da winzada777： Hats off to Manuel Pellegrini. Sometimes you have to play ugly and come away with the result you need. Over the last few seasons, you can’t fault Manchester City’s attitude towards the game, they’ve attacked and attacked and attacked. Last weekend away to Manchester United, however, that attitude changed significantly.
da blaze casino： Setting up to defend against Manchester United at Old Trafford is hardly a new-fangled tactic, nor is it really that bad an idea. Over the last 30 years or so it’s really been the best way of getting something out of the game.
With United back in the Premier League title reckoning this season and with City missing key attacking stars such as David Silva and Sergio Aguero, it seems to make sense to try to keep the opposition from scoring and maybe try to nick a goal on the counter with the pace of Sterling and Navas, for example. And that’s how City played.
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We’ll never know how Pellegrini would have lined up if it weren’t for the injuries to his key players, of course.
Maybe with Aguero and Silva fit, City would have tried to control the game more themselves and look to attack United in a more ‘Pellegrini’ performance.
But they came away with a point, and it suits City down to the ground.
Last season, at the Etihad stadium in January, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal came into the game like all the other times they came into games against the big teams – fearing a heavy defeat. But instead of playing the silky attacking and frankly suicidal game that Arsenal sometimes play against the big sides, they sat back and defended like heroes and had Francis Coquelin to thank for a sterling performance.
The reason I mention this is because it looks like a watershed moment in Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal. The Gunners have gone on to beat Chelsea (albeit in the Community Shield), Manchester United and Liverpool as well as City since the turn of the year. Arsenal have discovered a backbone.
It’s not that City have lacked a ‘backbone’ over the years. City won the title in 2011-12 on goal difference, but when you score the most and concede the fewest – 29 goals conceded, fewer than Chelsea last season – no one can begrudge you a goal difference victory.
What is interesting, though, is that Pellegrini has changed when there has been no obvious reason for him to change. City were, perhaps, overrun by United in last season’s game at Old Trafford and missing some key players this time around, but it’s not as if City, like Arsenal, have a habit of disintegrating in big top-of-the-table clashes. A 5-1 win over Crystal Palace only days after shutting out United in such a defensive display shows normal service is resumed.
Instead, where City have consistently fallen apart is in Europe. So maybe that’s the reason. Maybe, with big European games coming up – away to Sevilla where a win would see City put one foot into the first knockout round and then a possible showdown for top spot with Juventus in Turin – Pellegrini is going to take a different approach in Europe this season. Where his 4-4-2 failed to make inroads over the last few seasons, his new-found defensive solidity may allow City to cause big European clubs more problems.
The Manchester derby may just have been a chance to try out a few new things and test out a new approach in what is probably the Premier League game most like a Champions League game these days. Louis van Gaal’s possession-based approach is the most like a Champions League approach that you’ll find in the Premier League.
And so pushing Yaya Toure forward relieves him of the defensive duties and, since City were sitting deep, still gave him the opportunity to bring the ball forward with his trademark marauding runs from deep on the counter attack.
Meanwhile, the inclusion of Fernandinho and Fernando playing together in the midfield shored up the defence behind it. They’re the most solid partnership City have in the middle of the park, and even though they’re certainly not the best in the league, you’d be hard pushed to find a stronger, more robust double anchor in front of a back four.
Bringing Martin Demichelis into the game late on adds an experience – especially in Europe – and even more solidity in front of a central defence made up of Otamendi and Kompany.
Add Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfried Bony into the mix and Pellegrini has surely created the hulkiest spine in the league.
Against Sevilla, Juventus and Monchengladbach, City might just play a more defensive game with or without Silva and Aguero. So hats off to Manuel Pellegrini. He has adapted his squad, and he’s done it quietly. He’s had success in England, winning the Premier League and the League Cup, and now he’s adapting for success in Europe.
He may not need to play so defensively in order to win the Premier League, but in Europe it’s a different story. If Arsene Wenger is adapting in order to win the league, then Pellegrini deserves the same credit for adapting in order to compete in Europe – his pact with the devil of defending may just bear forbidden fruit.
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