Pellegrini Thread

[sir baconface]

The post is as insightful as I remember and your opinions are almost entirely vindicated now.

A few posts ago I made a point which your post does so much more eloquently: that huge credit has to go to txiki and soriano for this appointment. The whole club is transformed already, and it's only just begun.

I don't previously recall a situation where a technical director was as "in demand" as Txiki was after leaving Barcelona. He was linked with roles at PSG, Chelsea, et al. It's a testament to the pedigree of the guy that Guardiola talks about him as knowing more about football than "anyone else I know".

Everything I envisioned would happen with both the manager and Txiki running the football side of things is happening and we truly are a blessed football club to have Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon running the club in the manner in which they are.

As an aside, don't think Pellegrini's been given anywhere near enough credit for his tactical acumen. Seems most people are so hung up on the binary arguments about two in midfield or two up front that they don't see the subtle changes he makes throughout games.

I was always very excited by the idea of Txiki coming here once I'd read the Graham Hunter book on Barca. The thing that struck me about Txiki's managerial choices is that he seems to know exactly what he wants from a coach and be able to identify the candidates who have the necessary qualities. Pellegrini obviously fits in terms of being able to get the team to play the type of football Txiki wants us to play; wasn't it Ferran who spoke a while back about the need to forge a footballing identity. And Pellegrini himself mentioned this recently, so it's clearly part of the remit he's been given at City. This is actually the key objective the club faces at the moment.

Success will follow - and this season, it's to be hoped. But even if we miss out on the title, lose the League Cup final, get knocked out by Barca and slip up in the FA Cup, we're currently laying the groundwork for a team that will prosper over the coming years and do so in real style. That will be reinforced by the off-field developments, too, which are happening in tandem. As well as seeing a genuinely exciting new team starting to evolve as we but by bit shake up the group that achieved our successes in 2011 and 2012, one can see the planning of the executives (away from the football side) starting to take shape as well: the training facility, stadium expansion, NYCFC and so on.

I'm now as excited as I've been at any time since the takeover. I'll be gutted if we don't win something this season because I think we've a team that deserves to but if we do miss out, that disappointment will be tempered by the prospect of better times to come and the knowledge that were building a solid foundation to ensure that future successes are more than transitory. The Barca pair seem to me to be absolutely living up to their billing and in Pelle they seem to have selected a man who fits the bill perfectly in terms of being the right coach at this time in the development of the project. :)

Superb post, petrusha.

I'm totally confident we will win stuff this season. But if we don't, let people remember what is currently happening: goals by the dozen, superb attacking football, team spirit and class. Stick with this and we will most surely reap the dividends.

What a great time to be a Blue.

 

[aguero93:20]

I don't previously recall a situation where a technical director was as "in demand" as Txiki was after leaving Barcelona. He was linked with roles at PSG, Chelsea, et al. It's a testament to the pedigree of the guy that Guardiola talks about him as knowing more about football than "anyone else I know".

Everything I envisioned would happen with both the manager and Txiki running the football side of things is happening and we truly are a blessed football club to have Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon running the club in the manner in which they are.

As an aside, don't think Pellegrini's been given anywhere near enough credit for his tactical acumen. Seems most people are so hung up on the binary arguments about two in midfield or two up front that they don't see the subtle changes he makes throughout games.

I was always very excited by the idea of Txiki coming here once I'd read the Graham Hunter book on Barca. The thing that struck me about Txiki's managerial choices is that he seems to know exactly what he wants from a coach and be able to identify the candidates who have the necessary qualities. Pellegrini obviously fits in terms of being able to get the team to play the type of football Txiki wants us to play; wasn't it Ferran who spoke a while back about the need to forge a footballing identity. And Pellegrini himself mentioned this recently, so it's clearly part of the remit he's been given at City. This is actually the key objective the club faces at the moment.

Success will follow - and this season, it's to be hoped. But even if we miss out on the title, lose the League Cup final, get knocked out by Barca and slip up in the FA Cup, we're currently laying the groundwork for a team that will prosper over the coming years and do so in real style. That will be reinforced by the off-field developments, too, which are happening in tandem. As well as seeing a genuinely exciting new team starting to evolve as we but by bit shake up the group that achieved our successes in 2011 and 2012, one can see the planning of the executives (away from the football side) starting to take shape as well: the training facility, stadium expansion, NYCFC and so on.

