When did it all start to go wrong?

[Ray78]

The home game against Burnley.

 

[Sir Knives]

As many have said some awful transfers over the last few years have left us in the mire. The squad is nowhere near good enough.
The treatment of Nastasic and Jovetic has caused issues with the Balkan players and Yaya being given carte blanche to do what he wants when he wants has undermined the management. That he fulfilled a dream winning the ACON meant he has lost some of the hunger and desire that made him such a top player.
Weak leadership has been the main problem, whether that is just Pellegrini or if that includes Soriano and Txixi it's up to individuals to make their own minds up.
We tossed off the FA Cup with poor preparation and since then our form has been very poor, culminating in a defeat to Palace and a heavy loss to our neighbours, whose team contained Smalling, Jones, Valencia, Carrick, Young and bogbrush.
However I do believe Frank Lampard has been criminally under used in a period when we needed a calm hand.

In the club's defence I always said this season was not going to give a true reflection of teams abilities.
The world cup finishing so late meant a number of squads were under prepared at the start and players have suffered from fatigue as the season as wore on.
Zaba and Kompany (two of our on field leaders) immediately spring to mind, whilst Fernandinho seems to have been scarred after Brazil's 7-1 semi-final defeat.
Whether the manager will be given more time is any-ones guess. However he's right about one thing we need a marquee signing to give the squad a lift and we need the players to find that desire to succeed.
All this is easier said than done!

No progress can be made until we have a sound coach who can restore playing morale and organisation.

It I easily done. The absent Chairman can turn his attention to our football club. Make a decision, appoint Vieira and we'll be on the up again. he may or may not have what it takes, but short term he'll have players who believe in (presumably his reputation around the club is good. If it's not then that kills that option).

The truth is 75% of us are guessing 24.99% are loving it, and maybe 0.01% know what's going on. I'm in the 75%, and just stabbing in the dark, but everything I'm seeing tells me that the coach is utterly inept and has lost the trust of the dressing room. When that happens there is no way back, and I'm very disappointed that our so called executives do not see that

I don't really trust my own views on this because they have been diametrically opposed over many months, but hat's what happens when you sit in the stands. You sit and 2nd guess everything.

Sunday 19th April is a huge game for MCFC

That's the way I see it too. I don't buy this City-are-a-spent-force argument the media and some here are pushing, this team is made up of people who's game doesn't really rely on athleticism too much, there are skillful players on this team but whenever I watch City lately they just seem so disjointed, it leads me to believe that it's a coaching problem.

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

The home game against Burnley.

That was exactly it. 2-0 up at home at HT. Then battered by a team that will be in the Championship this time come September.

 

[skybluepete]

The manager has to man-manage the players. This role is as important as coaching/team selection/tactics etc. If certain players decided that they weren't willing to play for Mancini then the club is simply left with a 'him' or 'them' decision. The same scenario could again be repeating itself with Pellegrini.

Amongst other problems, we have a few players showing a distinct loss of form, which is unfortunate but hopefully temporary, and a few players that regularly offer unacceptable levels of motivation, effort and passion. The latter problem is far from temporary and unless it's sorted once and for all it's likely we'll never see consistency from one season to the next. Although there's not a gulf of difference between the ages of the players in our squad there's certainly a huge difference in the maturity and mentality on show. We have those players that let emotions control their input and motivation, and then we have the real class acts that understand the importance of remaining focused and simply work harder to overcome any loss of confidence or form.

I honestly don't know what the solution is but I'm ruling out tactical formation, fitness or the introduction of a couple more players as any kind of 'holy grail' fix to the problem. Formation doesn't make you be 2nd to almost every 50/50 ball, It doesn't make the team slow down unnecessarily when attacking and it doesn't stop some of the taller players from winning aerial duels and corners against far smaller men. Until we get commitment and passion from the complete squad anything else (tactics/formation/squad rotation/fitness etc.) will be of secondary importance.

It may well be that we haven't yet found the right man to handle some of the attitudes/egos within our squad, however I do have a modicum of sympathy with Pellegrini when he said after the derby 'I don't understand why a team plays so well in the first 20 minutes'. I can't disagree with that comment, as we didn't go a man down, we had scored the opening goal and looked like we were going to steamroller them. I didn't notice any huge tactical change made by the rags to suddenly shift the balance of power. Baffling indeed...

No real sympathy tbh - a very simple but effective switch once we started to go off the boil after 20 mins on Sunday would have been to simply swap Milner with yaya .
All of a sudden we would have been playing yaya where he can damage the opposition as opposed to damaging our own chances of winning the game by continuing to play him where he is doing at the moment.
He needs to go now - there is no resilience in our team anymore , we used to be hard to beat but now , well the stats dont lie - 4 defeats in 6 , let's hope the last 6 dont mirror the 6 before.
I watched the chelsea v qpr game and cant help but notice that we used to be able to grind a result out like that , keep fighting to the very last whistle and quite often getting our rewards.
That dressing room needs a change now , we need a reaction from the players, it could make all the difference, thinking time over,say tarah and thanks very much to manuel and hand control to Patrick Viera for the remainder of the season - he cant do any worse !!

 

[Dethred]

Are there really people still saying that sacking Mancini was a mistake?

Do you not remember 3 losses and 3 draws in the CL? Do you not remember that doing well in the CL is the stated goal of the club and its owner? Do you not remember that Mancini was sacked by Inter for his CL failings, and Inter winning the CL shortly thereafter with pretty much the exact same team that Mancini assembled?

