The OH Leuven Thread

[Lizhang]

25 minutes ago, ARM1968 said:

Patience. Only through great pain can something truly great be born. 

Again, this is a non-argument considering the league we are in. The top two, battle for promotion, the 4 last, will battle each other in a post-season play-down. In an 8 club league... In other words, the longer it takes, the bigger the odds to get relegated, than promoted.

[Leeds Fox]

36 minutes ago, Lizhang said:

Again, this is a non-argument considering the league we are in. The top two, battle for promotion, the 4 last, will battle each other in a post-season play-down. In an 8 club league... In other words, the longer it takes, the bigger the odds to get relegated, than promoted.

 

I think he meant it might take more than a year or two. 

[Lizhang]

5 minutes ago, Leeds Fox said:

I think he meant it might take more than a year or two. 

This is already year number two... This is a league where not playing for promotion, equals playing against relegation.

[Stadt]

Is Pearson learning Flemish?

[Lizhang]

5 minutes ago, Stadt said:

Is Pearson learning Flemish?

He's not speaking Flemish (Dutch) yet (in interviews etc). I don't know if he's following a course. Flemish/Dutch speaking players, speak English, French speaking players don't speak Dutch. Don't know if he thinks it's worth it.

Edited 24 August 2018 by Lizhang

[Bonanza]

1 hour ago, brucey said:

Pearson's strengths are in man management, squad building, and club infrastructure building. He's never been great at tactics, especially without his assistants.

The infrastructure is looking great. The owners have done a great job with the stadium and they also seriously upgraded the traininggrounds. They are planning to work on the youthcenter next. So absolutely no complaints there.

[Lizhang]

1 minute ago, Bonanza said:

The infrastructure is looking great. The owners have done a great job with the stadium and they also seriously upgraded the traininggrounds. They are planning to work on the youthcenter next. So absolutely no complaints there.

The stadium... has not changed much at all. The new block was built before the new owners bought the club, the pitch was taken care of last year, but this year it is again looking quite poor. The entrance got a nice overhaul, nothing earthshattering though. No complaints, but lets not exaggerate either. The best thing that has happened, is kicking out some of the old boardmembers.

[Leeds Fox]

52 minutes ago, Lizhang said:

This is already year number two... This is a league where not playing for promotion, equals playing against relegation.

 

It isn’t Pearson’s faults how your league works. 

[Lizhang]

1 minute ago, Leeds Fox said:

It isn’t Pearson’s faults how your league works. 

It is his fault if he can't adapt to it.

[ian_marshall]

@Lizhang I completely understand your frustrations, as Pearson isn't the best communicator to the outside world so maybe it's proving somewhat difficult to buy into his philosophy particularly when you're not seeing results on the pitch. However despite his flaws (another being that he isn't the strongest tactically), allow him the time to build the foundation's as he's very methodical in his approach, is relentless with his work ethic, and a keen admirer of attention to detail.

Whilst he may not have had an instant impact on your club, he'll slowly be adding 1% here, 2% there, so on and so forth, and before you know it within a period of 6-12 months your outputs have increased by 25-30% overall.

He manages similar to how he played the game as a player. He knows that he'll never be the greatest, but what he recognises is that by controlling the controllables and stacking the odds heavily in his favour he can compete with the best. Don't be fooled into thinking that time is against you. The owners are patient people and they trust Pearson immensely hence why they appointed him as the club's manager. If you think that a couple of poor results and performances along with a few murmurs from the crowd will make them reconsider then you are wrong. Get behind your manager, team, and owner's as you can be assured that collectively they're all working very hard to deliver success. 

Edited 24 August 2018 by ian_marshall

[Bonanza]

1 hour ago, Lizhang said:

The stadium... has not changed much at all. The new block was built before the new owners bought the club, the pitch was taken care of last year, but this year it is again looking quite poor. The entrance got a nice overhaul, nothing earthshattering though. No complaints, but lets not exaggerate either. The best thing that has happened, is kicking out some of the old boardmembers.

The pitch isn't as good as last year, but that's because of the heat and lack of rain. The greenkeepers are working their asses of every day to provide the best pitch possible. We shouldn't take that lightly. Also the paths around the stadium look much better than before King Power took over. I really believe King Power has big plans for Leuven and I also understand that it will take time to realize these plans.

