Pellegrini aims to bring style and trophies to City

Manchester City’s new manager Manuel Pellegrini promised a more attacking brand of soccer and pointed to his experience of outfoxing local rivals Manchester United as he pledged on Wednesday to win trophies. At his first news conference since taking over from Italian Roberto Mancini, Pellegrini said he aimed to improve City’s poor Champions League record but reclaiming the Premier League title they won in 2012 or FA Cup they lifted in 2011 was as important.

Expectations are high at trophy-hungry City, where runners-up places in the Premier League and FA Cup were deemed to be unacceptable last season, and chief executive Ferran Soriano has said the target is five trophies in the next five years.

‘Just five?’ joked Pellegrini. ‘We’ll try to work and we’ll do our best here and see how many trophies we can win.’ City finished 11 points behind champions United last season, also suffering a second successive Champions League group-stage exit, with Pellegrini confident he can improve matters. ‘I know the most important thing is for Manchester City to beat Manchester United. If I’m here it’s because I’m sure we will do it,’ said the 59-year-old Chilean, who joined the club last month on a three-year deal after the sacking of Roberto Mancini.

‘I have played against Manchester United twice in the Champions League with Villarreal, in both years... we passed to the last 16 and Manchester United didn’t (in one of them), so I have experience playing against Manchester United.’ Pellegrini, known as ‘The Engineer’, has a reputation for building teams who play attractive, possession-based football and is hoping to instil this philosophy in his new team. ‘Fans of Manchester City will see a different way how they play (compared to) other years,’ he said. ‘I’m sure we are going to play an attractive game. We will always try to play in the opposite side (of the pitch), trying to be an attacking team.’

Pellegrini has bolstered his squad with Brazil midfielder Fernandinho and Spain winger Jesus Navas but also wants a replacement for Argentina striker Carlos Tevez who wanted to leave the club and has joined Juventus. ‘We have two strikers at the moment and we need another one. I want take names though,’ said he.