Thoughts on Manuel Pellegrini?

I have to hold my hands up here and admit I was wrong about him. Some of it was just plain trolling, most genuine criticism.

He's arguably a Top 3 manager in my eyes (Top 5 at Worst). What he's done with this Malaga squad is sensational.

Not only do his teams play an attractive brand of football but they're getting the results as well.

EDIT: @ Josh/La Liga fans What's the situation with Malaga's owners like at this moment in time? Are they still skint?

Don't see him as a top 3 manager myself, but I do rate him very highly.

Al Thani maintains that he will support the club in the future but he is awaiting various licenses and support from the City council in integrating the football club as part of a wider tourist culture.

Some details have come out. Basically, here are the reasons Al Thani is holding his investment:
- He was promised a better media deal by the league and they haven't come through
- He had planed a hotel resort, a port and a football academy in Malaga and the authorities there have been slow with the approval process of the projects
- Several key executives that he deemed crucial (like Hierro) have left. He doesn't trust the new management yet

In short, he wants to see if his projects are approved and if the media terms are as promised

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/22/sport/football/malaga-cazorla-al-thani-football/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

I don't blame him and in a sense his absconding has somewhat worked out for the best.

The squad is closer together having gone through a ridiculous 2 months and I think once salaries can be met and UEFA regulations can be met, that group solidarity will be an enduring feature of the campaign.

I don't see the need to rank him BTW / He is doing a great job here and that's all that matters.

definitely not top 3, but he is a fantastic manager and fully deserves all the praise that has come to him.

i was a big fan of his when he was at madrid and was of the very small minority that backed him.

probably top 3 manager in la liga though.

He's the second best manager in La Liga hands down atm. Top 5-10 in the world probably. I really wish could've given more time in Madrid but things just didn't work out. I really am glad he's doing well with Malaga.

Agree with Le Sam in not ranking him. He's doing great with what he has at his disposal and frankly if you put just about any coach worth their salt in his position and you would arguably see the same results. What he's doing isn't rocket science by any stretch of the imagination and while that sounds pragmatic (because it is), it's also something we don't see enough of in the managerial world of this sport.

Good on him and the players.

Best manager in La Liga, full stop.

Treated poorly by RM.

Consistently gotten results in La Liga against the odds for about 6 years now. Absolute beast.

Treated poorly for RM ..He got what he deserved

Great team-builder for a budget, has the balls to play attractively, poor man management, poor tactical set-up. An ideal upper-tier coach, but not quite a top club coach.

amazing manager, without him malaga wouldnt be in the CL nor would it be in the EL. i agree he is easily a top 10 manager maybe evne top 5

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Great team-builder for a budget, has the balls to play attractively, poor man management, poor tactical set-up. An ideal upper-tier coach, but not quite a top club coach.

I'm sorry but this is absolute rubbish....

The only reason he didn't win La Liga with Real was because Barca got a ridiculous 99 points.

Any other year it would have been enough to win the league.

Ok he failed in cup and CL but Mourinho has done that before, Ferguson has.... etc etc you name it.

I agree with what Zeal said before that he didn't deal with the media very well but as a coach on the pitch he was excellent and remains excellent.

There is nothing to suggest he cannot hack it with a top club and quite frankly i'm disgusted it's taken this long for people to respect him he has been one of the best coaches in the world for a very long time now.

He was fantastic at Villarreal, i don't care what anyone says for one season at Madrid he was great there too and so far brilliant at Malaga.

I agree with BC..There are some managers in the game who are tailor made for such type of clubs ,upper-tier coach is perfectly described.

I always thought he dint have the 'personality' to be the man for Real Madrid.

Got 96 points in La Liga, winning 31 games of the 38 which in any other year would be good enough to win La Liga in the history of the competition but not good enough....

Ok

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I'm sorry but this is absolute rubbish....

The only reason he didn't win La Liga with Real was because Barca got a ridiculous 99 points.

Any other year it would have been enough to win the league.

Ok he failed in cup and CL but Mourinho has done that before, Ferguson has.... etc etc you name it.

I agree with what Zeal said before that he didn't deal with the media very well but as a coach on the pitch he was excellent and remains excellent.

There is nothing to suggest he cannot hack it with a top club and quite frankly i'm disgusted it's taken this long for people to respect him he has been one of the best coaches in the world for a very long time now.

He was fantastic at Villarreal, i don't care what anyone says for one season at Madrid he was great there too and so far brilliant at Malaga.

