“Attack, attack, and more attack” would be an apt title for the chapter of Manuel Pellegrini’s memoir covering his time at Manchester City. This gung-ho ethos has cast the Chilean as a one‑dimensional football man who cannot or will not adjust tactics depending on the opponent.
Yet a strange thing happened on Wednesday night in Paris and a stranger thing could occur next Tuesday evening in Manchester. At Parc des Princes Pellegrini’s total-bombardment strategy had City taking the lead against PSG and then equalising late on despite their Zlatan Ibrahimovic-led opponents swamping them for large parts of the contest. At 2-2 and with only minutes left to hold on to a fabulous result Pellegrini was still not satisfied, so when David Silva was replaced on came Wilfried Bony, a striker not a holding midfielder or defender, as the manager pushed for the winner.
At the final whistle the scoreline was unchanged, City possessed two precious away goals and Pellegrini was vindicated. The challenge is for the manager to orchestrate a repeat in the return next week, eliminate PSG with his front-foot-first ideology and sweep City into the semi‑finals of the Champions League.
In previous years the Pellegrini approach has failed badly in the competition. Twice against Barcelona in the last 16 the Chilean’s refusal to plot more craftily led to elimination by the kind of full-blown assault Pellegrini wants his side to hand out.
Last term Lionel Messi and company won each leg, and the tie by an aggregate of 3-1. The season before it was a similar story, as City went down by an overall count of 4-1.
These reverses suggested that whereas Pellegrini may be admirably positive he is also naive when a big beast stands in the way of progression into the knockout stage’s business end. Yet the display on Wednesday showed that against any team other than one featuring Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar the approach can be applauded.
PSG were supposedly in the bracket below the Catalan club and Bayern Munich: a serious contender to reach the final, at least. In Ibrahimovic, Ángel Di María and Edinson Cavani the champions of France for the past four years had three thoroughbreds who would leave City cowed and effectively out of the competition before the return game was played. So the popular wisdom ran.
PSG did indeed pin City back and appeared the dominant force. If their chances had been taken they would have been all but through. Ibrahimovic scored one but should have had four, as he saw a first-half penalty saved by Joe Hart, missed a one-on-one with the goalkeeper and hit the bar with a header.
But City took no notice and continued to execute Pellegrini’s plan. Kevin De Bruyne’s opener came from a quick‑fire hit-and-run manoeuvre. This took the ball from Fernando to Fernandinho and De Bruyne, who smacked a shot past Kevin Trapp.
After Ibrahimovic equalised – following a mix-up between Hart and Fernando – and Adrien Rabiot later scored, PSG seemed to have done the apparently inevitable and claimed victory in the first leg. City at least had an away goal and might have tried to hold on to the result. Yet before kick-off Pellegrini had emphasised that he was interested only in a win. “It is a game of 180 minutes, not 90 and we know how to play in that way,” he said. “We are not coming here to play for a draw.”
So City grabbed the initiative and roved forward to force PSG into mistakes from Serge Aurier and Thiago Silva, and Fernandinho grabbed the equaliser.
Given the defensive frailties of Eliaquim Mangala and Nicolás Otamendi in central defence there really was no other way. A debate can be had about whether Pellegrini’s philosophy means the back of the side is neglected and is the reason City are leaky. Yet when the club shelled out £42m for Mangala and £32m for Otamendi they expected two players who could help form a formidable rearguard for the foreseeable future.
What is clear is that Pellegrini’s City are the antithesis of the sides put out by those arch game-stiflers, Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho. Who Dares Wins would be City’s ideal pre-match viewing; Much Ado About Nothing would put those instructed by Van Gaal and Mourinho in the mood. De Bruyne underlines the attitude imbued in the squad by their manager.
Of the fightback on Wednesday night, he said: “Obviously we made a mistake to make it 1-1, but that happens and even when it was 2-1 we were trying to score – and we got that little bit of luck and did it. We showed a lot of character. The team did OK, especially defensively.”
If the last comment can be filed under “closing ranks”, De Bruyne is correct about the spirit shown against PSG. Afterwards Pellegrini talked of the team’s “personality” and this is what Laurent Blanc’s men should fear when they arrive in Manchester on Tuesday.
When it mattered most on a high‑stakes European night the manager’s one‑eyed adherence to “attack, attack, and more attack” yielded a priceless dividend. Repeat on Tuesday night and City will be in the semi-final and from there can start dreaming of May’s showpiece in Milan.
Do that and the view of the Pellegrini Way before he makes way for Pep Guardiola to take over will have to be changed.
