Pelligrini ensures legend status

[PPT]

But do you remember how we approached our CL final against Chelsea at the Estádio do Dragão? We were beaten before we kicked off…….

At least we got to the final...

 

[PPT]

So stupid to ignore the context behind Pellegrini's last season. The squad had 12 players over 30 and a lot of injuries. We were 3pts behind Leicester in early Feb when Pep was announced as Pellegrini's replacement. We beat Sunderland 1-0 away and had a better goal difference. We then lost three in a row, including that game against Leicester and fell off a cliff. It was a season where we could have gone on to win the league given that Leicester did, but clearly that announcement had an impact on Pellegrini and/or the players. He managed to win the league cup still and took us to the CL semis. We played for a clean sheet at home so we could pinch an away goal at the Bernabeu but we couldn't. We look back on it as a missed opportunity but Real went on to win three CL's in a row - they were a very good side. Some of that side have just won it again and beaten a much better City team with a much better manager.

woulda, coulda, shoulda...

 

[PPT]

They had a game away in Kyiv on the Wednesday three days after an FA Cup tie away to Chelsea on Sunday.

I suspect that the decision to play a reserve team was sanctioned at a high level within City as a protest about the scheduling of the Chelsea match. City beat Chelsea home and away in the League that season (both 3-0), but lost the Cup match 1-5.

I can't recall that kind of scheduling happening since.

Yes it was a 'dreadful' season only winning the League Cup (against Liverpool) and being edged out of the Champions League final by one goal against Real Madrid.

Your post reeks of Raggish entitlement.

Pellegrini' was that good 55,000 fans stayed behind in the stadium after the last home game of the season to wave him off a hero I do recall... The vast majority of City fans couldn't see the back of him quick enough. He inherited a title winning team and took it backwards each season he was with us. It's all about opinions and ours differ. It doesn't mean we are right on wrong but simply have a different point of view. It's allowed. It's a football forum.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Really enjoyed that first seasons with him. It was a team with a champion mentality that Mancini brought to the club, that still had the fitness of Mancini’s era, but without the tension between the coach and the players. We played with freedom and were exciting to watch.

However, each season after that we got progressively worse.

We finished the 2015-16 season with 66 points (only winning half of our games, losing 10 games). We were the most unfit team in the division (something Moyes picked up on at West Ham when he took over from Pellers there n’all).

Granted Yaya’s legs had gone by then, but we still had by far the best collection of players in the Prem but we just relied on three players to pull us through that season de Bruyne (17 goals, 15 assists) DSilva (12 assists) and Agüero (29 goals) while the rest were simply average in every department and all struggling to keep up with the pace of games (even those three weren’t properly fit to be honest) - remember games like Stoke away where it felt like they were fitter and quicker than us in every department? Awful!

 

[lancs blue]

Pellegrini was well aware we weren't able to go toe to toe with them but had a chance if we could go into the away leg. I'm certain he wanted that clean sheet in the first game for the away goal in Madrid. The first part succeeded but like you say we couldn't quite do it. Across both the legs I think there were like 3 shots on target. Quite the opposite of the games we saw in the recent semi! There were no shots on target in the Bernabeu that own goal settled it.

I understood Pellegrini keeping it tight for most of the two legs but when it reached the last 15 mins in Madrid we should have shown more urgency but we just played at the same slow pace in possession and drifted tamely out of the competition without really laying a glove on them.

 

[JGL07]

Pellegrini' was that good 55,000 fans stayed behind in the stadium after the last home game of the season to wave him off a hero I do recall... The vast majority of City fans couldn't see the back of him quick enough. He inherited a title winning team and took it backwards each season he was with us. It's all about opinions and ours differ. It doesn't mean we are right on wrong but simply have a different point of view. It's allowed. It's a football forum.

Absolute rubbish. Pelligrini inherited a team that was something of a shambles. A lame title defence against United, elimination from the League Cup at home by Villa, a feeble attempt at the Champions League (lucky to get three points!), that Cup Final against relegated Wigan, topped off by a home defeat to relegated Norwich. Is that your idea of a title winning team?

Pelligrini was somewhat let down by recruitment from 2012-13 onwards with a number of substandard players coming in. I suspect that this was down to trying to meet FFP targets and were nothing to do with Pelligrini.

I think that most knew that Pelligrini was hired as a stop-gap until Guardiola became available. He did the job with dignity and some success. Only Guardiola and Mercer have acheived more.

 

[PPT]

Absolute rubbish. Pelligrini inherited a team that was something of a shambles. A lame title defence against United, elimination from the League Cup at home by Villa, a feeble attempt at the Champions League (lucky to get three points!), that Cup Final against relegated Wigan, topped off by a home defeat to relegated Norwich. Is that your idea of a title winning team?

Pelligrini was somewhat let down by recruitment from 2012-13 onwards with a number of substandard players coming in. I suspect that this was down to trying to meet FFP targets and were nothing to do with Pelligrini.

I think that most knew that Pelligrini was hired as a stop-gap until Guardiola became available. He did the job with dignity and some success. Only Guardiola and Mercer have acheived more.

Whatever you say mate you are right and everybody else is wrong. Enjoy the rest of your day ;-)