Same as under Mancini

[callumcity]

For myself I think that if we can't beat Sunderland at home then we probably don't deserve it

No "probably" about it, hopefully Sunderland will go down, at least we might have a decent stab at 6pts off Burnley next season.

We're all a big fucked off with that performance today, and rightly so it was utter wank. But c'mon, some of the football we've played earlier on in the season has been class, magical. Pellegrini is the right man for the job, he just needs to learn sometimes you have to grind out wins, Mancini would have gotten us a draw against Liverpool and a win today, by playing boring. Attacking expansive football is great, but not always the answer. Pellegrini will learn that in the premier league you can't always play like barca, sometimes, rarely, you have to play like Chelsea.

I thought he might have learnt it after Cardiff, Villa and Sunderland away, we're 33 games into the season and it seems he still hasn't worked that out. He deserves another season but if we start next season as slowly as we did this season...

I can't think of a better man for the job, who's available. As long as he sticks to his end of the bargain and wins his 5 trophies in 5 years, there's no reason to sack him. We can only get better under him, this is his first season so we should be better next year. I don't want city to be a sacking club. And anyway, why are all the fans so entitled all of a sudden, this is the premier league, you can't win it every year. We should just count ourselves lucky to be where we are. I'm not saying I'm not disappointed at how the wheels have fallen off this season but I'm optimistic about next season.

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

I don't dispute Pellegrini having the balls to make those decisions, but am intrigued as to who you think are the big names he'd let go?

I was hoping that you weren't going to ask me that because I will make myself very unpopular with many people!
Okay here's the biggest name on the list:-

Joe Hart - he's gone backwards in the last two seasons and always looks like he has a mistake in him.
The clearance tonight that was nearly intercepted being a case in point.

 

[callumcity]

Mangala, Luke shaw and fernando.

good shout , but i would prefer NDJ back in a blue shirt.

We already have the best squad. Of course it can be improved and we have loads of strikers but are short in central defence

Why is the best squad underachieving? Because the players are coasting. That needs addressing either through a new manager or through stronger management of the players

I don't believe we have the best squad, Chelsea have a much bigger pool of defenders and midfielders, all at a particular level. We have better individual defenders and midfielders like toure, kompany, silva and zabba.

However, chelsea have back up players as good as there starting players. Cahill, terry, luiz, and ivanovic at CB?, I know ivanovic plays RB as well now. All would get in our starting eleven alongside vinny. Also, the amount of midfielders they posses is unreal, they even had to sell mata.

The loss of key players for us this season has been our main problem in the second half of the season. Chelsea lose oscar? Doesn't matter, hazard, salah, lampard are there. We lose toure, we have garcia and Rodwell. You get my point? Also, we have 4 great strikers, two of which have been injured the majority of the season (aguero and jovetic) and negredo has been injured for a while. The only injury free striker we've had is dzeko and he's the worse of the 4.
I think we've sorely missed nastasic as well, striked a great partnership with kompany last season.

 

[Dynamo11]

Could it be that, rather than play slow because they were told to but because, under both managers, the player's couldn't give 2 shits. We played well for the first 5 and last 5 minutes of the game but the players need to want to play like that the entire bloody game. That's what annoyed me most. To quote Psycho "I'd be disgraced if that was me"

 

[Negredo09]

I shouldn't be saying this,but Pellegrini does offer pretty football,but would Mancini have lost so many points from winning positions?

 

[DalbeyINUK]

We do seem to be missing some of the fight that you find in a Barca and Bayern or even United in their day. I wonder if it really is just the players though. I wonder if more it's a footballing philosophy that permeates their entire clubs and cultures. I wonder if that is what the whole point of changing our culture with Tixi and Soriano is about. I wonder if that winning mentality isn't developed over a short time, but instead only over a longer period of sustained success, or in some cases under the iron fist of a self obsessed narcisstic manager who has the power to boot you from the club if you don't comply.

I also wonder if this year was considered essential. Or if it was really a gauge for management of certain players commitment. I can understand if they did not want to jump to conclusions last year because they could not be sure what was the Mancini(all hail his beautiful mane) effect or what was a real lack of drive.

Nasir is a case in point. There was no talk of extending him after his dismal year last year when he had fallen out of favor. This year though, with his first half success, there is talk after evidence of his prowess is produced of an extension. Just a theory I have anyway.

 

[Bill]

Under Mancini it happened for an entire season, not just towards the end of a long season with Silva and Yaya out with Kompany and Aguero not fully fit.

For the vast majority of this season we have played with quick, incisive, penetrative football. We have scored a ton of goals, won a trophy, and put up a title challenge. All things we didn't manage last season.

I think we would have won a trophy last year under Mancini if they hadn't decided to undermine him on the day of the final. I would also say that the cup we won this year was lucky as we didn't in fact play anyone remotely good. The hardest game was newcastle away!

and we tried our best to lose at Wembley.

 

[SWP's back]

I shouldn't be saying this,but Pellegrini does offer pretty football,but would Mancini have lost so many points from winning positions?

Would he had gotten into those winning positions? Last season says probably not.

Also, if he'd stayed then we wouldn't have Hart, Kompany or Toure this season.

 

[Skashion]

and put up a title challenge. All things we didn't manage last season.

The main reason for that though is that the rags were on record-breaking form for 34 games of a 38 game season which a lot of people seem to forget. People keep saying that last season we were out of the title race by February, but that's only because the rags were on record form. Last season, at the start of February we were only one point behind where we were at the start of February this season. The big change was the fact that the leaders were only 55 points whereas the rags were on 59. At the end of February last year, the rags had 68 points, this year, the leaders Chelsea had 60 points. If we were competing with the rags form from last season, this season, the rags would have been 11 points clear at the end of February (although we'd have a game in hand).

 

[bluethai]

Yep, I think we have some players in our team who are simply unable to handle the pressure. What we need are some more players who have something to prove, fuck ups like this have happened far too often with this team and I don't blame Pellers.

I agree with this but who exactly are these players? It feels like some players like Nasri, Clichy etc are just not up for a fight.

They are from Arsenal though ;).