Guest ttfn Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 We lack the character to grab wins in tight games. Look at Cardiff. That Ipswich game on Saturday is a prime example of the sort they've been snatching 1-0 all season, and yet we ended up on the losing side. Unfortunately now not only are we not winning tight games, but we're conceding late goals too. We've chucked away 5 points in the last 20 minutes of matches in the last month, and it could have been as many as 9 if Wolves and Boro had competent centre forwards. Schmeichel and Konchesky are the only players who seem to have the character to drive us on in these tight games. The mentality isn't quite there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazzerfox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 The recent performances against Peterborough, Huddersfield, Charlton and Ipswich are indicative of the kind of application you are referring to? The reason we lost those games was not due to effort or commitment. More like not taking chances at key moments in the game and poor decision making. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
49er Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 We lack the character to grab wins in tight games. Look at Cardiff. That Ipswich game on Saturday is a prime example of the sort they've been snatching 1-0 all season, and yet we ended up on the losing side. Unfortunately now not only are we not winning tight games, but we're conceding late goals too. We've chucked away 5 points in the last 20 minutes of matches in the last month, and it could have been as many as 9 if Wolves and Boro had competent centre forwards. Schmeichel and Konchesky are the only players who seem to have the character to drive us on in these tight games. The mentality isn't quite there. Agree with the above. To win promotion, sides need to dig deep and show the passion and commitment to come through the sternest tests. My concern is that we may lack these attributes and that this may cost us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inckley fox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 He has done a good job so far. It is obvious that the squad is more 'together'. He has brought in some great players at a very cheap price. He is focusing on the long-term ambitions more than the short time: for example Knockaert and Wood (both really young). Just get behind the players and the manager. I am fed up about the moaners after every time we lose a game. For my part I don't boo and I don't want Pearson out. I'd even support the idea of him staying if we didn't go up, on the condition that we came close and he acknowledged the need for changes to be made. However if everyone stopped moaning and just got behind the players and the manager, then we wouldn't have much to discuss here. On a football conversation board in a fans' forum it's rather unrealistic to expect there to be no constructive criticism when a side aiming for automatic promotion lose against relegation strugglers for the second time in the last few weeks. What sort of discussion would you find acceptable? Page after page, thread after thread of 'yeah! we're still going to do it, don't worry boys!' and not a cross word to be found? Looking back over the thread the bulk of these 'moaners' seem to be calm, articulate and constructive, while it's the argument against them which appears to lack substance. The bulk of these 'moaners' want Pearson to stay; they're just debating how he should go about making sure that this happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
49er Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 The reason we lost those games was not due to effort or commitment. More like not taking chances at key moments in the game and poor decision making. We were playing poor sides. The minute that Peterborough equalised, it was obvious that they wanted it more. I was at the game, and only saw the level of effort and commitment from Drinkwater, Morgan and Schmeichel. The rest were AWOL. Pearson's response was to stick Morgan up front for the last five minutes - the same unsuccessful tactic that he employed the previous year when we lost 1-0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
49er Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Looking back over the thread the bulk of these 'moaners' seem to be calm, articulate and constructive, while it's the argument against them which appears to lack substance. The bulk of these 'moaners' want Pearson to stay; they're just debating how he should go about making sure that this happens. Sensible comment. This is, after all, a forum for discussion to chew over the pros and cons. We all want one thing - promotion for City. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inckley fox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Its a tight loss in a league where genuinely anyone can beat anyone, end of the game - Nigel Pearson suddenly isn't a hero who led us from our darkest hour, he's a tactically inept average manager. Even in that season where we won the League One title with unbelievable ease, despite most of you saying we'll find it so hard, we still had ****ing moaners. I remember coming on here after the Peterborough 2-0 defeat and suddenly the manager had lost the plot and we were going to fall out the top 2 and "do a leeds". But there's little reason to think of him as a good tactician. There has been very little variety in our formation or approach play - and none whatsoever when we've won the previous game, regardless of the manner of the win. Substitutions are almost always like for like and we've looked poor when we play anything other than a straight 4-4-2. Of course there are good managers who aren't great tacticians (see Jock Wallace, Brian Little and, arguably, O'Neill for City) and great tacticians who aren't particularly good managers (see David Pleat and Peter Taylor, who have often been praised for their encyclopaedic knowledge of different systems). To deny his former successes would be insane. But to say he's shown a flair for tactical variety would be equally wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
