So what's to be done?

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I don't know what's to be done. Yesterday I could not believe how players of the calibre of Silva, Ya Ya, Aguero and most of the others could have such little influence on a game against Burnley. A big part of our poor season is down to our game changers being unable to change enough games. We have to be careful that we don't overreact and throw the baby out with the bath water. Our squad is not too old and we don't need drastic reconstruction. Most of our players, and Ya Ya is very much included here, are at their peak, or just coming to it. Only MdM is probably coming to the last year or so of his career.

The fact is that City have never looked realistic title winners this season, and in a season of unimaginable mediocrity for the PL. Chelsea look set to win it comfortably, but their true standing in the game was shown clearly by PSG over two matches - not just one - in the CL. City have not performed anywhere near expected in any department. Too many players have been anonymous and far from anything like their best form. The manager has seemed powerless to galvanise them and too often has appeared clueless. His persistence with 442has seemed nothing but stubbornness . Will he persist with it on Wednesday? And what will the consequences be? He bought Fernando, presumably to play in a three man central midfield, but he's never played in one! Bony came in to give us more goals, but though it's early days, he's been praised for his hold up play, but all it seems to do is to slow down further a team already playing without real tempo or urgency.

These comments are my perceptions and may be well wide of any mark. I don't know about Pellers - instinctively I'm against sacking the manager, but I don't think those who run the club share my inhibitions. Clearly money has to be available in the summer, but who is available, and who is with buying, I don't know. Careful thought has to be given to what we actually need. This brings me to our young players. Vinnie has been out of form, MdM is not getting any younger and Boyata is unconvincing. But we have Denayer and we have Rekik, who has to come back from loan. Angelico could well be promoted to the first team squad, and Lopes has to join him. They're not going to play every game by any means, but they have to play some. Hopefully, in that case, we can spend big on real quality.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

I think we need to be more holistic.

 

[Hung]

Leadership is the key and unfortunately, we don’t seem to have any. Pellegrini is not a ‘war time leader’ in style. As for the Captain, I understand that he has given the board ultimatum's the past because he didn’t like the manager and at the moment he’s playing like he doesn’t like this one either.

A fair-weather manager and a fair-weather captain do not provide strong leadership in a crisis I’m afraid.

 

[Scully]

Leadership is the key and unfortunately, we don’t seem to have any. Pellegrini is not a ‘war time leader’ in style. As for the Captain, I understand that he has given the board ultimatum's the past because he didn’t like the manager and at the moment he’s playing like he doesn’t like this one either.

A fair-weather manager and a fair-weather captain do not provide strong leadership in a crisis I’m afraid.

In a nutshell.....

 

[TCIB]

[bigimg]http://media.giphy.com/media/dYgDRfc61SGtO/giphy.gif[/bigimg]

 

[Hung]

[bigimg]http://media.giphy.com/media/dYgDRfc61SGtO/giphy.gif[/bigimg]

Now we’re talking. I want to hear the lamentation of United’s women.

 

[mancunianpear]

First and foremost the manager has to go however it is imperative we make the right appointment. We need a young, hungry manager, driven by success who the players can feed off. Heard a lot about what top manager would join us? The way I see it who wouldn't? Everything is set up and in place for a manager to come in and achieve everything there is to achieve in football. More importantly than player recruitment we need to get the right man in.

Let's be real, Pellers looks a broken man and doesn't fill you with any confidence he has any fight left in him, we are on the slide, fast, and with our squad and money invested just is far from good enough. I can accept not winning the title every year but we have to be showing more fight and quality than we have done since the turn of the year.

I really don't know what's changed. It was only two months ago we was joint top with Chelsea and things seemed to be on the up.

 

[Mrmcfc]

I think, just in the short term, we should politely ask yaya to stop being a lazy, overweight, overpaid, cake eating, traffic cone.

 

[cibaman]

A visitor from Mars who watched the Chelsea v City game probably wouldn't have picked City as the team that needed major surgery. Room for improvement definitely, but not a complete basket case. The current squad is more than capable of winning the league next season. Its certainly not a problem of lack of ability, more about addressing the reasons why the team has underperformed on so many occassions this season.

A priority in the summer must be to address the ongoing weakness at left back, although I have to confess I have little idea what the likely options are. With Lampard and Milner likely to be leaving on frees, and the need to at the very least plan for life without Yaya, we clearly require major investment in 2 or 3 top quality midfield players. That's where the money needs to be spent.

Apart from that I think FFP will mean that any other replacements will have to be largely self financing. If we can get decent money for players such as Jovetic then we should do it. But I dont think we have a long list of players that we can sell for large sums in order to buy replacements of a significantly greater quality. The mass clear out people seem to want doesnt seem to me to be plausible because they just will not bring in enough money.

We need to be better tactically and there does seem to be poor morale bubbling under the surface that need to be sorted out, if not by this manager then one who can. And that should be possible with most of this group of players.

 

[Dribble]

Stick with Pellegrini until the summer at least as I fail to see what can be gained by changing a manager so close to the season end.

In the meantime its imperative that someone at the club points out to MP what we and everyone else can see that needs to change and ensure he implements it.

But isn't that the job of the DoF? Seems a bit unfair that the manager takes all the flak if he doesn't fully control player acquisitions, style of play etc.......

we have seen it with mancini as soon as the race is run the trigger is pulled, i can see this happening again
it looks like he's losing the dressing room for the complete opposite of mancini, being too nice!

If this the case (Dzeko &Yaya yesterday makes me wonder) then for open player dissent to happen under 2 managers smacks of arse covering from above.

In the case of Mancini, Txiki & Roberto into one didn't go so it was obvious with Mancini wanting player/transfer/tactical autonomy it was never going to work with Txiki effectively being brought in to do everything player-wise apart from to coach them.

Pellegrini was Txiki's man from the off and the main difference I could see was Txiki claiming we'd be playing a holistic 433 from the youth to 1st team and every team in between & Pellegrini's preference for 442.

The main constant here is obviously the players. In real life I've seen a manager lose his staff because of a perceived lack of support from his superiors to manage. I think this was definitely the case in the power struggle between Txiki & Mancini, but why would Txiki & Ferran ever allow this to happen to their own man unless there is an ulterior motive? You'd be forgiven for thinking they'd be the first two to support MP and to quash any player rebellion or dissent, unless the situation is as I alluded to earlier whereby MP is a dead man walking & they don't wish to keep company with the dead in case it reflects on them.

It's horrible to think this could be the case but if it is, its not the kind of arse-covering upper level management I want at our club because we will become a club ruled by political boardroom games instead of being run by a strong unified management team. I don't think this is the case at present, but recent goings on do make me wonder......