But I do have a problem with our play on the pitch. I feel like Pearson isn't getting the full potential out of the team. He puts players in positions that aren't theirs (Hirst as a left winger, Vanlandschoot as a left back,...). In our last game against Beerschot we started very good and absolutely dominated our opponant. That leads to a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. We keep playing good football for 10 more minutes, creating 2 great chances. But suddenly Nigel gives Beerschot the ball and sends all of the team back to defend the 1-0 lead. Beerschot took over the game because of that. At halftime he even brings on an extra defensive midfielder ans put the attacking midfielder at left back. This gave us even less options and in the second half we created 0 chances. Needless to say, Beerschot scored the 1-1 and in the end we were lucky to come away with a draw. We just threw away the game that we would have easily won. That's quite frustrating.

I don't know, but maybe Pearson wants to send a message to the board that he needs some new, better players before the transferwindow closes?

Edited 24 August 2018 by Bonanza

[Stadt]

8 minutes ago, Bonanza said:

The pitch isn't as good as last year, but that's because of the heat and lack of rain. The greenkeepers are working their asses of every day to provide the best pitch possible. We shouldn't take that lightly. Also the paths around the stadium look much better than before King Power took over. I really believe King Power has big plans for Leuven and I also understand that it will take time to realize these plans.

But I do have a problem with our play on the pitch. I feel like Pearson isn't getting the full potential out of the team. He puts players in positions that aren't theirs (Hirst as a left winger, Vanlandschoot as a left back,...). In our last game against Beerschot we started very good and absolutely dominated our opponant. That leads to a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. We keep playing good football for 10 more minutes, creating 2 great chances. But suddenly Nigel gives Beerschot the ball and sends all of the team back to defend the 1-0 lead. Beerschot took over the game because of that. At halftime he even brings on an extra defensive midfielder ans put the attacking midfielder at left back. This gave us even less options and in the second half we created 0 chances. Needless to say, Beerschot scored the 1-1 and in the end we were lucky to come away with a draw. We just threw away the game that we would have easily won. That's quite frustrating.

I don't know, but maybe Pearson wants to send a message to the board that he needs some new, better players before the transferwindow closes?

He makes mistakes but he usually learns from them. Harry Kane ended playing on the wing for us at one point but the season after we got promoted with 102 points, only losing 5 out of 46 games. 

[gurru991]

1 minute ago, Stadt said:

He makes mistakes but he usually learns from them. Harry Kane ended playing on the wing for us at one point but the season after we got promoted with 102 points, only losing 5 out of 46 games. 

I'm not sure he can function without Walsh & Shakey.Not tactically aware I'm afraid.

[Stadt]

1 minute ago, gurru991 said:

I'm not sure he can function without Walsh & Shakey.Not tactically aware I'm afraid.

I think that is a concern but in the Belgian 2nd division he'll get it right sooner rather than later.

[Lizhang]

21 minutes ago, ian_marshall said:

@Lizhang I completely understand your frustrations, as Pearson isn't the best communicator to the outside world so maybe it's proving somewhat difficult to buy into his philosophy particularly when you're not seeing results on the pitch. However despite his flaws (another being that he isn't the strongest tactically), allow him the time to build the foundation's as he's very methodical in his approach, is relentless with his work ethic, and a keen admirer of attention to detail.

Whilst he may not have had an instant impact on your club, he'll slowly be adding 1% here, 2% there, so on and so forth, and before you know it within a period of 6-12 months your outputs have increased by 25-30% overall.

He manages similar to how he played the game as a player. He knows that he'll never be the greatest, but what he recognises is that by controlling the controllables and stacking the odds heavily in his favour he can compete with the best. Don't be fooled into thinking that time is against you. The owners are patient people and they trust Pearson immensely hence why they appointed him as the club's manager. If you think that a couple of poor results and performances along with a few murmurs from the crowd will make them reconsider then you are wrong. Get behind your manager, team, and owner's as you can be assured that collectively they're all working very hard to deliver success. 