Do you not remember Lescott coming on as a striker against Everton, and putting on a second left back when we were down a goal? Do you not remember losing the FA cup to a team that is now likely to drop into League 1? Do you not remember the fact that Mancini had lost the entire dressing room and had created a toxic atmosphere at the club?

This season has been about players lacking motivation, and it appears that Pellegrini has failed to turn things around. A lot of that motivation is lacking because the new signings aren't providing any competition to the established players. For that he deserves the sack to the same degree that Mancini did, but he has clearly demonstrated that his tactics work. Winning back-to-back titles has been done only a handful of times, primarily because the players aren't as motivated. Our competition improved their squads and we didn't.

For fucks sake, go back and read your posts about Pellegrini last May. Slagging off a manager who has won us a double and gotten out of the CL group stage twice when Mancini couldn't even come close his second season with us in the CL.

Rose tinted glasses.

 

[Bluekiwi]

The manager has to man-manage the players. This role is as important as coaching/team selection/tactics etc. If certain players decided that they weren't willing to play for Mancini then the club is simply left with a 'him' or 'them' decision. The same scenario could again be repeating itself with Pellegrini.

Amongst other problems, we have a few players showing a distinct loss of form, which is unfortunate but hopefully temporary, and a few players that regularly offer unacceptable levels of motivation, effort and passion. The latter problem is far from temporary and unless it's sorted once and for all it's likely we'll never see consistency from one season to the next. Although there's not a gulf of difference between the ages of the players in our squad there's certainly a huge difference in the maturity and mentality on show. We have those players that let emotions control their input and motivation, and then we have the real class acts that understand the importance of remaining focused and simply work harder to overcome any loss of confidence or form.

I honestly don't know what the solution is but I'm ruling out tactical formation, fitness or the introduction of a couple more players as any kind of 'holy grail' fix to the problem. Formation doesn't make you be 2nd to almost every 50/50 ball, It doesn't make the team slow down unnecessarily when attacking and it doesn't stop some of the taller players from winning aerial duels and corners against far smaller men. Until we get commitment and passion from the complete squad anything else (tactics/formation/squad rotation/fitness etc.) will be of secondary importance.

It may well be that we haven't yet found the right man to handle some of the attitudes/egos within our squad, however I do have a modicum of sympathy with Pellegrini when he said after the derby 'I don't understand why a team plays so well in the first 20 minutes'. I can't disagree with that comment, as we didn't go a man down, we had scored the opening goal and looked like we were going to steamroller them. I didn't notice any huge tactical change made by the rags to suddenly shift the balance of power. Baffling indeed...

No real sympathy tbh - a very simple but effective switch once we started to go off the boil after 20 mins on Sunday would have been to simply swap Milner with yaya .
All of a sudden we would have been playing yaya where he can damage the opposition as opposed to damaging our own chances of winning the game by continuing to play him where he is doing at the moment.
He needs to go now - there is no resilience in our team anymore , we used to be hard to beat but now , well the stats dont lie - 4 defeats in 6 , let's hope the last 6 dont mirror the 6 before.
I watched the chelsea v qpr game and cant help but notice that we used to be able to grind a result out like that , keep fighting to the very last whistle and quite often getting our rewards.
That dressing room needs a change now , we need a reaction from the players, it could make all the difference, thinking time over,say tarah and thanks very much to manuel and hand control to Patrick Viera for the remainder of the season - he cant do any worse !!

If that switch had been made then it could conceivably have meant that Bogbrush had a different role to play and was no longer their target up front. But unfortunately our manager seems unable to think outside the box until it is far too late.

 

[Dax777]

Our transfer during the summer! I railed about it then.

 

[pudge]

When the players had their egos stroked

 

[123playcard]

When we pay 40+ millions for Malanga while our midfield is crap
(And Malanga is on the bench for Kompany and DM)

When we buy Fernando and never use him, Fernandino and Yaya in a 3 man midfield
So we end up Fernando on the bench OR Fernando and Fernandino in a 2 man midfield

 

[skybluepete]

Are there really people still saying that sacking Mancini was a mistake?

Do you not remember 3 losses and 3 draws in the CL? Do you not remember that doing well in the CL is the stated goal of the club and its owner? Do you not remember that Mancini was sacked by Inter for his CL failings, and Inter winning the CL shortly thereafter with pretty much the exact same team that Mancini assembled?

Do you not remember Lescott coming on as a striker against Everton, and putting on a second left back when we were down a goal? Do you not remember losing the FA cup to a team that is now likely to drop into League 1? Do you not remember the fact that Mancini had lost the entire dressing room and had created a toxic atmosphere at the club?

This season has been about players lacking motivation, and it appears that Pellegrini has failed to turn things around. A lot of that motivation is lacking because the new signings aren't providing any competition to the established players. For that he deserves the sack to the same degree that Mancini did, but he has clearly demonstrated that his tactics work. Winning back-to-back titles has been done only a handful of times, primarily because the players aren't as motivated. Our competition improved their squads and we didn't.

For fucks sake, go back and read your posts about Pellegrini last May. Slagging off a manager who has won us a double and gotten out of the CL group stage twice when Mancini couldn't even come close his second season with us in the CL.

Rose tinted glasses.

That same team knocked us out of the 3rd round in MP first season pal too- this season we struggled with Sheffield we'd and then got knocked out the very next round against mboro - great fa cup record !!
I dont dislike him just was never ever an upgrade on Mancini in a million years