Has Manuel Pellegrini displayed a worrying trait at Manchester City?

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With Jurgen Klopp’s Reds recording a league double over Manchester City on Wednesday, many have said that City’s title hopes have gone down the drain yet again. It’s been a frustrating season for the majority of the usual title contenders, with inconsistency being the plague that has stricken all of the top sides. Manchester City seem to be the ones with the most consistent inconsistency, as the infamous statistic that they haven’t recorded back to back league wins since October makes its rounds through various social media platforms after every loss. Many had the Sky Blues pinned as heavy weight title favourites before the season even began, and this belief was fortified by the five consecutive league wins with no goals conceded to kick off the campaign, but City have failed to duplicate anything close to that sort of form since that particular run came to an end. Many wonder what this extreme lack of achievement stems from, and it ultimately comes down to two major things; arrogance and inflexibility.

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The arrogance and inflexibility aspects flow over in abundance when analyzing City from a tactical perspective. A blatant disregard of the opponent’s playing system has often been a criticism of Manuel Pellegrini, however this season has escalated this stubborn approach to heights previously unknown. The Chilean’s tactics can be more easily analysed if you perceive the domestic opponents in three main categories, each with their own general defining characteristics. For our purposes, the bottom tier of Premier League opposition such as a Newcastle, Sunderland, or Aston Villa, are who we can focus on. These teams; with no disrespect intended, are the easiest opponents for a top team to beat. They even cater to Pellegrini’s style, with the players on one team being so far ahead both technically and even sometimes physically, so much so that the superior team can impose their will. Pellegrini’s philosophy; which has changed since arriving at the Eithad, is that of maintaining possession in the opponent’s defensive third and breaking them down with a variety of crosses, quick passing plays, or individual brilliance. This tactic is more than acceptable for teams of a lesser quality, but simply not good enough for the top tier opponents or even at times the mid-table opposition, and City’s record reflects this sentiment. The Citizens’ record against the current top six breaks down as follows; one draw and one loss against Leicester, two losses against Tottenham, one loss against Arsenal, one draw against Manchester United, and one draw and one loss against West Ham. Each and every single one of the losses; with the only possible exception being the second loss to Tottenham, all share one key theme; Manchester City’s approach.

As stated earlier, Pellegrini was the proponent of a different system when he first arrived in England. The former Real Madrid manager was very much a fan of the counter-attacking style, something that was brilliantly executed by his addition of Jesus Navas and Alvaro Negredo, the latter of the pair scoring a staggering twenty three goals by the January of his inaugural season in England’ top flight. Negredo’s explosion of form in the Manchester City team was a result of both his ability to link up with Aguero, and by the simple fact that he was a striker that thrived from aerial service, something that Manchester City have in spades. Sagna, Navas, and Kolarov all have the ability to send a decent cross into the box and in fact this is often their preferred option. This season, Aguero hasn’t been as fortunate in front of goal, partly because he hasn’t had a decent and consistent partner with the ability to affect the game aerially. Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo were both physically gifted with either height or in Negredo’s case; a nous for a cross. Now, since Pellegrini is stuck somewhere between the counter-attacking style and the possession based approach, endless crosses come into the box with no one able to make anything out of them. The heavy crossing style also doesn’t lend itself to a team that has effectively pinned in 90% of the opposition into their own half, giving them the ability to set up solid defensive blocks.

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The times that City have seen success this season have come when Aguero was given the ability to isolate defenders on the break, or when City have had dynamic movement across the opposition back line. Sterling, Aguero, and Kevin De Bruyne all have the ability to unsettle even the best defences in football, but often the Blues’ attack finds itself to be stagnant with little to no movement across the line, resulting in pointless crosses into the box, which then result in the more tactically adept teams performing a well-practised counter against a weak defence that has often included the thirty-five-year-old Martin Demichelis and the sometimes absent minded Eliaquim Mangala. It is this inability to transition from a counter attacking style to a possession based side, something that was obviously mandated by the City higher ups in order to more easily incorporate and/or sway Pep Guardiola into a job, and an arrogance that his broken system would get him by the top sides that Manuel Pellegrini shows his very limited hand. The fact of the matter is that Manuel Pellegrini; after three years at a club with virtually limitless resources and a dream crop of players, has only been able to implement one successful play style. Whether one sees this as arrogant, inflexible, or another adjective, it’s simply not good enough for the level of play that this club so desperately wants to achieve.

As one final note on this underachievement, Pellegrini’s shallow game plan could have been papered over by a final Premier League title if he had strengthened his weak defence during the January transfer window. He picked up twenty seven out of a possible thirty six in the holiday period, with the missing nine points being those that would currently close the gap between the Citizens and Leicester. This isn’t counting the fact that some of these simulated wins would have been against the top six teams, effectively furthering their lead at the top had they simply found a short term replacement for Kompany. Some may blame City’s losses on a serious injury wave, but with one of deepest squad’s in the premier league, if more than one style of play had been implanted by now it wouldn’t have been a problem.

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