I appreciate the good intentions, but you clearly have not seen (m)any matches of OHL under Pearson. He's been here for a year now, and i can tell you, the % the team has grown since he took over, has to be in the negative. This team is performing worse than the team he inherited last year, and the performances on the pitch have not been of the order that one can expect from a team with this sort of backing. With the impact he has on the transfers. Today's appaling result against an amateur team (this is not a joke, it is in fact a team, where the guys had to WORK today, and played a game of football in the evening) is just the last straw really. I don't expect the Thai to dump him, but i do hope they will "move him back" to Leicester if the situation hasn't improved by the end of the year.

 

20 minutes ago, Bonanza said:

The pitch isn't as good as last year, but that's because of the heat and lack of rain. The greenkeepers are working their asses of every day to provide the best pitch possible. We shouldn't take that lightly. Also the paths around the stadium look much better then before King Power took over. I really believe King Power have big plans for Leuven and I also understand that it will take time to realize these plans.

But I do have a problem with our play on the pitch. I feel like Pearson isn't getting the full potential out of the team. He puts players in positions that aren't theirs (Hirst as a left winger, Vanlandschoot as a left back,...). In our last game against Beerschot we started very good and absolutely dominated our opponant. That leads to a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. We keep playing good football for 10 more minutes, creating 2 great chances. But suddenly Nigel gives Beerschot the ball and sends all of the team back to defend the 1-0 lead. Beerschot took over the game because of that. At halftime he even brings on an extra defensive midfielder ans put the attacking midfielder at left back. This gave us even less options and in the second half we created 0 chances. Needless to say, Beerschot scored the 1-1 and in the end we were lucky to come away with a draw. We just threw away the game that we would have easily won. That's quite frustrating.

I don't know, but maybe Pearson wants to send a message to the board that he needs some new, better players before the transferwindow closes?

 

The paths around the stadium have not changed since the takeover, this was already done during the talks with the Chinese investor. I know this, since i was at the club, checking out the new pavement, talking to the head of safety, regarding the Chinese investor. As far as Pearson goes, we pretty much agree. The previous coach was sacked for "sending a message" to the owners, while he had the results to back him up (7-0 and 8-1 wins).

Edited 24 August 2018 by Lizhang

[sylofox]

24 minutes ago, ian_marshall said:

@Lizhang I completely understand your frustrations, as Pearson isn't the best communicator to the outside world so maybe it's proving somewhat difficult to buy into his philosophy particularly when you're not seeing results on the pitch. However despite his flaws (another being that he isn't the strongest tactically), allow him the time to build the foundation's as he's very methodical in his approach, is relentless with his work ethic, and a keen admirer of attention to detail.

Whilst he may not have had an instant impact on your club, he'll slowly be adding 1% here, 2% there, so on and so forth, and before you know it within a period of 6-12 months your outputs have increased by 25-30% overall.

He manages similar to how he played the game as a player. He knows that he'll never be the greatest, but what he recognises is that by controlling the controllables and stacking the odds heavily in his favour he can compete with the best. Don't be fooled into thinking that time is against you. The owners are patient people and they trust Pearson immensely hence why they appointed him as the club's manager. If you think that a couple of poor results and performances along with a few murmurs from the crowd will make them reconsider then you are wrong. Get behind your manager, team, and owner's as you can be assured that collectively they're all working very hard to deliver success. 

Get behind him and back him. Like 95% on here did in the great escape season until wet spam. After winning the prem CR was given no time on here by some.

It's a different league with no middle ground. As has been said you either fight promotion or relegation and at the minute it sounds like relegation.

 

[Lizhang]

7 minutes ago, sylofox said:

It's a different league with no middle ground. As has been said you either fight promotion or relegation and at the minute it sounds like relegation.

This is exactly the case. There are 8 teams, at the end of the season, the two best teams battle each other for promotion, and the 4 worst teams (this is 50% of the league) battle each other for relegation.

The season has only just started (3 matches), so it's too early to talk about relegation (we have 5 points out of 3 games) but first of all, luck was on our side for 2 games (we could have been last with 1 point instead of 5) but like Bonanza also said, the play is just attrocious. We don't create chances, three out of four goals we made, were scored by defenders. Today we lost a game against amateurs from a lower division (3-1 with only 2 guys from the regular squad missing). Luckily this was "merely" a cup game, and not a league game. But it's really not looking good tbh.

