Is any player safe?

[Mase]

Could pep take this current squad and make them champions next season?

Anyone with a plan b could. Unfortunately Pellers doesn't have one.

Weren't you watching against Kiev and against Liverpool at Wembley? Fernandinho playing right and dropping back in the centre to make up the numbers not a plan B?

When we played at the Swamp and sat in not a plan B?

We went from two out and out strikers in his first season to just one at the end of last season into this, not a plan B?

I think you misunderstood. During a match if things aren't going our way, like Wednesday, there's no plan b. Ever. Pellers idea of a plan b is take off an attacker and put Fernando on.

Mancini's plan B was to take off an attacker and put De Jong on, it worked fairly well.

Sorry mate but I don't buy this 'no plan B' argument at all.

Mancini's plan b was actually to push Yaya further forward behind Aguero. And it worked on numerous occasions. I can't remember him putting de Jong on for an attacker in pretty much every game as Pellers does, but I doubt you'd see it anyway mate.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

No need for that last line Mase, we're having a debate, the cuntishness is unnecessary.

[Mase]

No need for that last line Mase, we're having a debate, the cuntishness is unnecessary.

Apologies if you thought it was 'cuntishness'. I'm all up for a debate with a decent fellow blue like yourself.
But you've just made up that Mancini's plan b was to put on a defensive midfielder for an attacker, when on numerous occasions Yaya was pushed forward instead of sitting deeper. And it worked as well - as was shown at the end of the 11/12 season (see Newcastle match away). He also used Adam Johnson as a plan b to run at defences.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

No need for that last line Mase, we're having a debate, the cuntishness is unnecessary.

Apologies if you thought it was 'cuntishness'. I'm all up for a debate with a decent fellow blue like yourself.
But you've just made up that Mancini's plan b was to put on a defensive midfielder for an attacker, when on numerous occasions Yaya was pushed forward instead of sitting deeper. And it worked as well - as was shown at the end of the 11/12 season (see Newcastle match away). He also used Adam Johnson as a plan b to run at defences.

Pellegrini has done the same thing with Fernando on occasion. He does seem to have a stubborn streak in regards his way but there's numerous examples of him changing things with substitutions throughout his time with us.

The most recent example I can think of was bringing Delph off for Navas against Everton at he in the League Cup semi.

[DoomMerchant]

Could pep take this current squad and make them champions next season?

Anyone with a plan b could. Unfortunately Pellers doesn't have one.

i doubt this to be honest...

the only thing the undead cunt could have done is bin some top players and bring some kids in and say "you know what you spoiled cunts, watch these children for a month" and if that had backfired he'd have been sacked.

The risk factor there, from his "engineering" background is way way higher than just ambling along with known commodities of allegedly A-grade Prime Beef players who should, and can, do better.

I think a manager, and a club, who are more desperate or have less options would have found a Plan B and tried it, but for the Count it would have been a tricky proposition. If he goes younger and promotes 3-4 from the EDS he would have needed to go balls deep and give them a couple months and 10-12 matches to show something.

cheers

[Hazy2]

We lack menace, fight and a will to dig in, Vinny talks it up, but we crumble at Places like Clanfield always have. This season we shit on our door step when a team puts it on us that is poor and comes down to Pellers not having the bollocks to confront the shirkers.

[Mase]

Could pep take this current squad and make them champions next season?

Anyone with a plan b could. Unfortunately Pellers doesn't have one.

i doubt this to be honest...

the only thing the undead cunt could have done is bin some top players and bring some kids in and say "you know what you spoiled cunts, watch these children for a month" and if that had backfired he'd have been sacked.

The risk factor there, from his "engineering" background is way way higher than just ambling along with known commodities of allegedly A-grade Prime Beef players who should, and can, do better.

I think a manager, and a club, who are more desperate or have less options would have found a Plan B and tried it, but for the Count it would have been a tricky proposition. If he goes younger and promotes 3-4 from the EDS he would have needed to go balls deep and give them a couple months and 10-12 matches to show something.

cheers

It's not just a plan b of bringing kids on. Anyone could do that. It's about seeing that the way he's set the team out isn't working and changing the shape or tactics. Aston Villa away when we were 0-0 he refused the change anything at all.

