Nigel Pearson - Manager

Really bad subs at bad times today, but who knows maybe he did it on purpose. I don’t know why anyone would bring success on in any situation other than to demonstrate how utterly awful he is.

 

And you miss my point. January transfers rarely make a difference. That is fact. It is luck in the January window. My other point is, if other haven’t strengthen then we are no worse off.

We were never going to spend big in this window. That is not the Pozzo way. And it is not the way of many other owners (sorry, I know you say I should ignore what others do).

of course if we’d bought a world class player we would do better, but who is that player that would join us?

 

No it isn't. It's your opinion.

What you neglect to mention is that most clubs don't require a January window splurge as they don't need it. They are well stocked in most areas.

We are low on defenders, have no backup central defenders and have just released a central defender we actually had.

To suggest we are not 'worse off' because our rivals haven't strengthened doesn't work in that scenario. We are weaker in an area where we already are probably the weakest.

Add to that, most of them have strengthened. Villa, West Ham both bringing in required signings to fill gaps. Which we needed to do.

Had the injuries that happened to Villa happened to us, we'd have stuck with Gomes in goal and probably stuck Gray up front - all while the fans live in a dreamworld where it's seemingly not allowed to buy players in January, not because it is but because we didn't.

 

I think you make a fair point about the normal nature of the January market. However when the base line is so low, I think that negates your point. If we were a mid table team looking for an extra bit of quality, sure that would be tough, but I cant believe there were not players out there who could have significantly upgraded our back four.

 

From the position Pearson got us into in such a short space of time, until two games ago, he was a shoe-in to retain his job. But once he's got us into a position of strength, we should be able to continue that form, albeit probably to a lesser degree.

I don't think the board would take too favourably to Pearson after the improved form, then to see it go back to relegation performances once more. They would probably put the improved form down to the "new manager bounce". From the position we were in two games ago, we just cannot get relegated from that point, but it looks now like we will.

This will go against Pearson, and if we go down I don't think the club would keep him. It's a shame as I feel he has all the credentials to get us promoted. But the owner will look at tactical formation, substitutions and the general feel around the place from a players and training point-of-view.

At the end of the day, it's all about results. Pearson has to deliver from the position of strength he put us in, or else I think the board will pull the trigger once more.

 

The only way I see him being here next season is if we go down and the club agree to give him a say in transfers. As crazy as it sounds I don't think he'll stay if he keeps us up. Although that would be funny to see the likes of jug ears going after us on Twitter.

 

We are weaker in an area where we are the weakest because we let Prodl go?! He has played one game in two years and is currently injured. How much do you really think we will miss him.
Villa and West Ham have indeed spent some money but they have a lot more money than us. They have owners who are billionaires, we don’t. We are probably the poorest club in the division so going out and spending £15m+ on players with no guarantee of success is not an option. Everybody agrees we need defenders but so far I’ve not seen us linked with anybody who I thought would definitely improve us. In fairness though I could do a better job at right back than Mariappa

 

How do you know?

 

He’s going to be on Goals in Sunday at 11.30

 

Saw till just after they reviewed the highlights of our game.

Thought he spoke well, refused to be drawn into criticising his players publicly whilst acknowledging that he would need to be having words with some of them privately. Didn’t hear much to dislike.

What are the complaints on twitter? Had a quick look but didn’t find much

 

Ah, yes, I suppose he was slightly subdued but then probably not the best day to have to go on TV having had that game yesterday. Said he hadn’t sleep much as he’d been going over the game in his head.

I’d probably be more bothered if he was full of laughs and jokes without a care in the world!

 

Funnily enough, out of the top PL managers Fergie and Wenger for me were two of the least interesting in that respect. Never said anything insightful in front of the cameras other than the obvious, and if you were judging their managerial ability by their media persona alone, you'd be forgiven for wondering how on earth they inspired their players to achieve such greatness and good attacking football. I think Pearson actually comes across as quite a bit more interesting.

I imagine in fairness all that was a deliberate ploy so as not to reveal any ideas regarding tactics and motivation that rival managers could copy...

 

Will be sacked before the season end. The recruitment team can't take the blame so the manager has to be blamed for failing to keep us up with such a strong squad.

 

Just read the Mail online regarding Pearson.
We were incredibly naive in the last minute, amazingly so.
Take the point at this stage, we have blown a 2-0 lead through awful defending and are struggling against a poor side. A point is ok.
Sunday morning Division 6 football from our players.
NP and the players need to step up and show us a performance with passion and heart on Saturday.
Brighton fans are expecting 3 easy points as we appear to be in freefall again.
We must win. A defeat will leave us hanging on to our Premier league status by a thread.