Edited 25 August 2018 by Lizhang

[smudger63]

26 minutes ago, Stadt said:

He makes mistakes but he usually learns from them. Harry Kane ended playing on the wing for us at one point but the season after we got promoted with 102 points, only losing 5 out of 46 games. 

I`m sure that fact will cheer the OH Leuven fans up no end  , as will the fact that at Watford in the play off semi final, he had Kane, Vardy and Drinkwater on the bench.    

[Stadt]

7 minutes ago, smudger63 said:

I`m sure that fact will cheer the OH Leuven fans up no end  , as will the fact that at Watford in the play off semi final, he had Kane, Vardy and Drinkwater on the bench.    

The point was that he learns, he makes mistakes and learns from. Sometimes slowly but he usually learns. Drinkwater, Kane and Vardy were all disappointing that season and they were deservedly on the bench.

[inckley fox]

1 hour ago, Lizhang said:

It is his fault if he can't adapt to it.

I feel sorry for Pearson if you're representative of Leuven fans, which I know for a fact you're not (I was speaking to one as recently as three weeks ago, and he was far more positive). You're three games into a season, second in the table and two points off the leaders. People on here have told you repeatedly that Pearson is a boss who sometimes takes a season or two to get up to speed (or, rather, 100-odd games, which is 3-4 seasons in your league), but the end result - at a far higher level than the one you're used to - was him taking us up two leagues, keeping us up, and leaving us with a side which would win the EPL a year later, on a shoestring. Maybe he'll take longer to adapt to your level. Well, if that's the case - and considering you were hardly tearing up trees without him - then it might be a good idea to show some patience.

And I'm not a weird Pearson fanatic or anything. I spent half of my time when he was manager slating him. The truth is - and there are Leicester fans who struggle with this, but it's undeniable - that he is an outstanding manager, given time. You can credit his coaches if you like, but it was Pearson who appointed them, and when they left Leicester the success quickly evaporated.

If your impatience and negativity extends to the point of losing patience with the guy after - what? - 22/23 league games in charge, in spite of knowing his pedigree, in spite of being in a perfectly good position at an early point in the season, then maybe you deserve the level of success to which you were previously accustomed (i.e. none).

[urban.spaceman]

What do you want? In the short term or long term?

If you want scintillating football and immediate promotion, you're not gonna get it from the Srivaddhanaprabhas and Nigel Pearson.

However, if you want sustained success with your entire backroom operations upgraded, a squad developed to play decent football over a long period of time, and a promising long-term future, they are the guys to bring it.

Patience.

[Lizhang]

19 minutes ago, inckley fox said:

I feel sorry for Pearson if you're representative of Leuven fans, which I know for a fact you're not (I was speaking to one as recently as three weeks ago, and he was far more positive). You're three games into a season, second in the table and two points off the leaders. People on here have told you repeatedly that Pearson is a boss who sometimes takes a season or two to get up to speed (or, rather, 100-odd games, which is 3-4 seasons in your league), but the end result - at a far higher level than the one you're used to - was him taking us up two leagues, keeping us up, and leaving us with a side which would win the EPL a year later, on a shoestring. Maybe he'll take longer to adapt to your level. Well, if that's the case - and considering you were hardly tearing up trees without him - then it might be a good idea to show some patience.

And I'm not a weird Pearson fanatic or anything. I spent half of my time when he was manager slating him. The truth is - and there are Leicester fans who struggle with this, but it's undeniable - that he is an outstanding manager, given time. You can credit his coaches if you like, but it was Pearson who appointed them, and when they left Leicester the success quickly evaporated.

If your impatience and negativity extends to the point of losing patience with the guy after - what? - 22/23 league games in charge, in spite of knowing his pedigree, in spite of being in a perfectly good position at an early point in the season, then maybe you deserve the level of success to which you were previously accustomed (i.e. none).

Must be easy talking like this when it's not your club. When you haven't seen any games. When you don't know the league, when you don't know the club's history.

I'm sure i'm not representative of all Leuven fans, but 3 weeks ago, there was still faith that he would have molded the team during prep, yet now that faith has slipped among many fans. Maybe check your source. I think for the moment, i'm more representative of OHL fans than your optimistic buddy.

