Pellegrini doesn't know what the problem is....

Then how on earth can he know what the solution is?

One season wonder, and here's me thinking Bobby Manc was lucky winning the title ......

This is slightly worrying - the kind of thing that sealed Frank Clarke's fate.
I don't think it's too difficult to grasp what the problem is - a continued battering of confidence as a result of a pursuance of a CM duo where one of them is Yaya. He simply isn't mobile enough to get around as much as we need him to if played in a duo.

His strength lies in controlling the middle when he receives the ball.
When he gets it anywhere near the centre spot or just inside the opposition's half, it is safe for him to turn and look for options or a through ball. He can also run at people which when he comes from slightly deep causes even massed defences to panic as they have to break formation to deal with the extra runner.

Played in a centre 3 he has 2 others to cover his forays and reduce the amount of space he has to move across when defending. One of them can also decide to move forwards and give him an option, creating movement and more space.

But he is ineffective when people press us hard and he doesn't have the extra option near, -he drops and receives the ball 10 yards further back - he cannot turn (too dangerous to try) and often has to simply play the safe ball back to our back line. I have seen this in practically every one of those games where we have been hounded by opposition who seemingly put in more effort than us from the front(e.g. Dortmund, Bayern, etc.).

In any game where he is in a CM 2, I would be aiming to play the ball his way (close but around him) - as I fancy someone with a bit of dribbling ability and pace to be able to bypass him most times.

Equally I am not convinced that pushing him just behind the front man works either as he cannot receive the ball in any space to have vision or to turn and run (his marker is already on top of him).

Know what he is good at and recognise that he is one of the best in the world at and build on that, negating his weaknesses.

PBSOS,
Stick that in an email to MP, as it's summed up pretty well imo.

Cheers shaken, may just do so - though I think I'll have to dress it up pretty well to get him to take any notice - just another piece of 'fan mail' from the outside.

Time to get the serious letter intros out. 

When have footy clubs ever listened to fans?

I think it's more that we are too reliant on silva and Nasri playing rather than the middle, that and simply loss of form by a few players this season. 

I personally don't want Pellegrini to change the system off the back of a run of a few games, a couple of which we should have won comfortably had we been able to shoot from eight yards out. 

It will click back again.

I've said before (quite a few times) that we just aren't clinical enough. We generally have plenty of chances and have to put a better proportion away to put games to bed.

Not overly happy with a system that continually leaves us exposed when we lose the ball and teams attack us at pace.

Topdawg wrote:I've said before (quite a few times) that we just aren't clinical enough. We generally have plenty of chances and have to put a better proportion away to put games to bed.

I've made this exact same point, many times, as well.  Last season, not so much, because we were scoring for fun, but if we look at the stats, we're still needing many chances for every goal we score.  And we shouldn't.  If we scored one in three chances, we'd have won the league last season in April and (this is where it gets a bit contentious) we'd be right on Chelsea's toes now and not quite so far off the pace in the CL either.

Look at the derby.  We had, what, 19 clear-cut chances and we scored once?  That's really very poor, even taking De Gea's acrobatics into consideration.  And our problem is this:  Our players rarely open their bodies up and take a shot.  We see them all the time, fannying about passing it around the 18 yard box, trying to walk it in.

If we got half the penalties we deserve, we'd simply win more games much more easily.

It was the west ham game. We had the bulk of possession and Aguero should have got at least four goals. We got done by the counter, but that was because we were pushing up searching for a goal due to the ineptitude of our finishing rather than the system itself.

Far too often we are wide open when we lose the ball in the middle. Whether that is the system or players not doing their jobs, it's asking for trouble especially if you aren't converting enough good chances.

Look at the work rate of teams like West Ham and Stoke in closing our players down. They run around like possessed men for the whole game and dont let us settle into a passing game and it has worked which means that other teams we are expected to beat are going to do the same thing. Pel needs to learn from these games and stop history repeating itself like it has done previously in games against Wigan and Sunderland under Mancini.
If these games are heading the same way then change things, take control of the midfield and go one up front but do not just make illogical substitutions that change nothing and in some cases make it worse.

If you are not up for it, work rate can beat just about any team. We shouldn't be losing just because of being out fought.

Well after last night, it's behope he knows what the problem is now.

Yep, I want him gone, plain and simple.   It works for Chelsea it will work for us.

No idea who I want, just not this joker.  He is simply clueless.

I'm with you BB. He keeps on with the same old bollocks time after time.

I said we needed to freshen things up and they just handed players new contracts instead. Look at the impact Lampard seems to have had in the few games he's played for us. Mango may come good eventually, but us that what £32M buys you these days?

Engineer?? I wouldn't let him wash my car let alone tinker with it

1. ManCityMan
   

Engineer?? I wouldn't let him wash my car let alone tinker with it