Your View.

[CKB]

We've got some very decent wide players, it doesn't seem to make sense players strikers out there.

Yup and i could be wrong here but say N'Guessan plays he rarely gets a second game on the bounce! you need a run?? he seems to them get dropped for Oakley or someone! give him a run at least??? even if his previous game wasn't the best i believe he has something about him to warrant a good regular run! if after say 5/7 games he's not been that good then well change it if needs be! if Oakley can just waltz straight into the side then Dany should have a chance

[stez]

My view:

I was one of the very few saying we should not sack Holloway when we got the drop - now, as much as last season was ace, I still believe in the stability of management. So, first and foremost - Pearson stays for the next 18 months minimum.

At the outset of the season I said we'd struggle for goals, we'd end up mid-table and if we wanted better we'd need to make quality signings costing us money. Mandaric didn't spend the cash he promised so we are where we are. During the first half of the season it was glaringly obvious that we were over-performing; it was what Savage alluded to, I agreed with and then several of you spat dummies about. "We're here on merit" you said. No, we were there as a result of the promotion bounce and other sides under-performing badly.

Every season one or two sides do it, they push well at the beginning and then fade away like pace riders in the Tour de France. That's what we are. Given a couple of races we'll be ready for the distance - but this is not it. It never has been. So many "supporters" bought into the concept of us having back2back promotions without considering if we were ever capable. We aren't. We are a very mediocre squad witnessing some teams who benefit from strong cash injection and time spent developing their sides.

So, my view is that people need to get used to losing with grace and look to the summer when Mandaric will promise much and again fail to deliver.

People need to get used to more of the same for a long while to come or find another hobby.

i agree with this.

also, we have a proud tradition of playing players in the wrong place; ormandroyd, mole face, guppy (sort of, he never liked wing backs), it's always annoying when it seems to not be working.

also i'd reinstate the stiffs, where the ressies can get proper match practice.

[Jimothy]

Pretty much gonna echo what most people have said. We need to play two wingers and stop with playing central midfielders or strikers on the wing.

Some other points though

I mentioned playing O'Neill at right back in another thread. We need to play players in their actually position and he's a right back and Neilson isn't good enough. If I had the choice between a young inexperienced player and a older more experienced yet rubbish player, I'd go for the youngster every time. O'Neill will learn from his mistakes, at 29 Neilson won't.

Another reason to play O'Neill out there is to free up Morrison to play centre back. Brown mustn't play unless we are desperate. Brown can't pass the ball 2 yards and it's pretty important that your defenders can in the most part find a team mate otherwise you just invite preasure back on yourselves by giving the ball away. I have no problem with putting the ball in row Z, or just hoofing it anywhere when under preasure, but Brown does this when he has time in the ball.

Already mentioned about wingers on the wings. We need pace. Look at all the teams doing well at the moment, regardless of money spent, they all have pace. We must be the slowest team in the league. If the means recalling DJ as another option on the bench, so be it, at least he'd add something different. I'd like to see Gallagher given a start up front. He's got the ability on the ball to bring others in to the game, or spot a pass. He'll even have a dig at goal from 30 yards as well, which is something we don't really do too much as a team.

I assuming Pearson is working with what he's got and not bringing others in. If he was I would ask for a central midfielder. I like King, but Wellens drifts in and out, and Oakley hasn't played too well for most of the season, though granted that has been out on the right. I'd also, and no joke here, bring in a striking coach. The amount of chances we create and miss is ridiculous. Also as soon as we got promoted I said we need an all-round striker, big, strong, fast, good in the air etc. I've saw the other day Patrick Agyemang has gone somewhere on loan, him or someone simular would be perfect.

[Candidcamera]

We started the season relying on Howard and Fryett but the manager is trying to move us on to a diamond formation with Wellens King Oakley obvious selections. This leaves one space to be filled and it will be interesting to see if Solano can temporarily slot in. I think that the spine of the team has suffered greatly by the Tunchev injury. Weale Hobbs King Wellens and Fryatt are really a strong spine but Hobbs has not justified the selection like the others.

This may now be a transitioal season but we must keep our top players ie. Fryatt. No one has the same goalscoring knack.

I support moving away from playing the Howard Fryatt formation but there are times when it is effective.