If Pearson needs 4 seasons, to get the richest club of the league, promoted at the expense of 7 other and smaller clubs, and you still can't see that the guy is not right for this job, then buddy, i don't know what to tell you. There are plenty of young talented local coaches, that could do it in one or two years. Unfortunately, the Thai don't know or value them. As explained before numerous times, the longer you stay in this league, the bigger the odds to get relegated. If you are not among the 4 best teams, you will play play-downs. If you need 4 or 5 years, to get the job done, chances are that you will end up playing play-downs once or twice during that time.

I'm done here, but thanks for your insightful opinion. I'm glad Leicester fans were very patient with Claudio Ranieri btw.

 

17 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

What do you want? In the short term or long term?

If you want scintillating football and immediate promotion, you're not gonna get it from the Srivaddhanaprabhas and Nigel Pearson.

However, if you want sustained success with your entire backroom operations upgraded, a squad developed to play decent football over a long period of time, and a promising long-term future, they are the guys to bring it.

Patience.

As stated time and again. This is not the league to be patient in. Somehow this doesn't seem to get through to people here. Yes, we need to move up asap, and then, we can build. This division is a graveyard, a trap where statistically, chances of ending up playing against relegation, are double that of playing to get promoted.

[inckley fox]

2 minutes ago, Lizhang said:

Must be easy talking like this when it's not your club. When you haven't seen any games. When you don't know the league, when you don't know the club's history.

I'm sure i'm not representative of all Leuven fans, but 3 weeks ago, there was still faith that he would have molded the team during prep, yet now that faith has slipped among many fans. Maybe check your source. I think for the moment, i'm more representative of OHL fans than your optimistic buddy.

If Pearson needs 4 seasons, to get the richest club of the league, promoted at the expense of 7 other and smaller clubs, and you still can't see that the guy is not right for this job, then buddy, i don't know what to tell you. There are plenty of young talented local coaches, that could do it in one or two years. Unfortunately, the Thai don't know or value them. As explained before numerous times, the longer you stay in this league, the bigger the odds to get relegated. If you are not among the 4 best teams, you will play play-downs. If you need 4 or 5 years, to get the job done, chances are that you will end up playing play-downs once or twice during that time.

I'm done here, but thanks for your insightful opinion. I'm glad Leicester fans were very patient with Claudio Ranieri btw.

 

As stated time and again. This is not the league to be patient in. Somehow this doesn't seem to get through to people here. Yes, we need to move up asap, and then, we can build. This division is a graveyard, a trap where statistically, chances of ending up playing against relegation, are double that of playing to get promoted.

You're talking absolute nonsense. The last three weeks have changed everything? The difference between now and three weeks ago is that now you're second in the league after three games played! If that has changed everything for you then your expectations are outrageously unrealistic. And if your views, based on that, are representative of the bulk of your fans, then your fans are undeserving of success. Some fans are. There's a club round here called Derby County, you should look them up.

Thankfully I know for a fact that the vocal minority of which you're a part at Leuven is, after all, just a minority. And yes, I've seen your side play more than once. Based on that I can assure you that Pearson won't be out of his depth at your level.

Two recurring themes of your posts are (a) the questioning of King Power's contribution (your criticism of Ranieri's sacking, as ill-informed as it is, only adds to the impression that you have a serious agenda) and (b) the assertion that good, local Belgian talent might be preferable to all of these guys who have achieved vastly more success in vastly more competitive leagues. Guys who have, by the way, improved your team and club already. If I were you, or one of your like-minded friends, I'd park those ideas for a year or two.

Most bizarre of all is your panic about Leuven remaining in the second tier, on the grounds that they may at some point get relegated. From what I understand of your history, most of it has been spent in the second tier. If it takes a manager a few years to get you out, but he keeps you out and forges a genuinely competitive side (bearing in mind that you have never, ever had an even remotely competitive top tier side) then I'd have thought you'd be happy with that. But if you'd prefer one of these wonderful local managers to rock up and bring back the OH Leuven glory days, then good luck with that one.

[urban.spaceman]

[urban.spaceman]

"Have you ever considered anger management Nigel?"