I'm now as excited as I've been at any time since the takeover. I'll be gutted if we don't win something this season because I think we've a team that deserves to but if we do miss out, that disappointment will be tempered by the prospect of better times to come and the knowledge that were building a solid foundation to ensure that future successes are more than transitory. The Barca pair seem to me to be absolutely living up to their billing and in Pelle they seem to have selected a man who fits the bill perfectly in terms of being the right coach at this time in the development of the project. :)

Superb post, petrusha.

I'm totally confident we will win stuff this season. But if we don't, let people remember what is currently happening: goals by the dozen, superb attacking football, team spirit and class. Stick with this and we will most surely reap the dividends.

What a great time to be a Blue.

Indeed, as I've said before, we're doing the right things, so we'll get the right results, not every time, but often enough that we will see success and lots of it.

 

[OB1]

I think if we could win the League Cup, that would be a big boost for our prospects of taking the title as well - as they say, success breeds success. Ultimately, though, if we face a one-off game against United, even though we're a much better side than them this season, there's also the concern that they could raise themselves in what would effectively be a season-defining occasion for them. On the other hand, what a great opportunity to lay down a marker if we do play them in a Cup final (I'd rather face the Mackems but I suspect it will be the Rags). I'm sure our lads will appreciate that as well, and we've tended to perform well against them in the last few meetings.

Winning the league again would be fantastic. I don't think we'll be far off, either, but I have a nagging worry about Chelsea. I've been quite impressed by Arsenal this year, but I'm not quite as concerned about them right now. But anyway, as I mentioned above, I think we're very nicely set for the future even if things don't quite go for us in the next four months,

Agree but one of my dreams has been to play United in a Wembley final and beat them. We need to ensure nothing disastrous happens at the Boleyn and then all that is required is one of our, frequent, good days.

There are so many ways in which things could go wrong but I refuse to worry about them. It's a boring cliche but I really believe in going one game at a time and enjoying the ride. The only thing I am adamant about is that we won't win four trophies; at least, not this season.

 

[taconinja]

For the record, I think we will do two and desperate for one to be the league.

I've said since the first day of the season that I reckon we'll win the league plus a domestic trophy.

Not sure if this is the correct thread - but I was thinking last night, qualifying for the knock out rounds of the CL has given the entire squad IMO a different mindset going into the new year. Both in our title winning season and last season I think the players were mentally effected by the early exit from the CL.

I think it's even a little more narrow than qualifying for the knockout stages. It was beating Bayern Munich at their stadium with essentially a B-squad while they played essentially an A-squad. That showed the players that the manager's system works. That it can work for all of them. We often got by in the past few years with raw talent creating its own luck during attacks while concentrating on defending. It's a style that can work, but why buy players like Nasri when your style will just stifle them? I feel there was some uncertainty among the squad during the initial stages of the season in regards to the manager's system moderated by Pellegrini's man-management thankfully. That game in Munich, though, was key for me.

 

[hgblue]

For the record, I think we will do two and desperate for one to be the league.

I've said since the first day of the season that I reckon we'll win the league plus a domestic trophy.

Not sure if this is the correct thread - but I was thinking last night, qualifying for the knock out rounds of the CL has given the entire squad IMO a different mindset going into the new year. Both in our title winning season and last season I think the players were mentally effected by the early exit from the CL.

I think it's even a little more narrow than qualifying for the knockout stages. It was beating Bayern Munich at their stadium with essentially a B-squad while they played essentially an A-squad. That showed the players that the manager's system works. That it can work for all of them. We often got by in the past few years with raw talent creating its own luck during attacks while concentrating on defending. It's a style that can work, but why buy players like Nasri when your style will just stifle them? I feel there was some uncertainty among the squad during the initial stages of the season in regards to the manager's system moderated by Pellegrini's man-management thankfully. That game in Munich, though, was key for me.

If my memory serves me, we played one striker in Munich, with Silva in the hole? As opposed to two strikers in the home game when we got comprehensively outplayed?

 

[aguero93:20]

I've said since the first day of the season that I reckon we'll win the league plus a domestic trophy.

Not sure if this is the correct thread - but I was thinking last night, qualifying for the knock out rounds of the CL has given the entire squad IMO a different mindset going into the new year. Both in our title winning season and last season I think the players were mentally effected by the early exit from the CL.

I think it's even a little more narrow than qualifying for the knockout stages. It was beating Bayern Munich at their stadium with essentially a B-squad while they played essentially an A-squad. That showed the players that the manager's system works. That it can work for all of them. We often got by in the past few years with raw talent creating its own luck during attacks while concentrating on defending. It's a style that can work, but why buy players like Nasri when your style will just stifle them? I feel there was some uncertainty among the squad during the initial stages of the season in regards to the manager's system moderated by Pellegrini's man-management thankfully. That game in Munich, though, was key for me.

