Don't disagree with most of that. You still chose to ignore the central point I am making though, that pellegrini should pay more attention to the strengths of the team we are playing against, to the squad he has available and should set up accordingly.Managers always big themselves up after a win.
We didn't lose because of a high defensive line, we lot because Demichelis predictably got out run as his forward sprinted on to the cross. It's not our style to defend. We always attack, and I thought we did that reasonably well, we just gave Stoke something to cling on to. They sy scored with their first two attacks. I remember after hey scored, De Bruyne almost got an equaliser. Missing that, and then going 2-0 down killed us.
There are genuine problems that the manager has in getting his team up for every game when its the same small pool of players that are left available.
I don't think he's making the best decisions: Bony and Demichelis for me shouldn't be playing. But I only very recently came to that conclusion. I was in the camp of Bony is a good player he just needs a few goals and he'll come good.
Lets see what Pellegrini does now. I really hope Mangala is restored to the defence. The problem is that he genuinely does not have many options now. Iheanacho can't play against Borussia MGBH, so unless Aguero has recovered we'll be reliant on Bony who has lost all confidence in his game.
Aguero will be rubbish for a month. But there will come a time soon I hope when Kompany returns, Aguero starts to click and we'll see the old City. In the meantime its damage limitation. Successful seasons are often this way.
Besides the Pellers management issue there is also the elephant in the room. That is Kompany, Silva and Aguero. Whist no one can argue with their quality it is hard having your key players out injured so often.
There are a number of things'wrong' at the moment. Not least of which is the injury crisis. The manager, for me, sounds uninspiring and let's not forget that last season was shite as well. Average players are now being shown up as average without the great players around them.
The biggest problem for me though, is the 'blind spot' the manager has for certain players. If I was being kind, I would blame injuries, but why play Fernando instead of Delph? Why play Bony ahead of Nacho after the Hull performance? We paid £12m for Patrick Robert's who, when I've watched him in the EDS has always looked the business - why not give him a chance - at least in the League Cup? If you are a good quality young player in the EDS at City, you may as well move on to another club rather than stay under Pellegrini because he won't take risks with youth. He moans about players being tired, but he still won't take the risk. Pellegrini is a major part of the problem - sterile, old, lacking in imagination, too set in his ways to take a risk. Time to go - and I wouldn't wait for the summer.
Pellers needs to dust off his copy of Disraeli Gears by Cream and freak out to Jack Bruce belting out 'We're Going Wrong'.
That should do the trick.
denayer went because Otamendi came in
Everyone thinks Nasri is on his way because there's no place for him long term, and you think we need another player in that position?
We are in the middle of an injury crisis. That's what this all comes down to
If we were losing with Kompany, Aguero, Silva, like we did in previous seasons, then I really would be worried.
Because had he not done and lost to Hull, you would have all been screaming he disrespected the competition, shat on the fans and blew a wembley trip and you would have wanted him sacked.
Bloke cant win right now.
denayer went because Otamendi came in
Denayer should have been kept instead of Demi
Everyone thinks Nasri is on his way because there's no place for him long term, and you think we need another player in that position?
Yes I do. Not sure Nasri will come back as strong and we have nobody who is a like for like replacement. If Pellers had given Garcia more game time then at least we would had options.
We are in the middle of an injury crisis. That's what this all comes down to
No it doesn't. Leicester have nowhere near the squad we have and were fighting relegation last year. We are three points behind them. Difference a very good manger. Liverpool have the same players as under Rogers - difference a very good manager. However I do question our recruitment strategy.
If we were losing with Kompany, Aguero, Silva, like we did in previous seasons, then I really would be worried.
Nobody questioned your right to to give your opinion ,its a fans chat forum,thats what its all about.you posted and i responded.Mate, I have been supporting City for the last 50 years so I am well used to the ride. I am also entitled to give my opinion that some of his performances have been clueless and deeply flawed. Having an injury list as long as your arm might be a reasonable reason to set up your team a little differently to negate the strength of the opposition. He did that against Seville but failed yesterday and against Liverpool.
