Frustrating Season.
It has been a frustrating season without a doubt. Frustrating and unfortunate because it seemed that some of the problems where easily identifiable and then fixable but was ignored for most part. For example , the insistence on sticking to 442, and what seemed to be professional negligence on the part of the staff for failing to really focus on the work of setting up the team defensively and working on set pieces.
This with other issues made this season all in all a fail in terms of achieving our objectives.
I still retain that we have the best squad in the league but Chelsea put in the best team and the best prepared, organized, manged team on the pitch week in week out and that was the difference between both teams. They were able to adjust to situations and games, grind out results and park the bus?, if they needed to and won a lot of points by doing so. Mourinho managed the living heck out of his football team.
Last season we basically had no real rivals and it took Liverpool to seize the opportunity and put on a title challenge. This season on the other hand, Chelsea improved with some key acquisitions and Pellegrini did not get the memo about adjusting to this new reality and insisted on using the same approach as last season. We also rested on our laurels in terms of the transfer market and did not acquire any significant player.
So the key word is preparation. We simply did not work meticulously and properly enough and most of it must fall on the manager. This is manifested by our poor resukts against lower tier (relatively unknown teams) in cups competitions, not only this season but last season as well.
The FA Cup and Capital One cup was a waste; we were unlucky in the champions league in terms of the draw but our group stage performance was quite poor to say the least until the Braveheart and Fire of Aguero stepped in to save the group stages, in the last few minutes of the 5th game against Munich (Jovetic also played a part as well it has to be said). This was followed by another impressive performance against Roma. But all in all, the Champions league was ..meh.
And as for the league. We could always identify issues such as fatigue after a world cup summer but that is invalid as everybody is in the same boat. But I will add that fatigue was an issue, not just physical but emotional, for some players. You know I am talking about Yaya Toure and that affected this season. After an iffy start we managed to stumble on an approach in November time or so that seemed to be working and managed to go level on points with Chelsea at the end of the year. Yaya Toure is and has always been a major indicator of the course of the season, our most important player and I believe that him going to the ACON disrupted that momentum we had at the end of the year. When he left, we starting dropping points all over the place and by the time he came back, we had already lost track of Chelsea, moral was low and Yaya Toure himself was already exhausted with the winning the ACON, travelling, and of course some rather significant family issues , all piled up and it ended up being an average season for him and that correlated with our premier league season.
It seemed that we did not learn from the mistakes after the 2011/2012 season and made the same mistakes again after winning the league by sitting back, being complacent and not giving it a serious challenge. As I have said, our tactics and defending was a big part. So let me talk about Dedyk Boyata.
If I am not wrong he played like two or three games this season and I for one believe that he should have been given more games. Kompany was injured most of the time and there is some...thing going on in his mind as he seems to be shaken and rattled when he did play but he is one of the best center backs in the world and he will be back strong for next season. Mangala was meant to be the big signing but he has taken a while to settle as the manager kept rotating the defensive lineup at what seemed to be on a match to match basis and so the whole back line- fullbacks and center backs struggled to really develop a kind of understanding between themselves. Dimechelis is an experienced head and a likable person so it is understandable that he gets a lot of reinforcements from the fans and media but If we are relying on him next season then we are in trouble because i think he cannot perform at the highest level any more. So I believe Pellegrini should have given Boyata more time, go holistic, as he looked quite comfortable when he played especially against Sunderland and he has something about him. But Nevertheless, our defending and defensive set up e.g, playing two in midfield, one of which Yaya; changing backline continuously and the manager not really working on organization especially on set pieces. I know Boyata cannot be seen as a youth player anymore but this point about him not involved enough can be used as a banner or metaphor for the paucity of youth players involved in the first team this season. A relatively minor issue but it is worth mentioning.
There where some shinning lights though and some positives and that has to be mentioned. Pellegrini's approach and philosophy is not fiction. We can clearly see that we have been the best attacking team in the league over the past two seasons and scored the most goals over that period and in my opinion have played the best football as well over that period. No nil nil draw throughout the season, every game was interesting and there was always something happening when we were in town. Players like Joe Hart, who I see as one of the best and I have said that for years now, was absolutely fantastic and won the golden glove. Sergio Aguero was immense. If you consider the fact that he missed a lot of games with injury, his goal total this season was nothing short of fantastic. Best striker in the league without a shadow of a doubt. When you talk about Silva, I think the most positive thing you can say about him is that he is trust worthy. He is a player that will always go out there, act professionally, humble and gives his best. I believe these qualities or intangibles tramples on his more celebrated qualities of deft touch, close control, elegance, change of pace, finding space, ball guarding/shielding and creativity. He even scored a few goals this season, which has always been his flaw. But all in all , a joy to watch this season. Fernandinho is also a player that should be mentioned because he really is an all round midfielder and his passing ability is underrated. I thought he had a good season.
There has also been some incredible successes off the pitch such as opening the new City Football Academy, the best football training facilitiy in the world in my opinion and the EDS winning their first trophy. So no matter what Platini, the media and others connive or do or say, the future is bright for Manchester City Football Club.
So some good things but the bottom line is that it was a season of underachievement, of missed opportunities and not realizing our potential. It is a harsh verdict but a fair one because it really should not have happened this season and hopefully the staff will review and assess everything and make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes. I for one am confident that we will be stronger next season and will take the league once again but I believe that the decisions made by the club in the next few months will dictate our fortunes for years to come. Yes, the dreaded word, transition.
I rate the season 4.5/10.
Using the 50% mark criteria for pass, It has to be below 50% as we failed to achieve any target. So just below 5 is my score.
