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We all love to criticize with hindsight, but in all seriousness there's good and bad right now.

For me the good is pellers seems to have recognized he needs some protection in the middle away. He made two subs that had immediate impact yesterday and isn't afraid to make them early.

The not so good for me is his choice of personnel, namely Garcia in the middle, lescott being last choice etc.

The strangest one tho is how his 3rd sub negated his 1st yesterday. This isn't a witch hunt as I have mad man love for him, but zaba stopped navas far better than any Sunderland fullback would have. He constantly took his space and forced him inside, early days yeah, but I hope pellers took note as our top RB and RW shouldn't be an either or.

Pretty Boy Lee wrote:We all love to criticize with hindsight, but in all seriousness there's good and bad right now.

For me the good is pellers seems to have recognized he needs some protection in the middle away. He made two subs that had immediate impact yesterday and isn't afraid to make them early.

The not so good for me is his choice of personnel, namely Garcia in the middle, lescott being last choice etc.

The strangest one tho is how his 3rd sub negated his 1st yesterday. This isn't a witch hunt as I have mad man love for him, but zaba stopped navas far better than any Sunderland fullback would have. He constantly took his space and forced him inside, early days yeah, but I hope pellers took note as our top RB and RW shouldn't be an either or.

Garcia is a joke. He shouldn't ever be in the pitch. If he'd started milner there and jesus out wide we'd have pissed this match I believe.

Unfortunately Zabba part was true, hope it was a misunderstanding

Also as someone else was pointing - we had 14 corners and made absolutely nothing out of it. Whats our conversion ratio with corners, even Barcelona do better than us I guess.

I think partnerships across the pitch are underrated.

For what it's worth Micah asking Milner to do all his defending didn't work either. I'm a tad concerned that our strong right side options we've had the last few years are not looking so hot right jow

Pretty Boy Lee wrote:We all love to criticize with hindsight, but in all seriousness there's good and bad right now.

For me the good is pellers seems to have recognized he needs some protection in the middle away. He made two subs that had immediate impact yesterday and isn't afraid to make them early.

The not so good for me is his choice of personnel, namely Garcia in the middle, lescott being last choice etc.

The strangest one tho is how his 3rd sub negated his 1st yesterday. This isn't a witch hunt as I have mad man love for him, but zaba stopped navas far better than any Sunderland fullback would have. He constantly took his space and forced him inside, early days yeah, but I hope pellers took note as our top RB and RW shouldn't be an either or.

What two early subs ???

zuricity wrote: What two early subs ???

He's made subs at half time twice that I remember, neggers in for Dzeko a while back and navas for Garcia yesterday.

Jesus had an immediate impact and Dzeko livened us up a bit too.

Pretty Boy Lee wrote:
He's made subs at half time twice that I remember, neggers in for Dzeko a while back and navas for Garcia yesterday.

Jesus had an immediate impact and Dzeko livened us up a bit too.

Mmmmh .... wasn't Garcia injured just before half time by a two footed tackle? And as for the impact of Navas , did we score ? Or was he also not seen making poor crosses, decisions and drifting into midfield again ??

With everyone fit, Garcia would not play. He is the weakest link in our strong squad. Barry used to get shit on here but at least he had a football brain.

zuricity wrote: Mmmmh .... wasn't Garcia injured just before half time by a two footed tackle? And as for the impact of Navas , did we score ? Or was he also not seen making poor crosses, decisions and drifting into midfield again ??

That tackle was in the 1st 10 minutes.

Navas came on and gave us width which instantly made us more threatening. The fact that nobody got in and challenged I'll leave open to debate, but no doubt he added more attack immediately.

Pretty Boy Lee wrote:
That tackle was in the 1st 10 minutes.

Navas came on and gave us width which instantly made us more threatening. The fact that nobody got in and challenged I'll leave open to debate, but no doubt he added more attack immediately.

Ok, i missed the first half, so i can only comment on what i saw in the second. Perhaps Pellegrini would have done more of a favour by taking Garcia off immediately if he was injured.

We need a fucking shrink, or 10 mins with Jeremy Kyle. We have all sorts of quangos, A couple more will not any harm.

zuricity wrote: Ok, i missed the first half, so i can only comment on what i saw in the second. Perhaps Pellegrini would have done more of a favour by taking Garcia off immediately if he was injured.

No drama, just doing my best to be optimistic.

He's obviously fucked up a few things, but he appears to be learning. Will it come soon enough, time will tell.

Some tactical suggestions for Pellegrini.

- Stop pissing around with the back 4. Stick with Zabba at right-back and play him there every week bar the odd Cup game. Richards is no better now than he was when he was 17 and has stagnated as a player - oh and that fooking embarrassing dive he does is worth an FA ban. At left-back pick one of Clichy or Kolarov and stick with them in a similar fashion. Restore Hart in goal, and fookin stick with it.