[Hazy2]

Could pep take this current squad and make them champions next season?

Anyone with a plan b could. Unfortunately Pellers doesn't have one.

i doubt this to be honest...

the only thing the undead cunt could have done is bin some top players and bring some kids in and say "you know what you spoiled cunts, watch these children for a month" and if that had backfired he'd have been sacked.

The risk factor there, from his "engineering" background is way way higher than just ambling along with known commodities of allegedly A-grade Prime Beef players who should, and can, do better.

I think a manager, and a club, who are more desperate or have less options would have found a Plan B and tried it, but for the Count it would have been a tricky proposition. If he goes younger and promotes 3-4 from the EDS he would have needed to go balls deep and give them a couple months and 10-12 matches to show something.

cheers

It's not just a plan b of bringing kids on. Anyone could do that. It's about seeing that the way he's set the team out isn't working and changing the shape or tactics. Aston Villa away when we were 0-0 he refused the change anything at all.

I know it is the Etihad Campus, but Butlins might be more apt !

[Dimples]

We lack menace, fight and a will to dig in, Vinny talks it up, but we crumble at Places like Clanfield always have. This season we shit on our door step when a team puts it on us that is poor and comes down to Pellers not having the bollocks to confront the shirkers.

Others are talking about Plan B.
It does not matter how many plans we have.
We can have plan A thru Z - if the players don't fight and dig in - the plans don't count - they are rendered useless.

Re Pellers not confronting the slackers. I don't blame him. I blame the players.
I say it again - look at the CL. Late goals. away wins = fighting and digging in.
The 2 defeats in the PL league to Liverpool and other 'kickings' we have received = surrender - by the players.

[DoomMerchant]

We lack menace, fight and a will to dig in, Vinny talks it up, but we crumble at Places like Clanfield always have. This season we shit on our door step when a team puts it on us that is poor and comes down to Pellers not having the bollocks to confront the shirkers.

Others are talking about Plan B.
It does not matter how many plans we have.
We can have plan A thru Z - if the players don't fight and dig in - the plans don't count - they are rendered useless.

Re Pellers not confronting the slackers. I don't blame him. I blame the players.
I say it again - look at the CL. Late goals. away wins = fighting and digging in.
The 2 defeats in the PL league to Liverpool and other 'kickings' we have received = surrender - by the players.

that's exactly my point tho....

toss up the same cunts and pick 4 different ones to mix it up....they've all been largely halfassed fucks this season.

Only Little Fernando is innocent of that charge. Maybe Kun but he's been injured/shit more than half the season, so he gets papered with that as well.

Shit PL season....down to shit performances by the players, and a manager's reluctance to trust any of these academy kids to step into the breach. The number of times Bony was played instead of Nacho is criminal.

cheers

[PrezIke]

I would say Kelechi, De Bruyne, and Aguero are the only SAFE ones. Nico, Sterling, and Hart most likely are too but i wouldnt be surprised if they were shuffled out with the rest. Delph and/or Clichy are prob safe too but only 'cause theyre HG

Good shout, but of course we aren't going to clean house, clearly.

Sterling we just invested a lot of money in, has a lot of Pep-like attributes and will be given at least another season to see how he progresses. Yes, we need English/HG players making those you listed far less expendable. No reason to sell Delph anyway as he is a good value squad player to replace Milner, is younger, and does things Pep should like. His injury record is the main issue to me, but he's not a key player so we can survive.

With Hart we also have far higher needs than replacing our keeper. He loves the club, the fans, has leadership qualities, and is entering his prime years, so we will always need players like that. He is in a position that is hard to fill with real quality too, although he does have some weaknesses, yes. The PL is filled with strong keepers, and there are some other English/HG no. 1's we could replace him with, which is ideal since I am struggling to think of many other HG players that we could actually buy that could slot in to our first eleven. I think he's had a very strong, consistent season arguably second best after Fernandinho, one could argue. His errors have been far fewer, and he has saved our arse many times as I can recall.

[Im_Spartacus]

Anyone with a plan b could. Unfortunately Pellers doesn't have one.

