Pellegrini has not learnt from Champions League mistakes

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has claimed his players were responsible for his teams 2-1 Champions League defeat against Barcelona on Tuesday night and not his tactics

As one of my colleagues at Soccernews has reported Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has defended his tactics in the Citizens 2-1 Champions League last-16 first leg defeat against Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium.

The defeat was reminiscent of previous displays in Europe, where City were outplayed and outnumbered in midfield, mainly in the first half.

Pellegrini refused to blame his tactics, instead stating his players did not follow his tactical instructions.

Tactics

Pellegrini does favour playing with two strikers and it has proved a pretty successful formation for the Chilean in the Premier League and against some of the weaker teams in the Champions League as well.

However, most teams cannot afford to play two up front against the real top teams in Europe, or they get punished. Barcelona are one of the real top teams in European football.

If Pellegrini had been more pragmatic in the first half and played with five in midfield and Aguero up front then maybe they could have attempted to play with two strikers later in the game. Two up front can work, but only if you play like City did in the second half.

By then though City were chasing the tie and Barcelona had perhaps took their foot off the pedal. In the first half Barcelona’s midfield trio of Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic dominated City’s midfield two of Fernando and James Milner.

That domination lead to Luis Suarez’s brace in the first half and it could have been even worse for City had Daniel Alves’ chipped effort found the net rather than clip the bar.

Lessons

Manuel Pellegrini is an experienced boss and managed in Spain for many years, so should be very familiar with Barcelona.

City have endured problems in the past playing with two up front in the Champions League, notably against Bayern Munich. It seems that Pellegrini did not learn his Champions League lesson from those encounters.

City defeated Bayern 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium earlier this season, but that was a game that was meaningless to the Germans, as they had already guaranteed their place in the knockout stages. City also played against ten men for more than an hour in that clash.

Barcelona may no longer play the old Tiki-Taka style of football under Enrique, but they still like to dominate possession. Their first half domination lead to Suarez’s goals and the Catalans looked comfortable in the first half.

The second half performance was better, as it had to be for City to have any chance of staying in the tie. Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko had an off night. One just wonders what might have been if Pellegrini had selected Brazilian Fernandinho alongside compatriot Fernando and James Milner, instead of picking Dzeko up front.

It seems certain that Barcelona would not have dominated in the first half. City through the likes of Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Samir Nasri would still have carried an attacking threat though. Barcelona would also not have had the sort of space they needed to create the two goals.

Worse

Off course it could have been much worse for City in stoppage-time, but Citizens keeper Joe Hart superbly saved Lionel Messi’s penalty kick and the Argentinian inexplicably headed the rebound wide of the goal.

Chance

The Citizens already faced a tough task in getting back into the tie at 2-1, but 3-1 would have made it even more difficult. They have still got a chance of progressing, but they are now odds of 7/2 to make it past their Spanish opponents, which I cannot see many people rushing out to back at this stage.

Manchester City now have to go to the Nou Camp and score at least two goals and hope that Barcelona fail to score. Enrique’s team have very rarely failed to score this season and they will be highly confident of winning the tie.

Different

City boss Manuel Pellegrini is 61 years-old, I guess the saying about teaching old dog new tricks really does apply here. It could have been so different if the Chilean had been slightly more pragmatic and accepted that Barcelona would come to attack and dominate.

Instead Manchester City will head to Catalonia for the second leg in hope more than expectation of making the last eight of the Champions League this season.

Was Manuel Pellegrini’s tactics wrong against Barcelona?