[marbelladave]

The risk you run is that moving away from a tried and tested formula can lead to failure - everyone is resistant to change in their own life (even if they are crying out for it when it comes to formations and management when it's not their choice to make) and so it should be unsurprising that Pearson has been reluctant to bin the DivIII partnership. As soon as we hit a dip he rushed back for it, with immediate effect.

I don't think anyone can knock Pearson for attempting to continue with a formula which worked, where it falls down is that is ceased to worked fluidly in the second part of our season last year...and we are seeing the same thing now.

I don't apportion blame at him per-se, for all the guff about the size of our squad - we never got rid of the chaff and we never got given the money to buy wheat. It's just one of those things, I don't see the value in getting bent about it like some on this forum.

With this bunch of players we are doing as well as we possibly could, and as well as anyone with nous would have wanted back in August.

Am I pessimistic about Mandaric? I'd prefer the epithet 'realist' but however it comes across is fine with me. The bloke talks but doesn't deliver, it doesn't make him worse than those who went before but it does open him up to ridicule. I'm betting anyone he doesn't stump up in January as he will not spend more than he recuperates in the summer. There will never be a big money push to the top flight.

Agreed in general (shock, horror, faint!)

Whilst I fully understand your points about resistance to change, change is the only way we can move things forward so it has to happen.

I just think that we should have at least started this process months ago when we were still riding high and before the "Promotion Bounce"™ had worn off. It will be much more difficult now!

I still think that even with "this bunch of players" we could have done rather better by playing a style more suited to our squad.

It would have been nice to see us try and fit a system around the player we have / had, rather than hammer the players into a system many of them clearly do not fit.

[Jimmy]

for the love of all things football Nigel PLEASE grow a set and drop Oakley and strip him of the captaincy

[lildave3]

for the love of all things football Nigel PLEASE grow a set and drop Oakley and strip him of the captaincy

What good would stripping him of the captaincy do?

Except maybe piss off one of our only 3 central midfielders.

[Jimmy]

What good would stripping him of the captaincy do?

Except maybe piss off one of our only 3 central midfielders.

send a message that constant shitty performances won't be tolerated and allows us to have an actual leader as captain

[hackneyfox]

You can buy as many strikers/midfielders and wingers as you want, it won't make any difference until the defence is sorted.

We're back with the Kisnorbo effect again, great stopper BUT every ball goes to the opposition, well with our back 4 it goes to the opposition or gets hoofed forwards (even Weale is doing it now).

If we could get Tunchev back or a replacement who can pass the Wellens will be allowed to do the role he was brought in for and start to link the different departments.

It's all about passing and building from the back.

[Joe.]

The Defence

The full-back positions are quite clearly the problem this year, although cracks have begun to show in the middle too. Neilson is an extremely limited footballer, and his replacement in Morrison will do nothing more than 'a job' at right back either. I think too many people's judgements about him are clouded over by Neilson's abilities.

McGivern for me from what I've seen has been terrible from start to finish. The sooner Berner is back the better. The fact that McGivern was dropped last night for the 40-year-old Chris Powell who only plays when really necessary tells its own story.

The Midfield

We have to get a new left winger in this month, unless he's prepared to hand that position to N'Guessan on a full-time basis. Too many players have demonstrated on numerous occassions that they are not good enough to play on the wing in this division, and things have to change. His persistence with Gallagher still mystifies me - surely he should play up front, or not at all.

Oakley's performances on the right are also largely ineffective, so I'm hoping that the arrival of Solano may shore things up a little for now. Dyer has proved to me what I thought at the start of the season, he's simply not good enough for the Championship. Too predicatble and lacks confidence. One good performance all season (off the top of my head) means N'Guessan is a far better option for me.

Up Front

We really too heavily on Fryatt. Goal-scoring was always going to be a problem this year, we all knew that, and our fears have unsurprisingly been confirmed. Howard looks a shadow of the danger he posed last year alongside Fryatt, and Kermorgant is yet to make his mark. Waghorn has been a tidy acquisition to date, and I've been impressed with him so far. But whether a partnership of him and Fryatt can really work remains to be seen.

[marbelladave]

You can buy as many strikers/midfielders and wingers as you want, it won't make any difference until the defence is sorted.

We're back with the Kisnorbo effect again, great stopper BUT every ball goes to the opposition, well with our back 4 it goes to the opposition or gets hoofed forwards (even Weale is doing it now).