Weren't you watching against Kiev and against Liverpool at Wembley? Fernandinho playing right and dropping back in the centre to make up the numbers not a plan B?

When we played at the Swamp and sat in not a plan B?

We went from two out and out strikers in his first season to just one at the end of last season into this, not a plan B?

I think you misunderstood. During a match if things aren't going our way, like Wednesday, there's no plan b. Ever. Pellers idea of a plan b is take off an attacker and put Fernando on.

Mancini's plan B was to take off an attacker and put De Jong on, it worked fairly well.

Sorry mate but I don't buy this 'no plan B' argument at all.

Taking a striker off for a midfielder seems to be the standard 60-70th minute play for many managers these days, but it's not a plan b, as typically the sub is used to temporarily change the shape of the game and encourage the other team to commit more forward, at which point you bring a striker on for a midfielder (or push yaya/silva/kebab forward) and you're back to where you started.

City's problem under Pellegrini regarding plan b amounts to no change of pace in the game. We're very rarely capable of playing at anything more than a pedestrian pace, and all the subs in the world won't resolve that if the opposition is swarming your midfield.

To be fair to Pellegrini though, he played the cup final spot on tactically, blunted Liverpool's predictable approach perfectly......then Wednesday happened which was unfathomable both in terms of player attitude and tactical fuckwittery.

[Slim]

He will also need some players who already share his style and philosophy.

Maybe they're already in the squad but more than likely it will involve bringing a couple of new faces in.

I fear for David Silva.

[nottsblue]

They must all be fearful after the last few games. One thing Pep demands is fight, alongside energy, teamwork and pressing amongst others. Haven't seen much evidence of these traits lately

[dick dastardley]

Pellegrini won the league with pretty much mancinis team, since then weve won league cup and performed poorly in the league sooner pellegrinis out for me the better, protects his players too much for me and no plan b when it needs changing.

[Mase]

Pellegrini won the league with pretty much mancinis team, since then weve won league cup and performed poorly in the league sooner pellegrinis out for me the better, protects his players too much for me and no plan b when it needs changing.

I got challenged the other week for claiming he's never had a plan b. Prepare yourself double D.

[Hazy2]

Pellegrini won the league with pretty much mancinis team, since then weve won league cup and performed poorly in the league sooner pellegrinis out for me the better, protects his players too much for me and no plan b when it needs changing.

I got challenged the other week for claiming he's never had a plan b. Prepare yourself double D.

Our season is defined, unless we get more fuck ups by other it is 4th at best, we are watching a manager and players who are finished. 5th is very real. I said 3rd a couple of weeks ago, that is close to gone, players coming back a week or two after the Euros, god help us. Pep must be having fucking kittens.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Media reports this morning that Hart may be forced out as Pep is bringing Naeuer(spelling) with him.

Would love that to be true. Neuer is not only a great goalkeeper but a sweeper as well, which would helps with Guardiola's style of play.

[PeterParker]

Pellegrini won the league with pretty much mancinis team, since then weve won league cup and performed poorly in the league sooner pellegrinis out for me the better, protects his players too much for me and no plan b when it needs changing.

Not quite.

He added 4 critical players to Bobby's team: Demichelis, Fernandinho, Navas and Negredo.

And turned around the whole way we played. His problem, as you said, is that he does not have a Plan B. After the EPL teams figured him out, we started our decline.

[Mase]

Pellegrini won the league with pretty much mancinis team, since then weve won league cup and performed poorly in the league sooner pellegrinis out for me the better, protects his players too much for me and no plan b when it needs changing.

Not quite.

He added 4 critical players to Bobby's team: Demichelis, Fernandinho, Navas and Negredo.

And turned around the whole way we played. His problem, as you said, is that he does not have a Plan B. After the EPL teams figured him out, we started our decline.

That first season I seem to remember Fern being very poor whilst he was getting used to the Prem. People couldn't understand why we bought him.

Martin was really really bad in his first season. He came good towards the end but at the start he was directly responsible for quite a few goals, as I say, until the last 8 games or so.

Navas didn't do anything of note.

Negredo was brilliant for the first half of the season. He only scored a handful of goals in the second half, if that.

None of those players were as good at the time as any of 'Mancini's players'.