True. Think the players are a bigger problem though. Who would you get in to replace him? IF we stay up it would be very harsh to sack him. I think we'd be solid in the Championship with Pearson. Change would be risky.
The point being is that if you believe Pearson should stay on account of his record so far, then it's not a strong position. I agree with you that the players are the problem, slightly below Giraldi, but a strong coach should be able to deal with it. For all the dogs abuse Deeney gets, manager after manager still picks him. If Pearson isn't strong enough to leave him out, then he's not the right man for the job.
There has been more quality under NP than the two previous managers combined (this season). I think he could do well if given a chance. A new manager seems a greater risk imo.
Best case scenario, we stay up, and we're back with Deulofeu and Sarr for next season, plus hopefully a new defender or two, which will set us up well to succeed. Worst case scenario we go down with a manager that's had great success in the Championship, don't get the logic behind hopping on the managerial merry-go-round yet again
No manager is going to play the young players we bring in as they know they won't get the time to work and develop them. I mean Sarr has been here a year and had 3 managers !
Yes was tongue in cheek, but it does make his achievement look more impressive with hindsight, while many on here were just moaning about the fact that we "should have finished 7th".
Interesting to note that Pearson’s record so far is very similar to Garcia’s in 2017/18 - solid home form, abysmal away record and a slightly higher PPG against an easier set of opponents (though if you take into account their home and away records, our set of fixtures has been harder than the one under Gracia), following a similarly terrible run of form. Not so good considering that under Gracia we could afford to lose all those away games and experiment with the team a bit as we only had an outside chance of going down and when Pearson came we needed at least top 10 form to stay up. What makes his record worse though in comparison, is if you consider the managers’ points tallies before and after the long break - Gracia finished 2017-18 with 15 points from 14 games but then won the first four games of the following season, whereas Pearson gained 18 points from his first 13 before the lockdown, but since then has gone backwards. Just what were he and the players doing from March to June?
Yes, Gracia's run of 1 win in 11 after the cup semi final was a huge achievement. As is Pearson's current run of 1 win in 11.
He got that squad to finish 11th in the prem on 50 points. Whichever order the results fell in that season, I don't think we will see that record equalled. I think its generally accepted that results fell away while the players were looking fwd to a cup final given the collapse started almost immediately after the Wolfs game. If we'd lost that, maybe we would have finished 7th ? Even under God our FA cup run screwed league results with 6-1 defeat at Norwich and 5-1 at Nott F.
Nah, the players were looking jaded. Quina and Cleverley were out for pretty much the whole run-in, and Chalobah was only starting his recovery, so Capoue and Doucoure in particular were shattered
When Nigel was first appointed he seemed alarmed at the fitness levels of the players. Remember his comments after the 3-3 draw with Tanmere? So why do our players look worse now than they did then? Has the manager downed tools? Have the players stopped caring or training properly? We look like a team playing pre-seaon friendlies at the moment. Not good enough in a relegation battle.
We haven't had a happy end to the season for the entire Pozzo reign lol, or at least not one which wasn't tempered with some degree of regret
In fairness we haven’t had a happy end to the season since 2005/06, unless you count avoiding relegation from the Championship which we always had a slim chance of, or finishing strongly in 2011/12 to finish a satisfying but really meaningless 11th. And it seems to be a tradition for us to have a much stronger first half of the season than second half: 1996/97, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03, 2007/08, 2010/11 - all pre-Pozzos. Even in the Div 2 title winning season our form was much worse in the second half than the first half.
Get rid of: Pearson and back room team. Players out: Foster, Gomes, Janmaat, Dawson, Kiko, Holebas, Mariappa, Cleverley, Deeney, Welbeck, Gray & Pereyra as part of the clear out! Sell: Doucoure, Deulofeu, Sarr & Capoue IF/WHEN we go down. That pretty much cuts our cloth in terms of wages and transfer fee's for the likes of Geri, Sarr, Doucs and Caps. We might get a tenner for the others. Build the Squad around the likes of: Bachmann, Dahlberg, Masina, Penaranda, Chalobah, Cathcart, Joao Pedro, Hughes (captain), Quina, Success, Kabasele, Pussetto, Cucho, Estupian & Dele-Bashiru & Folquier. With a few solid Championship additions and some borrows/loans from Udinese we would have a youthful and solid enough squad to come back. Get Joka back!!
NP isn't the problem: the players are. This is about the fourth or fifth time since the takeover that the players have just stopped playing for the manager and appeared to have given up. Something is very very wrong at our club and it won't be fixed until the squad has this rebuild, which won't happen until we go down. Pozzo is clearly content with the same old sh!t every season. Relegation will hit him in his wallet and he'll be forced to do something about it I've never felt so much discontent with this club in the 18 years I've been going. That includes the Bassini era where we potentially could have ceased to exist
We need a complete clear out! I don't disagree that the players are the problem, but why are none of the Managers we have dropping players and leaving them out!? Deeney must be an issue around the dressing room/influence on others. He's the one common denominator from all of the manager's we've had over the last 5-6 years, yet not a single one of these manager's has dropped him!? Even when playing terribly! Actually, in fairness, Joka did at one point and he got a reaction off the bench from him when he favoured Vydra alongside Ighalo. We need a Manager that will stand up to these morons and ruffle some feathers!
Why would you want to get rid of Femenia and leave us with no right backs? He’d be great in the Championship, hell there have been times when he’s been great at this level.
After Pearson's antics when he floored that Palace player and his comments in general, you'd have thought he would be the one to do that. He's known for his motivation and ability to get players who seem doomed, back in spirits again. When even he can't do that, you know it's the attitude of the players. I agree on Deeney: he clearly is a huge influence in the dressing room. He's the reason we re-signed Mariappa, he played a role in the disaster that was Mazzari's season.
Well I’d only be prepared to sign a replacement for Kiko if (a) we can guarantee that he will be better than him for us (very hard if not impossible when it comes to Watford) and (b) we sell Kiko for at least as much money as we spend on a replacement.
They're our best current partnership. I agree they're not good enough to keep us up, but we'd have to invest in a whole new defence if we came back up again, like we did in the Summer we hired QSF. Unfortunately we haven't taken our defensive acquisitions as seriously since that summer!!
In other words, stick with the unknown quantities and hope they're better than the ones we know. Hmmm.