- When playing away consider using 5 men in midfield and establish a good foothold, making us harder to beat. Milner should be the extra central midfieler, and you can sacrifice Negredo to accommodate him

- Garcia. Never play him; never consider playing him; ensure the only City kit he wears is a blazer or tracksuit until we can sell him back to Benfica for 50p in January

- Stop playing Milner out wide. He isn't a wide man ffs

- When Ya Ya Toure is having one of his lazy, disinterested, shit days please do not be afraid to take him off. He was as much use as a dartboard on a hot air balloon yesterday

Have we lost the away games due to tactical reasons or bad defending by players who should be better? Certainly from a defensive perspective all the defeats can be traced back to awful individual mistakes.Cardiff it was Joe and Zaba,Villa it was the centre backs and Joe,Chelsea it was mainly Joe with a bit of Nasti.The only game where the tactics were simply wrong and we lost was Bayern and we would probably have lost that anyway.

Maybe against Chelsea we were set up wrong but he changed that and we got level and dominated the game in the 2nd half

If we look at the tactical approach going forward I don't see too much wrong.You can argue the strongest teams should be played in every game which will always give us a front 5 of Yaya.Silva,Nasri,Kun and Negredo, but that's not going to happen every game as there is bound to be a little bit of rotation.But playing the likes of Milner,Navas and Dzeko should not be a problem.Hell even if Garcia gets a game in midfield it should be a major issue.

The Sunderland game for 4 years in a row now has shown our vulnerability.Teams that are very well organised and run till they drop are a problem for us.The likes of Aguero,Silva and co are not marked by one player but often 3 and when we get balls into the box we are usually faced by 7 or 8 defenders deep and ready to attack the ball and smother any City player who is the target.

The one thing I don't see from City in games like this is intensity from the start.It really seems that we know we are the better side and there isn't a worry as we will score and they won't.Often their goal comes late so there isn't a lot of time to react but yesterday we had loads of time but it seemed to take an age before it fully dawned on us that we were going to lose.

The manager said those worrying words for me that "I cannot believe we lost that game".Well I think the fans can.

He got the tactics wrong yesterday or at least the personnel.

The biggest issue for me was playing Garcia and Yaya as a midfield two, absolutely no tenacity in there which made it easy for Sunderland's midfield three to get a foothold. This was particularly evident when the switch came at half time, Sunderland could hardly get any passing going when we had a ball winner in Milner in the centre.

I've no problem Garcia holding if there's two in centre mid in front of him, he should not be used as one of a pairin midfield, it just doesn't work.

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:He got the tactics wrong yesterday or at least the personnel.

The biggest issue for me was playing Garcia and Yaya as a midfield two, absolutely no tenacity in there which made it easy for Sunderland's midfield three to get a foothold. This was particularly evident when the switch came at half time, Sunderland could hardly get any passing going when we had a ball winner in Milner in the centre.

I've no problem Garcia holding if there's two in centre mid in front of him, he should not be used as one of a pairin midfield, it just doesn't work.

Maybe that was a great approach but it wasn't the reason we lost the game was it? It didn't give the goal away as that was down to a long ball which Milner especially but also Demechelis and Pants couldn't deal with. And I wouldn't say it was the reason why our fron 5 couldn't put the ball in the net.

Maybe because Garcia was playing meant Yaya wasn't comfy getting forward more but that's Yaya's fault.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:He got the tactics wrong yesterday or at least the personnel.

The biggest issue for me was playing Garcia and Yaya as a midfield two, absolutely no tenacity in there which made it easy for Sunderland's midfield three to get a foothold. This was particularly evident when the switch came at half time, Sunderland could hardly get any passing going when we had a ball winner in Milner in the centre.

I've no problem Garcia holding if there's two in centre mid in front of him, he should not be used as one of a pairin midfield, it just doesn't work.

Maybe that was a great approach but it wasn't the reason we lost the game was it? It didn't give the goal away as that was down to a long ball which Milner especially but also Demechelis and Pants couldn't deal with. And I wouldn't say it was the reason why our fron 5 couldn't put the ball in the net.

Maybe because Garcia was playing meant Yaya wasn't comfy getting forward more but that's Yaya's fault.

Fair enough it didn't directly contribute to the goal conceded but it did give Sunderland belief, the way we played in the second half being completely dominant should've been the pattern from the first minute, it wasn't because of the personnel that were selected and the tactics deployed imo.

I still think we lack creativity when Silva isn't playing. Newcastle in the cup was an example of what he brings to the side, he just frees things up around him and the gaps appear. I have no idea if Jovetic can do the same job (doubt it) but worryingly he seems to be turning into another Bojinov (or something else isn't right, hence why he played longer for Montenegro against England than he has for City of late). We need cover for Silva or even someone threatening his starting role.

What is it with lack of one touch passing? I mean some players do it "accidentally" when in tight spot but most of the times it's two -three touches every single time. I can't believe that manager would instruct them to do so but something's wrong there.

Dunnylad wrote:I still think we lack creativity when Silva isn't playing. Newcastle in the cup was an example of what he brings to the side, he just frees things up around him and the gaps appear. I have no idea if Jovetic can do the same job (doubt it) but worryingly he seems to be turning into another Bojinov (or something else isn't right, hence why he played longer for Montenegro against England than he has for City of late). We need cover for Silva or even someone threatening his starting role.

We should bring in Juan Mata in january. He is out of favour with moreen so it is a possibility he could be sold.