I was comparing both managers post match interviews and their preparation for yesterday's game not their respective careers:-). On the basis of that, I stand by what I said. I am not a Hughes fan, but Manuel's comments after the game as they were after the Liverpool game were poor and give no indication that he has learned anything from these thumpings. That was the intention of my post. He blames injuries and then sets the team up as he would with everyone available. We can't win every game but increasingly, we are getting out thought and outplayed. Yesterday could have been 4 or 5 if stokes finishing had been more clinical. We created 2 or 3 chances. The manager has to be held responsible.Nobody questioned your right to to give your opinion ,its a fans chat forum,thats what its all about.you posted and i responded.
I agree, yesterday was very poor,but you appeared to be comparing hughes,who was bottom of the league recently to Pelle and suggesting our manager was inferior.
i dont agree with you.
when we beat the champions 4-0 with a fully fit squad there were no suggestions from others that he was clueless.Pelle has difficulties with a few aspects of english football, but to put hughes up as some form of benchmark is a little rash.imo.
I agree. It's going to be close and we have a good squad. If Manuel is willing to compromise and be more practical when taking account of injuries, we could still do it. Chelsea are gone, Arsenal have as many injury problems as we do. Leicester surely can't keep this going. We have a good chance of doing it but we desperately need a run of form to regain confidence.I agree with you saying he set the team up as he would normally do.perhaps he should have been less gung ho and concentrated on matching stokes solidity and commitment during the early part of a game at a tricky away ground, and in difficult conditions.He is certainly not above criticism in that regard.i said to others at the game yesterday that even if he had planned to play the same way against stoke on the friday, a look at the weather conditions on the day of the match should have forced him to alter the teams approach, and i was annoyed he went gung ho with three fancy dan players behind Bony at stoke.
I do however feel that the relentless run of injuries and fixtures is going to affect our performances,and there isn,t that much a manager can do about that.
if the players were ,actually feeling sluggish due to fatigue yesterday it may have been too much to expect a high energy performance in those circumstances...take a look around the premier league this season mate,we are not alone in balancing the demands of european football with ever increasing injury worries.
That is why Leicester are top,good luck to them,but if they win the league, and its possible,dont expect them to be playing their particular brand of high energy football twice a week next season. In the modern game,thats just not possible.And we have to be careful, as fans , at this stage of the season,not to over react after a defeat and increase the pressure on our young talented players and whip up the media frenzy for the manager to be replaced,thereby inviting instability once again at City, we have seen how that bring a club to its knees.
If Pep is on his way,all well and good..but until then it would be madness to kick out Pelle and go down the route of a temp manager until the end of the season.
This season will go to the wire, no team will run away with it( altho we looked handily placed to do so when kompany silva sergio and silva were all fit) we have to battle thru the lean times, and i accept battle we did not yesterday,but we are still handily placed in three competitions as we approach the turn of the year....not bad at all City.
Is it an elephant in the room? It is widely recognised and gets discussed often enough.
The manager has never been up to the task. He was gifted the trophy his first season in charge. A muppet could've guided us to the title that season. His stubbornness to still select players like Fernando baffles me. He's ridiculously slow, dives in and completely misses and besides making himself look like a complete amateur he then opens a gaping gap behind him. Demichelis this season is even worse. Last season his positional sense was spot on which made up for his lack of pace. But for some reason that has now completely deserted him and he's just a bystander to everyone running past him. Mangala is a calamity and should be either loaned out for a season till he improves his awareness or just sold. Denayer can't be any worse a choice than those two whilst Komps is forever on the sick list. Bony, well what can you say? When he was wearing a Swansea shirt I always thought I wouldn't mind him wearing one of ours. Now I wish he was wearing anybody else's but one of ours! He's static, he can't shoot, he can't run. One decent game in five is simply not good enough at this level. He was a big fish at Swansea and could handle it. He's a tadpole at City and simply can't. Yesterday, collectively, the team were awful. Embarrassing. That has to fall on the manager who simply lacks the ability to motivate his players and lacks the nous to pick the right team and formation to combat an away fixture against such a combative Stoke team. We can all except defeat when there is effort on show and a desire to compete. But this Stoke game and the debacle that was the Liverpool game was simply not good enough. We need a manager who knows when to and can give these pre madonnas a good kick up the arse when it's needed and for himself to have the know how on how to change it when it's needed. And this manager has shown time & time again that he's not the man.