If we could get Tunchev back or a replacement who can pass the Wellens will be allowed to do the role he was brought in for and start to link the different departments.

It's all about passing and building from the back.

Incompatible with hoofball I'm afraid!

I dont think we are going to see apassing game for a very long time, unless its the opposition of course......

[Babylon]

What's going on here then.... a thread full of constructive critisism!!

[davieG]

Team selection wise I don't think it matters too much, virtually every sensible combination has been tried and failed and the more you change and the more often you change the more you undermine the confidence of the players which has visible almost vanished anyway.

No one in the team that I can think of is performing to their best compared to what I've previously seen, I don't think it's about getting back to basics defensively our defence is probably no better or worse than it's been all season.

What we need more than most is to get back to a cohesive team, since Pearson arrived we've always been noticeable a team where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts but that has now disappeared.

So lets get back to basics where the priority should be keeping possession even if it means passing sideways and backwards, even if it means boring the pants of those fans that see it as a negative, even if it means running the risk of losing possession in our own half. I don't know about anyone else but I find it more entertaining than giving it to the oppositions back four. And whilst on that subject Weale needs to be the first one to start because he no longer passes it out at all.

We're never going to score if we don't keep the ball!

[matty2702]

The problem is when you've spent a third of your transfer budget on said player, you'd look rather silly not playing him due to having two better strikers (Fryatt, Waghorn).

Maybe I'm wrong and Pearson genuinely rates him higher than Dyer/Adams/N'Guessan as he sees them on the traing ground day in day out but personally I think it's illogical and becoming apparent more and more after each game.

I'm in the minority but I'd love to se DJ back. Would make an ideal impact sub especially when the opposition defence starts to tire.

I too would like to see DJ back, alright he certainly does miss his fair share of chances, but he gets into the positions to score goals. From what I heard last night the only clear cut chance we had fell to N'guessan! DJ may have a pretty poor scoring record for us but I don't think he was ever given a solid run in the team, due to both injuries and not being picked. He has scored goals everywhere else he has been, which maybe says a lot more about the rest of our team. I feel sorry for adams, i've seen him play a few times this season and for me he has not done anything wrong and should have been given more chances in the side.

[marbelladave]

What's going on here then.... a thread full of constructive critisism!!

Well, let's see if we can sort that out.

Joe

Whilst your analysis is spot on, it is based on a limited, even faulty premise!

Ie; that we have to play a direct style 4-4-2 with 2 wingers and the 'big man little man' up front.

We don't!

[dandannieldanok]

We're just lacking a bit of confidence and results are going against us, it's no biggie. Ok we're not playing very well at the minute but apart from a few select games, we hardly set the world alight performance-wise in our good patch. We previously won a lot of games by one goal and now we're losing a couple by one goal, it's not the end of the world.

As people have said, we need to get back to basis as far as playing people in the right position. For me that's 4-4-2 with proper full-backs (Neilson and Berner when fit) and proper wingers (N'Guessan and Dyer). Once that happens, the standard of football should get better because everyone knows their position and how to maximise their ability. I personally think the most key player to us getting back on track with is Fryatt, who in my opinion has more skill on the ball than most of the rest of the players have combined. Whoever plays in central midfield needs to realise that this guy always causes problems if you pass it to his feet.

I haven't been to Swansea, Cardiff or Barnsley last night so I can't personally pinpoint where I think we're going wrong but to me it sounds like just a bit of confidence gone missing. It does sound like in the last couple of games we've created plenty of chances and we seem to be nearly seeing the best of Dany N'Guessan, so it's not all doom and gloom.

My only major gripe with Pearson, particularly this season, is his constant tinkering. Settled line-ups always produce better results than those which are constantly chopped and changed. It's even more baffling when you consider that Pearson's tactics haven't changed, we know what we are now get a settled 11 and knuckle down.

I don't think it'll take a lot for us to get back on track, we just need to score first in a game and squeeze out a result, even a draw would be ok to set the foundation. Once we do get a result or two, I'd be surprised if we managed to go back to our early season form but there's no reason why we still can't challenge for 6th.

I certainly wouldn't be adding to the squad this January, on reflection it seems like a waste of time to me when we've already got quite a large squad which is slightly top-heavy. The most activity I would do is to maybe move on one or two and maybe bring in a youngster on loan eager to impress. I've got nothing against older players at all, but to me searching for the likes of Martin Taylor et al. isn't really the way I'd go.