49er Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Tactical changes have amounted to bringing Dyer on for Knockaert and Vardy to replace Nugent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazzerfox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 We were playing poor sides. The minute that Peterborough equalised, it was obvious that they wanted it more. I was at the game, and only saw the level of effort and commitment from Drinkwater, Morgan and Schmeichel. The rest were AWOL. Pearson's response was to stick Morgan up front for the last five minutes - the same unsuccessful tactic that he employed the previous year when we lost 1-0 Maybe you are right in saying that our heads drop too easily when we go 1 down or things are not quite going. Maybe we lack the experience head to pull us through those times in a game when things are going against us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiv Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Tactical changes have amounted to bringing Dyer on for Knockaert and Vardy to replace Nugent They aren't tactical changes, they are personnel changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inckley fox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 They aren't tactical changes, they are personnel changes. Yes. I'm not sure there have been any tactical changes to talk about, unless we cling to the one game in twenty that we've actually gone with a 4-3-3 for 45 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
49er Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Maybe you are right in saying that our heads drop too easily when we go 1 down or things are not quite going. Maybe we lack the experience head to pull us through those times in a game when things are going against us! Spot on! What we are missing is a 'wise head' in midfield (QPR had Derry as an example) who knows what it takes to get out of this league. When Gordon Milne was manager he bought in Gerry Daly on loan and that was the key to us going on a 15 match unbeaten run that ended in promotion. The criticism of Pearson here is that he failed to recruit such a player at the start of the campaign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowwolf Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Yes and credit to Bruce and Zola but doesnt mean NP isnt good enough I'm afaid it does. Where as both of those managers have pressed on and capitalised on the position they were in , we on the other hand have repeatedly lost to opposition we should have beaten if we wanted to stay in that second spot. Each season there is a side that to all appearences looks like they have what it takes for an automatic spot then do a spectacular bottling job at the end ala Cardiff. This season it is without doubt us and a lot of it has to be down to Pearson I'm afraid. Bewildering tactics away from home and no answer to a team that closes us down to name but two. He is adequate but not enough to get us promoted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
49er Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 In addition to failing to secure the 'wise old head' in midfield at the start of the season, hindsight has shown that Pearson made a big error in splashing out on Vardy. We needed someone like Wood from the off. Also, a quality,pacy winger (neither Marshall or Dyer fit this description, but someone like Burke from Birmingham or Sako from Wolves do) was required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazzerfox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Spot on! What we are missing is a 'wise head' in midfield (QPR had Derry as an example) who knows what it takes to get out of this league. When Gordon Milne was manager he bought in Gerry Daly on loan and that was the key to us going on a 15 match unbeaten run that ended in promotion. The criticism of Pearson here is that he failed to recruit such a player at the start of the campaign. Can't argue with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbelladave Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 In addition to failing to secure the 'wise old head' in midfield at the start of the season, hindsight has shown that Pearson made a big error in splashing out on Vardy. We needed someone like Wood from the off. Also, a quality,pacy winger (neither Marshall or Dyer fit this description, but someone like Burke from Birmingham or Sako from Wolves do) was required. Can't argue with that. Of course you can...... We did not need any such plater to get us to the top of the league in early October and we don't really need one now. What we need is to play the way we did to get to the top of the league, not the horrible, negative, 'defend what we have' style that has been so common since we got to the top. At the moment it looks like NFP is trying to play safe and defend our position in the playoffs rather than go all out for automatic promotion and it is not going well...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazzerfox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Of course you can...... We did not need any such plater to get us to the top of the league in early October and we don't really need one now. What we need is to play the way we did to get to the top of the league, not the horrible, negative, 'defend what we have' style that has been so common since we got to the top. At the moment it looks like NFP is trying to play safe and defend our position in the playoffs rather than go all out for automatic promotion and it is not going well...... Do the recent defeats not show us that we are lacking something, somewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inckley fox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 Of course you can...... We did not need any such plater to get us to the top of the league in early October and we don't really need one now. What we need is to play the way we did to get to the top of the league, not the horrible, negative, 'defend what we have' style that has been so common since we got to the top. At the moment it looks like NFP is trying to play safe and defend our position in the playoffs rather than go all out for automatic promotion and it is not going well...... It's possible that there's some truth in the theory that sides figured out how to play against us, were momentarily thrown by the inclusion of Wood, and have now come to terms with us again. It's a horrible simplification, I know, but there's an element of truth in there somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny the fox Posted 3 March 2013 Author Share Posted 3 March 2013 Sometimes criticism can be constructive and helpful rather than just knocking for the sake of it, surely we are allowed to debate things without "knee jerk" abuse? At this stage of his managing career, for me Mr. Pearson is adequate, at the moment , surely the jury is still out on his "greatness" ? The fact is this, the last time we played Ipswich, we thrashed them 6-zip, this time we got beat , who has learned more from that thrashing? which team has progressed more from that previous starting point? Like too many other inferior teams in this league they have done a number on us and we have no answer, THATS what worries me.There management gained more insight into us than we did into them after that thrashing.