Manchester City, Manuel Pellegrini must regroup after international break

Manchester City, Manuel Pellegrini must regroup after international break

Manchester City's form has them set to finish in 5th place this season.
This was the startling news one website brought us earlier this month in light of City's drastic slump on the pitch. If, we were told, this ever-patchier form continued, City would risk falling out of the fabled top four and losing their place at the Champions League table.
More recently still, the Manchester Evening News also published a supposed supporter poll where -- amongst others -- Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko had been "voted off" by the great and good of City's support.
Thank goodness the international break gives us all time to breathe deeply and reflect on how things ebb and flow, which is what all City fans might attempt to do in these frantic pre-end of season days. Knee-jerk reaction can be slowed and fevered brows doused in cold water.
Traditionally able to find the blackest outcome from any given scenario, Blues fans have been spoiled rotten over the last four years. A period almost without parallel in the club's history has brought untold riches and stories for the faithful to take with them into old age. "Remember the time we smashed six and five past Tottenham in the same season," they will tell their grandchildren one day, "now that was quite a team we had."

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However, present day things are currently leaving a bit to be desired in the House of Manuel. Witness supposed player fall-outs, drifting last quarter form and the dreaded barrage of transfer speculation played out on social media in all corners of Planet Football.
There is little if anything Manuel Pellegrini can do to slow the pace of the gossip. The best he and his players can do, when they regroup after the international break, is to focus tired minds and limbs at the finishing line and stay as close to Chelsea as they can. Ignore the flying brickbats and the pointing fingers and drive those legs into the ground one last time.
Finishing behind the Londoners, which is almost certainly what City will now do, can be perceived as a disappointment and will be portrayed as such in the press, but it has to be said that second place in the current circumstances may come as something of a relief to some.
City's inability to follow up a title win with any sort of meaningful defence of it the following season is beginning to become a pattern. It is not the kind of monotony that City's directors were looking for when they said they wanted consistency.

Manuel Pellegrini's position at Man City has been placed under constant speculation.

Consistently inconsistent has been written in invisible ink beneath City's crest for over 100 years, after all.
Those big dipper days are behind us and the slopes and troughs of form now bear little resemblance to the Alpine gorges that so vividly portrayed City's fortunes in the bad old days. The Citizens disappointments these days come in the rather perplexing shape of 2nd place in the league.
Whether it is a form of complacency or a failure on the management's part to unearth the right players to take City forward, this season has seen a stagnation. Nothing stands still for long in this sport and City's powers that be will already be deep into planning next season's strategy to ensure nothing of the kind is repeated in 2015-16.
Whether the fans like it or not, this may well include ditching one or two players that some have grown rather attached to. City's main core has stayed the same for several seasons. The fabled stellar signings have been conspicuous by their absence since Sergio Aguero's dramatic arrival in the summer of 2011, just in time to rocket the side to their first league title in 44 years.
Captures since then have been largely underwhelming and the summer ahead will be an acid test for those burdened with City's player recruitment. Whilst fans and press alike commence a bunfight of speculation and suggestion, the players that this will affect must be wondering what is going to happen to them too. As we have seen, even the manager is not exempt from the tidal wave of rumour-mongering.

Manchester City needs to find success in the transfer market like they in bringing in David Silva and Sergio Aguero.

Through all of this uncertainty, Pellegrini and the players must try to keep focus and grab that second place. In their heart of hearts, they will acknowledge that only a Chelsea collapse of even more dramatic proportions than the two City have already benefitted from in 2011-12 (Manchester United) and 2013-14 (Liverpool) can now save them.
The battle hardened playing staff will know that their reputation for hauling in league leaders is perhaps the strongest psychological tool left to them. However, this can work both ways and they will also feel the pressure from their own supporters to pull a rabbit out of the hat once again.
In 2012-13, City's previous "league failure," there was at least the consolation of two Wembley appearances in the FA Cup final (plus one in the semifinal) and a Villa Park Community Shield win. In effect, a season of so-called failure had still brought City a trophy (the 3-2 win over Chelsea in the season's traditional opener) and within one minute of vying for another (losing to a last minute Wigan goal in the May Cup Final).
This season has perhaps been more disappointing on the grounds that there have been no close shaves. Early cup exits with little energy or fight, a weak league performance over the length of the season and a tepid attempt to gain a Champions League foothold, mark this 2014-15 season as perhaps the least successful since the current trophy glut began.
Winners do not forget how to win, however, and City must keep their cool, regroup and refocus on what they do best. Whether it be in winning 6-3 over Arsenal, knocking six past Tottenham and West Ham, smashing Manchester United home and away in Pellegrini-style flamboyance or in slicing efficiently through the opposition ranks in Roberto Mancini's slightly more mechanical manner, City must remember how a winning mentality works and hold onto it for dear life. If they can manage to do that, the position at the end of the season will at least be 2nd and not the 5th that some are predicting.