddykgb]

I just liked the fact that the players' first thought seemed to be "can I pass the ball forwards." It made a nice change.

I agree, and I'm pretty shocked that people didn't see the difference.

Under Mancini, we worked very hard to get the ball wide and earn the CAM (Silva/Nasri/Milner) and Full Back overlap. Pretty much the drive of play was to create this situation and try to work it into a goal scoring opportunity. We'd occasionally come through the middle, but there seemed to be a pretty clear distaste for playing "risky" passes, so we'd often pull out, setup, and play the overlap. Some of this seemed to be by design, and some of it was probably due to teams leaving the wide areas open since we didn't have wingers, but the effect was that we often attacked in this singular way.

Last night, much more of the attack came through the middle, with Silva in particular roaming much deeper (more forward, really), relying on Yaya and Fernandinho to play him past that first layer of the midfield. Yaya and Fernandinho often interchanged getting into this space as well. I thought Aguero was very effective at coming back and contributing to the build up, as was Dzeko. There was a lot more fluidity to the space occupied by the players, with Silva, Navas, Aguero, and Dzeko all interchanging quite a bit as the situations dictated. It surely left us more vulnerable on the counter, but especially once down to 10 men, Newcastle had no real chance of exploiting it.

I think these were the biggest changes. We were far more direct in the middle of the pitch, playing longer, penetrating passes. We definitely continued to use the fullback overlap to good success, but we had much more variety in attack and very different moving and interplay between the strikers, who seemed to have much more license to try to get forward quickly as opposed to holding up and playing back to a midfielder. This variety really opened up a lot of opportunity.

 

[ballinio]

I didn't notice anything new in the way Aguero played. He has always cut in from wide positions and tried to shoot. That's a feature of his game

The biggest change last night came through the introduction of the two new players. We had the energy of Fernandinho in midfield, and the pace and width of Navas and some very good crosses from Navas

I like the new manager, but let's not endow him with magical powers or put him on a different level to his predecessor until we have seen something of significance

I laughed.

Did you bless yourself and shed a few little tears on 44 minutes for Saint Bob?

Every time Navas went outside a defender I bet a little part of you died ;-)

take no notice DD , he was scared of the realy strong looking newcastle team bafore the game, thought it would be 1.1 or maybe even a defeat.Frightening they were ,frightening.

 

[ali benarbia's studs]

last night there was every indication that we are back to our best, i know it`s early doors but i m loving the first impressions.


pelle` is our man!!!!

 

[TGR]

Last night we were good. Very good!
However, lets put some perspective on it: we played a team that are nailed on relegation fodder.
I'm very optimistic for this season but let's judge after 9 or 10 games.