Mike Manera has swapped his comedian’s hat to become CandH’s tactical analyst this season and in his first piece here he looks back on the Liverpool match and comes to some interesting conclusions.
In pre-season Pellegrini seemed to prefer a 433 shape, only switching to 442 in the last game of the warm up period.
But I feel Pellegrini has always preferred two attackers, and the main reason for the 4-3-3 was the lack of an available second striker, especially as during pre-season players rarely played the full 90 minutes.
The signings of Lucas Perez and Xande Silva seem to back that up, as well as improving the overall squad Scrabble score.
Our starting 4-3-3 against Liverpool was unusually cautious for a Pellegrini team. Was that due to the quality of the opposition, or did he again have no alternative? With Perez only joining a couple of days before, and maybe Hernandez not fully match fit after his World Cup exploits maybe he had no alternative?
Either way, the 433 we played clearly didn’t work. We were unable to keep the ball in any meaningful way which meant that Liverpool had plenty of time to pick us apart. And boy, did they!
The most telling thing of all though was the lack of “connect” between the players. Passes went astray and there was no real cohesion.
With so many new players to integrate that is hardly surprising. It will take time to integrate. More worrying was the lack of pace through the centre of midfield, and the total lack of threat we offered.
I’m expecting a change of shape on Saturday against Bournemouth, with Pellegrini switching to a 442 or something close.
It is far too early in the season to start talking about “must wins”, it’s only the first home game of the season. But it would be great to see the team pose a greater threat in attack.
Based on the pool of players we have the best formation for this team is 3-5-2. The following would be a cracking team in my opinion, Fab, Diop (or Rice), Balbuena, Ogbanna as the back 3, two attacking wingers would be Antonio and Arthur. Two central midfielders Sanchez and Obiang. Either Anderson/Yarmo tucked in behind Arnie and Perez/Silva/Hernandez.
So glad it’s Pellegrini picking the team and not one of these have a go fantasy merchants.
Clive, I think it is fair to say Pelle picked the wrong team at the weekend and even more worryingly got the tactics completely wrong. If Bilic or Moyes were in charge there would be an outcry at how bad that performance was. He won’t be hear long if he continues in this vein.
who is silva johnham
you cant mean the young lad from Portugal who scored a hat trick for the 23s last do you
what a knee jerk paper hat you are
Interesting thought – I think that if Slav had stuck with three at the back we might have done better at the beginning of last season. Moyes saw that the only way to avoid disaster was a back three – but Pelle definitely is not a back three man – lets see if he can make it work with a back four
Based on the performance and result, I have to agree with Johnham….. I know, I know, but hear me out.
Pellegrino got the tactics wrong, playing a defensive ‘highline’ against the quickest attacking and counter-attacking team in UK.
Bear in mind, offside rules have changed, the officials are not interested in the players standing in offside positions (and gaining direct advantage of it) until they touch the ball (See goals 1 and 2).
Meaning the high line, only offers more chance of beating the defense with room to spare…..
Do away with the rule or play to its advantage…