I don't see where you fault me for his performance at Madrid. The only thing I hold against him then was his tactical naivety versus Barca. I don't think he had a chance to establish a project he liked there.

My point remains, however, that Pellegrini's main attribute is his ability to build a balanced, talented, winning team out of a limited budget. He's done it at Villareal and at Malaga. This attribute isn't really of much help at clubs that can afford a 100M transfer season, though. This is why I say that he's best used for an upper table club. Perhaps he could be successful at a top club, but I don't think a top club would get all the value out of him that more limited clubs would.

his dealings with the press and perez is really what cost him at madrid (also the alcorcon debacle). both press and perez really did eat him alive.

the perez dealings were not his fault imo, he doesnt have a big ego which is almost necessary for the manager job at madrid now a days (unfortunately) as he wanted to keep sneijder and robben, but was forced to sell because of perez.. and i understand we had kaka and ronaldo coming in but at the very least we could have kept robben who played on the RW not the left.

Tactical naivety against Barca?

Have you seen Mourinho's record against Barca?

It took him like 20 games to get a win with Madrid

Besides if memory serves correctly Barca was very lucky to anything from either game....

1st game was all Madrid and Ibra knicked a goal 2nd game was the same...

It's not Pellegrini's fault if his players can't finish, also he was given one year and ended the season with a 75% success rate hardly a failure and hardly showing he cannot succeed at a top club.

As i said.... 96 points which is the most for any runner up in the history of La Liga and would be enough to win La Liga in any other season.

Hardly a failure, also Mourinho did no better in his first season in fact he did worse but unlike Pellegrini was given a 2nd chance to get it right and he did.

I would have still preffered Mou.

Manuel is not an big club coach. After Pellegrini came to coach Madrid it was him who insisted that he needs superstars to win for Madrid. Which he failed big time.

outstanding coach , i dont want to spark stupid debates by giving a rank to his quality but is one of the more underrated coaches around. did great with villareal , was pretty good for us the humiliating copa del rey and cl exits aside, and has been terrific for malaga

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Great team-builder for a budget, has the balls to play attractively, poor man management, poor tactical set-up. An ideal upper-tier coach, but not quite a top club coach.

Poor tactical Setup?

No. It's his tactical flexibility and that alone that has facilitated the current success we're enjoying. He adapted to losing his best players and the system he's put in place to compensate for that is brilliant.

Especially the way they protect the box and the centre backs.

Not even going to comment on poor man management. The work he has done with some of these players is unbelievable. Added to that he did it going through the flames which engulfed the club throughout his tenture.

Perhaps he can't deal with the Riquelme's of the world who just don't care....that's where I see this point coming into play.

Nameless wrote:I would have still preffered Mou.

Manuel is not an big club coach. After Pellegrini came to coach Madrid it was him who insisted that he needs superstars to win for Madrid. Which he failed big time.

Never at any point did he say that. He said at some point that with the squad he had he should win trophies definitely but you're being nieve if you think he had any power over transfers or anything like that.

If he did Silva and Cazorla would be playing for us today.

what Pelle said was that he didn't want superstars instead he wanted our existing players. But Perez opened up an offside magazine and pointed out the players he wanted

City to for him if Mancini fails to win the title

Amen

made a similar thread few weeks back, Pellegrini is a brilliant coach.

I was one of those lamenting that we traded him for Mourinho, he needed another year, because i think we would have become better as a team at this point in time.

Something people always forget that Mou arrived in madrid and started building the team he wanted, with the players he wanted. Pelle got a group of players shoved down his throat, and had to deal with players that didnt fit what he envisioned. He would have seen the likes of Cazorla, Silva or even Isco had he stayed at the club.

He is an ok man manager, he doesnt run things in the same tyranic fashion as Mourinho. But he was greatly undermined by Perez early on, which didnt translate well for him in the locker room. I mean, in December of his 1st season, ROnaldo was already saying Mourinho in Madrid would be nice...how disrespectful.

What took him out in madrid was the press. And i blame Valdano because he was the one supposed to have his back, and he didnt do enough.

Tactically, he is a lot better than people think imo. Been owning Mourinho tactically in la liga (which isnt hard to do tbh) since he got Malaga rolling, for example.

He makes Malaga a player to watch

oh dont start again with the pelle mou crap

Pelle being compared to Mou, what a joke

He makes Malaga a player to watch?