Overall, not a lot is massively wrong, just a few results going against us. We've got a good squad, not great but good, we'll be fine.

[Joe.]

Well, let's see if we can sort that out.

Joe

Whilst your analysis is spot on, it is based on a limited, even faulty premise!

Ie; that we have to play a direct style 4-4-2 with 2 wingers and the 'big man little man' up front.

We don't!

And that's what annoys me, in an ideal world (which, if the right players become available, isn't totally impossible), we could play that way. Currently though we just don't have the players to do it. That and Pearson's defensive-minded tactics.

I'm a big believer in the standard 4-4-2 with full backs and wingers, so it frustrates me when central-minded players are completely wasted out wide. We've seen it for so long though by now you just accept it and make do with what you have.

[Dan]

Goalkeepers: Fine

Defenders: Right, the left back position was not a problem until Berner got injured, Ryan McGivern is without doubt the most inept defender I've ever seen put on the shirt, and the fact we have to resort to a 40 year old coach to replace him just proves my point further. Jack Hobbs is normally great but lately hasn't been up to his normal standards, but Wayne Brown has been very poor lately and cannot pass wind. I think Morrison needs to move into the centre with Neilson at right back, I honestly don't think Neilson is as bad as everyone says he is, he is slow fair enough, but he's often having to cover the whole of the right side of the field, why? Because we don't play anyone on the right who can stay there, I honestly don't think he's that bad.

Midfielders: Absolute shambles. For starters none of the central three are performing, King I have never been a huge fan of but he'd be a better shout than Oakley at the minute, he is a joke of a captain with his recent performances, gives it away far too often. Wellens I still believe has the quality and just needs the right partner, but we don't have much choice but to sign a central midfielder, a bit sick in a way we didn't get Davids. The wings, well we have wingers, he just never picks two at the same time, Solano on the right and N'Guessan on the left next game please, it should work.

Strikers: This is a position that I am failing to understand. Kermorgant should be a back-up to Steve Howard, who has proved with the right service that he can be a goalscorer. What amazes me is all the people slating the crossing when we've just signed Solano, that problem is more or less sorted. Fryatt is a natural goalscorer, he'd be top scorer in the league if the service was better. Waghorn is a good player, maybe used as an impact sub? And Gallagher hasn't even been given a chance to shine up front.

1. Chris Weale

2. Robbie Neilson -- 4. Michael Morrison -- 25. Jack Hobbs -- 29. Chris Powell

?. Nobby Solano -- 19. Richie Wellens -- 10. Andy King -- 17. Dany N'Guessan

9. Steve Howard © -- 12. Matty Fryatt

[suffolk fox]

My only major gripe with Pearson, particularly this season, is his constant tinkering. Settled line-ups always produce better results than those which are constantly chopped and changed. It's even more baffling when you consider that Pearson's tactics haven't changed, we know what we are now get a settled 11 and knuckle down.

I agree entirely with this. Don't Know what has happened to NFP over Chrimbo but why drop Howard and more importantly Fryatt!

We pull every man back for every corner the opposition get, we even do this at home this does not let us have an outball option. It is NFP thing.

Let's get back to what we are good at Okay some people call it hoofball, but that's how we play?! Didn't do us bad, last season nor the beginning of this!

Stop tinkering NFP, play a settled team, stop changing the strikeforce, cos with a young kid and a 2nd Division French player we ain't gonna score!

Get back to basics, and Come on City!

[lildave3]

All I want is a bit more energy, a bit more movement and people in their correct positions.

[davieG]

All I want is a bit more energy, a bit more movement and people in their correct positions.

you want too much!

All I want is a £1

[Daggers]

All I want is a bit more energy, a bit more movement and people in their correct positions.

You need to make porn movies.

[teblin]

I think we lack the abilty to hit teams on the break due ot a lack of pace and energy.

[lildave3]

you want too much!

All I want is a £1

I'm an idiot, i'm telling you. Newcastle, I promise.

You need to make porn movies.

You fund me and i'll give it a shot.

[maddog]

Play simple really.

Strikers don't play on the wing.

None of the strikers are in form.

Make the most of the chances - I was saying this even last season.

Pretty much what Bert has said.

Essentially Bert has said exactly what i said in my long winded optimeter post.