 

I was impressed with how he comes across. He does like to waffle a bit, but he is clearly an intelligent man with a bit of an edge.

I was surprised how badly we've collapsed in the last two games though. That's not something I would expect from a Pearson side. We just didn't fight hard enough to win after we had the lead. We can do it, and did do it against Wolves. How we've lost the last two games, and the manner of defeat is really worrying. It now looks just like a new manager bounce when he came in. We raised our levels over and above norm, but when it looks like we're back in control, everyone has relaxed their performance to a degree and this would explain the collapse.

How many times have I heard players trot out the line "lessons to be learned." But they do not learn any lessons. It's like they forget all the issues from previous games. Everton were mentally beaten when we went 2-0 ahead, with two well-crafted goals. But we gifted Everton three incredibly soft goals. They weren't hard earnt, they were gifted. Teams have to put an incredibly good move together to score against us. This is how it should be. Any side could have scored the goals Everton did. Two routine corners, and a breakaway. It's ridiculous to have thrown the Everton and Villa games away like this.

If Pearson is the "real deal" then we'll see a response on Saturday. If not, then we won't.

 

To just "take the point" in our position when we are playing at home vs 10 men would have been a crazy decision at the time and rightly received criticism. Only the benefit of hindsight makes playing for a point the right course of action.

 

Sorry, let me stop you right there. It's common knowledge that AV have been unable to sign anyone since last January.

 

I don't agree, though l see your point. The players should have looked around and seen which players Everton left upfront.
We left 2 on 2 at the back. 2 Everton players with pace against 2 pedestrian Watford players.
Yes it was an awful throw in. Who throws the ball across the pitch? Schoolboy error. It didn't make the 18yd box. Throw it into the 6yd box ffs. Terrible control by Masina. The rest is history. Sheer stupidity.
We are struggling at the bottom of the league, take the point.
It is about game management. It was poor from the players and NP himself. The substitutions just did not work and we looked lost and bereft of ideas.
Two defeats where it appears the shape of the team did not work against two poor sides.
The confidence level has plummeted now, Fans and players alike.
The opposition get a corner or free kick near our goal, you expect them to score and it's a relief if they don't.
Defeat on Saturday will be a massive blow to our survival.

 

I agree that leaving 2 on 2 given the speed of their attackers was stupid.
I don't agree that we should have aimed to just "take a point".
We absolutely should have been pushing for a winner.

 

We could go on all day.
Going for a winner ok. The throw in needed to be spot on. It was ****, l mean really ****. Something you would fail to see on a park pitch on a Sunday morning.
From that point, you just knew Everton would score.
We had been playing poorly in the 2nd half. Take the point and realise it is better than losing. No, we think we are better than the strugglers we are.
As you say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Which team does Hindsight play for and can we sign him?

 

For what it’s worth, in the last 2 games, when he’s taken Chalobah off, it’s also seemingly been with a subsequent substitution and possibly even change of formation in mind, with an extra striker being introduced to complement Troy.

Both times, Doucoure has been tasked with sitting alongside Capoue, while we switched personnel in attacking areas around to accommodate the introduction of Gray, and then on Saturday, Welbeck.

Both times, we’ve then lost all control in midfield, and equally, lost our ability to effectively win possession back from the opposition upfield. Doucoure is really good at knowing when to press and is tactically adept at cutting out passing lanes.

I’m really disappointed that Pearson made the mistake of dropping Doucoure back against Villa, and then repeated the same error. For me, it’s even more unforgivable given that Hughes was on the bench, and had been excellent in the Chalobah role before injury.

 

At home against 10 men, sitting back, playing the ball around and protecting a point wasn't an option. Pushing for a winner was the only sensible option but they just executed it very poorly.

 

How on earth can you suggest West Ham and Brighton haven’t done better than us this window?

 

Why do people create absurd arguments about bringing in world class players as if that is the only option that would upgrade Adrian Mariappa???

 

Isn't it more to do with us needing to win more games on that run than we've managed for about a whole year now?

 

We've won 10 league games in the last year, it's not been quite as bad as that.

But yeah, 5 wins in the last 29 is pretty bad.

 

And now we're needing 5 in 13? Of which a good handful are as close to unwinnable as you're going to see.

Sorry, we'd need the players to show abilities which have hitherto been so well hidden for over a year as to render it beyond miraculous.

 

Pearson has just been through his first transfer window with Giraldi at the helm.
You've got to wonder how his morale is.
I'm sure it was made clear to him how things are supposed to work, before he joined, but even so the lack of recruitment must have been a bit of a shock.