5 Challenges Facing Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City

Manuel Pellegrini has quite the task ahead of him. With immensely demanding owners at one end and a set of fans still fervently loyal to your predecessor at the other, the man known as "The Engineer" is not exactly in an ideal scenario for starting a new job. 

Manchester City may have struggled last season, but only the most cynical of assessors would deem Roberto Mancini's time in charge a failure. Luckily, for Pellegrini, though, Mancini was far from the perfect boss, and if he can right a few of Mancini's wrongs, as well as stamping his own authority upon the club, success shouldn't be too far away.

1. Tactical Evolution

There is little doubt that there was a sense of staleness surrounding Manchester City last season. Some signings were missed, and other signings missed the mark, as things were allowed to stagnate after their glorious title winning season (although it shouldn't be forgotten that they still spent more than Manchester United in the summer of 2012). 

Their play lost its intensity, their team far too narrow and their style became too predictable; three defining factors in their season which all came together neatly to culminate in their FA Cup Final loss at the hands of Wigan.

Pellegrini's job is to make sure past mistakes are not repeated.

Steps have already been taken to right last season's wrongs. Whilst last summers signings were all direct replacements—Javi Garcia for Nigel de Jong, Scott Sinclair for Adam Johnson and Matija Nastasic for Joleon Lescott—Manchester City have been more pro-active in the transfer market this time out, with Jesus Navas and Fernandinho having already been acquired. 

Navas and Fernandinho provide Pellegrini with the option of altering Manchester City's style of play. Whilst he will continue to instill the possession-based game that Mancini's City excelled at in their title winning season, their new signings provide them with an added dimension over the course of the campaign that they were sorely lacking last season. Pellegrini, renowned for a reactive style of management, now has far more opportunity to tinker, making Manchester City far less predictable. 

2. Get The Best Out of Yaya Toure

Whilst Fernandinho will provide Pellegrini with the second quality central midfielder that Manchester City so badly need, he is quite a similar player to Yaya Toure, and trying to shoehorn him into the same midfield as the Ivorian does have a feel of Gerrard-Lampard about it. 

At previous clubs, Pellegrini has generally preferred a structured, organised midfield in which every player has a defining role (as do pretty much all coaches these days to be fair), which is why genuine box-to-box midfielders are such a rarity in modern day football.

Whilst Yaya Toure remains Manchester City's best central midfielder, the problem with him is that he is both their best holding midfielder and their best attacking midfielder.

Playing Toure and Fernandinho together in a midfield double-pivot could end up stifling them both (once again, think Gerrard and Lampard). Playing them both ahead of a midfield anchor could lead to them getting in each others way as they both attempt to attack in the same areas of the pitch. Pellegrini faces a tough task in keeping both players in form, on the same side successfully, and happy. 

3. Managing His Man-management

Player happiness is extremely important. Man-management is an area where Mancini became very badly unstuck. His confrontational back and forth with former player Mario Balotelli was extremely entertaining at first, but after it became slightly wearisome for awhile, there were few too many run-ins, as their relationship eventually entered into the realms of total farce. 

With the Italian at Manchester City's helm, there were constant reports of bust-ups and in-fighting, which were harming the image of the club. Pellegrini must promote harmony within the squad, presenting them as a united front to the Premier League, Europe and the rest of the world if Manchester City are to succeed.  

4. Cut The Fat

Manchester City, quite frankly, have far too much dross in their squad that Pellegrini could easily live without. Manchester City had the best starting XI in the Premier League last season, but football is a squad game, and more often than not, Manchester City had no one to turn to last season when things weren't going according to plan.

Joleon Lescott, Scott Sinclair, Gareth Barry, Maicon and Aleksander Kolarov are all no longer good enough to be playing for a team who are trying to fight for silverware on all fronts. They should all be shown the door, whilst Javi Garcia and Jack Rodwell both have a lot to prove next season after disappointing debut campaigns.

Samir Nasri has been far too inconsistent throughout his entire career, and he has as much to prove as anyone in a Manchester City jersey next season. He is reaching his peak years as a footballer and needs to prove he can be a reliable top-class midfielder.

Next season, he must show Pellegrini that he has the right attitude and that he is willing to put himself on the line for Manchester City, literally.  

5. Challenge in the Champions League

Coming second in the Premier League was disappointing, but it's something you feel Manchester City's owners could have forgiven in the long run, considering that Mancini had won the title just 12 months earlier. The FA Cup Final loss to Wigan was damaging, yes, but the rumours of his exit started before that game had even kicked off.

Eventually, it seemed as though it was his performance in the Champions League that was unforgivable, as his team was knocked out of the group stage for the second season in a row, failing to win a single game in the process. 

Pellegrini must succeed in Europe. You have to imagine that he has been brought in to get Manchester City into the knockout stages at the very least. 

His record in Europe is decent, if not spectacular. He was incredibly unlucky not to lead his unfancied Malaga side into the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, having been on the wrong end of a spectacular Borussia Dortmund comeback in the quarter-finals.

In 2006, he managed to lead Villareal to the semi-finals against Arsenal, only to come undone after Juan Roman Riquelme missed a penalty that would have taken the game to extra time. His one overwhelming disappointment in Europe was not managing to get Real Madrid past the round of 16 in his one season at the club.

Manchester City will present Pellegrini with a genuine opportunity to have a major tilt at the Champions League. Another group stage failure, and it could be a fairly short stay for the Chilean in Manchester.