If my memory serves me, we played one striker in Munich, with Silva in the hole? As opposed to two strikers in the home game when we got comprehensively outplayed?

You're memory is slightly different to mine, Silva played alongside Dzeko up front, although he did sometimes come back to receive the ball, much like Aguero and Negredo.

 

[taconinja]

I think it's even a little more narrow than qualifying for the knockout stages. It was beating Bayern Munich at their stadium with essentially a B-squad while they played essentially an A-squad. That showed the players that the manager's system works. That it can work for all of them. We often got by in the past few years with raw talent creating its own luck during attacks while concentrating on defending. It's a style that can work, but why buy players like Nasri when your style will just stifle them? I feel there was some uncertainty among the squad during the initial stages of the season in regards to the manager's system moderated by Pellegrini's man-management thankfully. That game in Munich, though, was key for me.

If my memory serves me, we played one striker in Munich, with Silva in the hole? As opposed to two strikers in the home game when we got comprehensively outplayed?

You're memory is slightly different to mine, Silva played alongside Dzeko up front, although he did sometimes come back to receive the ball, much like Aguero and Negredo.

Agreed. We have a system. It can be tweaked like all systems. The patterns of attack and what happens when we lose possession and what happens when we gain possession and where we gain possession and all those situational, tactical moments are the system. It's much more important than formation. We don't play the standard 4-4-2, do we? No, we value overlaps from the fullbacks creating double-triangles by utilizing both forwards. Sometimes we have a midfielder step up to pair with a single forward, but the system--the patterns--are fairly consistent.

 

[OB1]

I think it's even a little more narrow than qualifying for the knockout stages. It was beating Bayern Munich at their stadium with essentially a B-squad while they played essentially an A-squad. That showed the players that the manager's system works. That it can work for all of them. We often got by in the past few years with raw talent creating its own luck during attacks while concentrating on defending. It's a style that can work, but why buy players like Nasri when your style will just stifle them? I feel there was some uncertainty among the squad during the initial stages of the season in regards to the manager's system moderated by Pellegrini's man-management thankfully. That game in Munich, though, was key for me.

If my memory serves me, we played one striker in Munich, with Silva in the hole? As opposed to two strikers in the home game when we got comprehensively outplayed?

You're memory is slightly different to mine, Silva played alongside Dzeko up front, although he did sometimes come back to receive the ball, much like Aguero and Negredo.

Not sure how many times I've repeated this but go look on UEFA's site at the technical lineups: Silva and Dzeko are like Siamese twins on the formations through the game. Silva did not play in the hole, it wasn't 4-2-2-1-1, it was 4-2-2-2.

 

[Anonymous]

I've said since the first day of the season that I reckon we'll win the league plus a domestic trophy.

Not sure if this is the correct thread - but I was thinking last night, qualifying for the knock out rounds of the CL has given the entire squad IMO a different mindset going into the new year. Both in our title winning season and last season I think the players were mentally effected by the early exit from the CL.

I think it's even a little more narrow than qualifying for the knockout stages. It was beating Bayern Munich at their stadium with essentially a B-squad while they played essentially an A-squad. That showed the players that the manager's system works. That it can work for all of them. We often got by in the past few years with raw talent creating its own luck during attacks while concentrating on defending. It's a style that can work, but why buy players like Nasri when your style will just stifle them? I feel there was some uncertainty among the squad during the initial stages of the season in regards to the manager's system moderated by Pellegrini's man-management thankfully. That game in Munich, though, was key for me.

If my memory serves me, we played one striker in Munich, with Silva in the hole? As opposed to two strikers in the home game when we got comprehensively outplayed?

Far too binary an analysis. Check the heat maps from that game - you'll find that Silva was pushed up right alongside Dzeko most of the night. Certainly he wasn't an extra midfield body in the way you seem to be implying.

 

[aguero93:20]

If my memory serves me, we played one striker in Munich, with Silva in the hole? As opposed to two strikers in the home game when we got comprehensively outplayed?

You're memory is slightly different to mine, Silva played alongside Dzeko up front, although he did sometimes come back to receive the ball, much like Aguero and Negredo.

Not sure how many times I've repeated this but go look on UEFA's site at the technical lineups: Silva and Dzeko are like Siamese twins on the formations through the game. Silva did not play in the hole, it wasn't 4-2-2-1-1, it was 4-2-2-2.

I presume that was a reply to the post above mine, I don't need to go on UEFA's site, I could see that for myself watching the game :)