This is our City

25 March 2015

Give Pellegrini A Break?, Burnley Match Had It's Positives, Time To Move On

OK last week I was anchoring for Pellegrini's sack but after deeply emotional contemplation, I actually found myself questioning whether or not I was right to want the guy out. Despite the most recent facts and statistics stacked against Pellegrini, I had to remind myself how facts and statistics don't always tell the entire story.

Listening too and reading what other City fans had to say was interesting, I found seasoned fans were almost equally torn between keeping and sacking Pellegrini, interestingly enough though there were quite a few younger generation and newly acquired City fans in support of Pellegrini. So Walter Smith a City fan on BluemoonRising TV answered a few City fan tweets.



Walter makes some interesting and valid points but one thing I disagree with is questioning a fans loyalty and support just because you don't agree with their opinion.

Right now I believe Manuel Pellegrini to be the wrong man for City based on the fact we have been knocked out of the League Cup, FA Cup, Champions League and threw away not one but two great opportunities to catch up, even over take Chelsea and we blew it in Typical City style.

Pellegrini's timing and choice of substitutions have been very questionable this season and his inability to drop certain under performing players has been over whelming. When it was clear Vinny was not quite ready after coming back from injury Pellegrini threw him to the wolves, he even persisted with Edin Dzeko, a player who barely ever tracks back and can't defend to save his own skin. While we had a much better forward in Wilfried Bony unfairly rotting on the bench, Frank Lampards loan extension and all Pellegrini did was leave him on the bench?

OK a lot of our stars were under performing big time but the buck lies with Pellegrini at the end of the day.

Now so why am I questioning myself if I believe Pellegrini's not the man?, well a few factors spring to mind. The first being who could possibly replace him that would be a step up and not step down?

My two choices were Ancelotti and Simeone but both would be very hard to price away from their clubs right now without having to spend a lot of cash to acquire their services.

Then there's our players that have come out in support of Pellegrini, we can't ignore that vote of confidence.

Other factors are that Pellegrini doesn't have long left on his contract and we could be doing a lot worse so with that said, it makes sense to give Pellegrini a chance to right his wrongs and learn from his mistakes. Let him see out his contract and earn himself an extension but ultimately, if we lose the title this season to Chelsea then I probably won't be changing my mind.

Thus saving ourselves from having to pay out huge amounts of cash in compensation and a pay off.

TIOC supports you for now Mr Manuel Pellegrini and wishes you all the best in turning things around for City's sake and your own. Rome wasn't built in a day but then City aren't a day old.

P.s. bring some of our young lads through to the first team please, bring back Denayer, Iheanacho and Lopes and give them a good chance in the first team.

19 March 2015

Pellegrini Out, MOTM Joe Hart And Time For A Clear Out, City Need Fresh Faces

Out of all but one competition which we're holding on to by the skin of our teeth, this season we have gone backwards without any doubt. Pellegrini has done no better than Roberto Mancini if we're honest with ourselves, it took him 4 losses to Arsenal, Barcelona, Liverpool then Burnley and a loss against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup. Before finally realising he was wrong all along to stick to his ignorant system, waving away criticism from all quarters including City blog's, boards and websites screaming for him to adapt and improve.

He finally realised the error of his ways last night against a Barcelona side out for nothing but a convincing win, or so I thought until he yet again made mistakes and bad calls. He deceived us by dropping Dzeko and playing with Aguero leading the line and Silva in behind, something Spain do regular with El Magico aka Merlin.

Our lads did us proud just about this time round so I take no credit away from them, just a few key points I wish to highlight though. Yaya Toure's defending this season has been non existent if not appalling, something usually disguised by his attacking genius. However he's been equally below par in that department also this season with 33 fouls conceded, 6 yellow cards and 1 red card, in 30 appearances Yaya has scored 9 goals after having 68 shots on target. His only positive has been his pass success rate which just isn't good enough, we continue to suffer losing him to the African Cup of Nations too.

As good as he is in peak form Samir Nasri has also been below par, James Milner has scored twice as many goals in as many appearances. Milner has 3 less yellow cards, 14 less fouls conceded and 13 more fouls won than Nasri.

With all this in mind it's blatantly clear that only Joe Hart, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, James Milner and believe it or not Frank Lampard truly deserve their place and wage at Manchester City this season. Everyone else has either been well below par or stuck on the bench or fringe too much to make an impact.

Two issues I found and still find so frustrating are how Pellegrini has treated Frank Lampard and Wilfried Bony. We embarrassingly extended Frank Lampard's loan only to witness Pellegrini bench him for the rest of the season?, spend millions on Wilfried Bony who according to statistics and video footage is a far far far more efficient and talented forward than Edin Dzeko?, leaving Bony benched along side Lampard.

On another note AS and Marca are at it as usual with their under hand praise for Joe Hart, while claiming City were spared blushes because apparently Barca we're piss poor in the final third. Spain can't get enough rub time up their own, revelling in the fact they currently have 3 teams in the top 8 of European football. Ye that has nothing to do with help from Uefa and Uefa match officials, or the facts they do not suffer from a ban on third party ownership of players, restrictions on youth acquisition or inflated prices of their own countries national talent.

I'll give Pellegrini credit where it's due, his personality shines through, his control over how he conducts himself is virtually perfection. In that department he makes the Ego Moronho over at Chelsea look like an amateur clown, It's just a shame he's finally shown his weaknesses, failed to learn from them and improve, resulting in going out of the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup with our title challenge hanging by a thread.

Although Demichelis rode his luck with some tough challenges early on, he settled in soon enough and gave us some stability at the back so well done to him. Although most of our players under performed, they did just enough to prevent humiliation mostly thanks to Joe Hart.

It's time for a fresh approach at City with some new faces to lift spirits and inject some youth into our team.

Players I think need to move on are: Edin Dzeko, Stevan Jovetic, Alexander Kolarov, Scott Sinclair and Fernando.

Replace with: Kelechi Iheanacho (3rd choice), Leighton Baines, Gareth Bale & Ross Barkley.

Promote Brandon Barker (4th choice) and bring back Marcos Lopes taking up Matija Nastasic and Micah Richards spots in the team.

That's 4 home grown players in and 2 home grown players out with Frank Lampard leaving for NYCFC. Iheanacho, Barker and Lopes saving us huge transfer fees while freeing up 5 big wage packets Edin Dzeko, Stevan Jovetic, Kolarov, Scott Sinclair and Fernando too make way for 3 incoming wage packets for Baines, Bale and Barkley.

It's a no brainer, capitalize on Bales current situation at Real, it's blatantly obvious Cristiano Ronaldo is not happy with Bale around, nor are the Real Madrid fan base. Sponsorship deals will cover more than half his wage anyway. Baines would give us strength and proven Premier League talent at left back and Barkley is more than capable of bettering Fernando.

Barker, Iheanacho and Lopes are more than ready and have proven themselves capable of making the step up. Iheanacho now qualifies for a work permit to my knowledge so that wouldn't be an issue for City now.

What's your opinion on Pellegrini?, who do you think we should sign to freshen up our squad and move forward with?