…WERE you thinking?!
Blame
Pellegrini has said ‘post
game’ that he is “…more than angry”
about the performance; that it’s “…difficult
to understand why we played so bad [the complete team; defending, attacking
possession]” and that he’s “…never
seen this team play in the way that they did”.
He then went on to refuse to explain the starting 11 and
added, rather defiantly, that he would choose the same, starting 11 if he had
the time again.
And there, ladies & gentleman, is the crux of the
matter; the steely defiant look on his face alone when dare-questioned about
his team selection says it all for me. Clearly a sore point / raw nerve.
In emphasising over and over again that it wasn’t the
fault of one individual but, rather, the whole team; he then went on to say
that he and his team needed to-now move on and that they had an important(ish) game on Wednesday.
There, people, are two more issues. Firstly it was
the fault of one individual…that being himself. Secondly – and I flippin’-well
knew this when I saw his team selection and the when the disappointment
continued to soak in during the long, cold walk home in the dark - he clearly had,
and not for the first time, one eye on the fffffff…lippin’ Champions League!
Here was the problem…
This was my ‘Pellegrini predicted line-up’ in the last piece:
4-1-4-1 come
4-5-1 come 4-3-3:
____________________Aguero___________________
___________________________Toure______________
____________Fernandinho_______________________
___________________Fernando___________________
______________________Hart_____________________
And here’s what he did:
4-2-4:
____________________Aguero___________________
Sterling____________De Bruyne______________Navas
…………………………………………………………………....
…………………………………………………………..………..
……………………………………………………………..……..
………………………………………………………………..…..
…………………………………………………………………....
…………………………………………………………………....
____________Fernando__________________________
___________________________Toure______________
______________________Hart_____________________
No I haven’t made a mistake in-putting defensive midfielder
Fernando slightly ahead of more-attack-effective
Yaya Toure; and no I haven’t also purposely put the trio of Sterling, De Bruyne
and Navas so far up and against lone striker Sergio Aguero for effect and just
to prove a sour point.
What I HAVE done, with my limited capabilities &
resources, is to shunt that low-graphic affect in there to show readers the GAPING hole that was there for all
the cold, runny eyes to see at the Etihad
yesterday; glaringly obvious to all but the manager who, for some STRANGE reason, did nothing
until half time to change it!
If you didn’t watch the whole game then I kid you not – and I don’t know how it might come across
during any match highlights – when I say that Yaya spent the majority of his time playing
sweeper just in front of the shambolic back-4 and an-often frantic & frustrated-looking
keeper but who, it has to be said, pulled off some very fine saves indeed. Fernando was doing similar but, for some reason often in FRONT of his
one & only, over-run, central-midfield partner...while Sterling, De Bruyne and
Navas played SO far up that we
were effectively playing with 4 strikers in a 4-(deep 2)-4
formation!
The hole in the midfield between the
deep-lying midfield-two and attack was bigger than Sam Allardyce’s head!
Finally our…”engineer”…did change it at half time. Off went
poor ol’ Yaya and right-winger Jesus and on came Fabian Delph and a player who should have started in a 4-5-1’ish formation, Fernandinho.
It looked slightly better; certainly less chaotic and more ‘controlling’…but
the game had all-but gone by then.
So…despite a Fernando / Fernandinho / Toure combo working
really, really well recently; despite all of those players being
available, despite one of the best, recent-performing central defenders
[Nicolas Otamendi] also being available and, I would add, even-more-needed with the absence of Vincent Kompany; despite ALL of that and
that fact that we were always going to face an attack-minded & energetic Liverpool side…Pellegrini chooses a Mangala /
Demichelis combo, Kolarov [the less defensive of the two with Clichy being available] on the left of a
clearly-weakened defence and instructs the midfield / wings to push SO far
up-against Aguero that you could have set up a sizable Christmas market between
the midfield and front line!
You weren’t thinking of Wednesday’s game
against Juventus, Manuel? Pull the other one,
it’s got reindeer bells on…
Any credit to Liverpool?
Yeah of course – they ‘pressed up’ and pressed us high;
nullified Yaya completely, rattled the most nervous & disorganised defence
I’ve seen since Spurs away and played with a
high tempo for most of the game; that by the time they tired slightly and we
finally made adjustments it was ‘job done’.
BUT…
…we flippin’ ALLOWED
them to do all of that and more; in a game where not only was Yaya almost
playing centre-half but midfielder De Bruyne…wasn’t even in midfield!
No-one…and I mean NO-one for large parts of the
first half was even present in midfield to collect the flippin ball and do
anything with it.
Poor, poor team selection and severe lack of tactics in
general from our manager who appears, quite
clearly to me, to be willing to throw away any Premier League challenge in favour of this flippin’ European competition; where
we’re likely to face the might of Real Madrid,
Barcelona or Bayern Munich at some stage with a team that’s capable of such an insipid
display as it was yesterday. Oh dear…
Sure there was no Vincent Kompany, Samir Nasri, David Silva or Wilfried Bony…and Sergio Aguero himself had only
just come back from being injured for weeks. Even more reason then, I would suggest, to be savvy…and
certainly display more nous than our manager showed yesterday.
Pellegrini 1-4 Liverpool
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