Manuel Pellegrini admits that is heavily into self criticism at the moment but equally that he will never change his ways regardless of the present slump in fortunes.
Just as was the case at the beginning of last season when we lost four on the trot he has revealed that he will stick by his footballing principles no matter what.
To be fair he was grilled pretty relentlessly by the media following the formal press conference and made it clear that he was doing all he could to ensure there would be a reaction at Chelsea on Saturday.
But those among us looking for a change in formation and tactical approach are likely to be disappointed as we go into one of the toughest games of the season with a manager under serious pressure.
Pellegrini is not for turning and made it quite clear what he expects from himself and the squad.
He said: “When you are in a bad moment you must have good self-criticism. That is the first thing you must do. But you cannot have doubt of all you are doing.
Maybe there are a lot of reasons why we are not getting the results. Before these six games, we worked exactly the same way we have these six games. Exactly the same.
The same players, the same way of working, the same technical skills, the same physical work. We changed nothing.”
You have to trust yourself more than ever. Trust the way you work. Because you have a career behind you. You’re not just starting a career.
Continue to believe in what you know or which is the way you must find the solution. For me, it’s clear. We need a good performance, not to change it all, and hopefully we can do it as soon as we can.”
And this is why he fails. You have to adapt as the modern game does. Slow tempo, holding midfield play football is most obviously countered by the systems that (most) premier league teams do now . With the intro of Klopp and Peps styles a lot of teams are now, high pace, high tempo, counter press teams. Narrowing you into a 2 on 1 position when they take the ball and break. Newcastle play this way, palace, Spurs, Burnley… all teams we got beaten badly by. He needs to change! Our players arent quite good enough to play their way out of the press and he needs to work with a team off elite level. 4-4-2 direct or 3-5-2 to flood midfield needs to happen if we are going to stay up.
We are in for a thrashing then MP
Keep making the same mistakes and expecting a different outcome is insanity.
I was thinking of something last night – I cant get the fixation with inverted wingers – I guess Robben has a lot to answer for. While Pelle is not for changing our opponents have a field day – West Ham? This is how they are going to play. Just make sure that you don’t let Yarmolenko cut inside – show him the outside and he’s in your pocket
Well what I was thinking of was Zola who introduced inverted wingers – and did quite well in his first season with Matty on the right wing – by his second season we were totally found out and were lucky to survive in 17th place due to 3 abysmal teams. I think we finished with something like 34 or 35 points
This season is beginning to feel like that…
Very very lucky man to have a job still paying him a fortune to fail. The man is clueless and if the owners don’t act now it could be too late. So much wrong that could be all changed by a new manager who plays the right formation 5-3-2 for the squad we have with a high press and some tempo.
Eddie Howe I will collect him!!!!!!