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazzerfox Posted 3 March 2013 Share Posted 3 March 2013 It's possible that there's some truth in the theory that sides figured out how to play against us, were momentarily thrown by the inclusion of Wood, and have now come to terms with us again. It's a horrible simplification, I know, but there's an element of truth in there somewhere. Very plausible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowwolf Posted 4 March 2013 Share Posted 4 March 2013 Sometimes criticism can be constructive and helpful rather than just knocking for the sake of it, surely we are allowed to debate things without "knee jerk" abuse? At this stage of his managing career, for me Mr. Pearson is adequate, at the moment , surely the jury is still out on his "greatness" ? The fact is this, the last time we played Ipswich, we thrashed them 6-zip, this time we got beat , who has learned more from that thrashing? which team has progressed more from that previous starting point? Like too many other inferior teams in this league they have done a number on us and we have no answer, THATS what worries me.There management gained more insight into us than we did into them after that thrashing.. Mc Carthy is no fool and has just looked at how the likes of Peterborough and Charlton did us. It did not take a master tactician to work out how to stop us playing, however it takes a better tactician than Pearson to change things around to combat that threat, he isn't and he didden't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbelladave Posted 4 March 2013 Share Posted 4 March 2013 Do the recent defeats not show us that we are lacking something, somewhere? Absolutely yes..... It shows that we lack the confidence and the commitment to go after the opposition and impose our game on them. Since we reached the top spot we have been reluctant to do that on a consistent basis. We seem to be determined to 'defend' our position rather than go out and consolidate or improve it........ It's possible that there's some truth in the theory that sides figured out how to play against us, were momentarily thrown by the inclusion of Wood, and have now come to terms with us again. It's a horrible simplification, I know, but there's an element of truth in there somewhere. You are quite right, it is a 'horrible simplification...... All teams make changes and develop during the course of the season, we have done so to our detriment by becoming more negative, others have done so far more positively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbelladave Posted 4 March 2013 Share Posted 4 March 2013 Mc Carthy is no fool and has just looked at how the likes of Peterborough and Charlton did us. It did not take a master tactician to work out how to stop us playing, however it takes a better tactician than Pearson to change things around to combat that threat, he isn't and he didden't. Actually in this case you are wrong....... Ipswich did not get in our faces and close us down the way so many clubs have done recently, they sat back and conceded ground which makes our inability to get after them all the more galling. We set up like we expected to be put under pressure but it barely happened and not at all first half. We did not have the balls to take the opportunity handed to us and simply failed to attack with any purpose. Had we gone adter them the way we did in midweek then we would have won, simple as that........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanolegend1989 Posted 4 March 2013 Share Posted 4 March 2013 It's possible that there's some truth in the theory that sides figured out how to play against us, were momentarily thrown by the inclusion of Wood, and have now come to terms with us again. It's a horrible simplification, I know, but there's an element of truth in there somewhere. Or maybe we are only good against certain teams..Look how our 5 game winning run of Burnley, Hull, Boro,Huddesfield and Bristol City. Then the reverse fixtures were a draw away at Hull(good result) then our next 5 game winning run, the same run of teams except add an incredibly lucky win against Wolves. Tbh when we beat Wolves I said to my mate: "god we were bloody sh*t tonight, we will never go up with this team". In the back of my head I was thinking "This is the sign of a good team, winning when we play crap" but that Wolves performance was so bad, I was really baffled to how we were so high. I cant comment then what happened at Peterboro but then I was there Vs Charlton and we were terrible again. IMO we are very easy to stop, when we go ahead teams have to attack and they arnt thinking about ruining are game so much and therefore we batter them normally. But games where we concede first, teams know now just put our big centre half on Wood, push up on Nugent so hes deep, lb touch tight to Knocky and midfield get stuck in. We have no guile in midfield to do anything constructive when things get tough... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicester_Numan Posted 4 March 2013 Share Posted 4 March 2013 Sometimes criticism can be constructive and helpful rather than just knocking for the sake of it, surely we are allowed to debate things without "knee jerk" abuse? At this stage of his managing career, for me Mr. Pearson is adequate, at the moment , surely the jury is still out on his "greatness" ? The fact is this, the last time we played Ipswich, we thrashed them 6-zip, this time we got beat , who has learned more from that thrashing? which team has progressed more from that previous starting point? Like too many other inferior teams in this league they have done a number on us and we have no answer, THATS what worries me.There management gained more insight into us than we did into them after that thrashing.. That is always the case, you learn more about your own players and team from defeat than you do from victory, especially easy victory. Last time we played them McCarthy had only just taken over, he's now learnt about his team and got to grips with what he's got. They're a much more solid team than last time, especially at home and it was always going to be a difficult game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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