What on earth has gone wrong and can it be rectified?

[Col city fan]

I have to hold my hands up. I was a staunch Pearsonite. Discipline, good signings, order, fitness and a strong defence were the attributes I saw in Pearson.

It started well, although I was concerned about our inability to pick up points away from home. I suggested a defensive midfielder and was rounded-upon by the usual characters.

Then we gelled. Free-flowing, attacking football at home became the order of the day, although AWAY we still looked shaky most of the time.

No way would I have predicted what came thereafter... Absolutely no way.

Now we look so short of confidence it's unreal. Pearson sounds broken and the bulk of the forum wants him gone.

What on earth has gone wrong? Wood and the long-ball game, Pearson and 'big characters'? Inexperience? What??

Can it be sorted?

How?

Opinions please....

[Deucalion]

Sack that baby eating, satan worshipping, sun reading, Tory voting, tactic cocking, defense crushing, attack moshing, head butting, argument having, flattop chopping, trainer wearing, badger looking, Stringer baiting, oddeye staring, horrid little man that fate has cursed us with as a manager !!

[dannythefox]

Pearson pissing around with the team at Huddersfield thats where it all started!

[Bilo]

What on earth has gone wrong? Pearson has lost the dressing room, no idea why.

Can it be rectified? With the right dude, yes.

[cjslcfc]

really don't know where everything has gone wrong. The players don't seem interested/motivated to play for Pearson or this club. How it can go so drastically wrong within two months, even though we have been bad away from home all season, is slightly mystifying. Don't know what to think atm.

[kristianity77]

Sack that baby eating, satan worshipping, sun reading, Tory voting, tactic cocking, defense crushing, attack moshing, head butting, argument having, flattop chopping, trainer wearing, badger looking, Stringer baiting, oddeye staring, horrid little man that fate has cursed us with as a manager !!

Tell it like it is!

[dynamark]

Col sensible enough thoughts as usual.We have always looked a bit lightwieght excepting Wes.tend to think teams are not fearing us now at all no surprise there.Early commentary today mentioned long,long and long again.Average group of players playing below average at the back end of a season.

[foxesjon]

Very same ideology her Col fan, i too was a big supporter of `Big Nig` mainly due to the investiment signings for the future and the good discipline he seemed to promote throughout the team. Upon studying our play over the last 2 months in particular my opinion of our shortcomings are as follows.

1. There does not seem to be much knowledge of how to defend set pieces once the intial ball is cleared and our players never seem to clear their lines. I don]t know if anyone else has noticed but Kasper is the only person who wants to push his defense out. How many times have we conceded goals when we have had him in goal, two defenders on the posts and a flood of our players blocking the GKs view of the incoming shot?! I blame Morgan for this as he should be far more vocal and push his defensive line forward quicker once the initial delivery is cleared from the box.

2. We seem to have only 1 plan B and that is to simply hoof the ball forward yet there are no players following in! Nugent is ok at holding the ball up but the only player who ever seems to be in support is Knockaert, the rest are stood ball watching! Surely there should be more impetus on pass, move, pass move from the start of games?

3. Midfield is weak. Why is Drinkwater / James starting ahead of King? Times like now need experience which the named players do not have! Drinkwater especially has been ball watching and giving sloppy fouls away recently which do nothing but push us further back into our own half!

[foxfanazer]

Can't put my finger on what exactly has gone wrong. I too really like/d Pearson and I still think he's a good championship manager but this is the end of the road I think.

Whether its fatigue, loss of confidence or dressing room bust ups I don't know but something has got to give. The players should be held responsible too because have let him and us down massively!

I still don't really see any point in sacking him before the end of the season to be honest though unless they can get proven quality in

[Neil_LCFC]

Sack that baby eating, satan worshipping, sun reading, Tory voting, tactic cocking, defense crushing, attack moshing, head butting, argument having, flattop chopping, trainer wearing, badger looking, Stringer baiting, oddeye staring, horrid little man that fate has cursed us with as a manager !!

I like the Badger looking , stringer baiting bit ! Better than being stringer looking , badger baiting !

[ramadaone]

There still some strong and opionated players in and around the team who have a massive influence on what happens on and off the pitch

When they are not playing they don't like it and say as much but not to the management

These strong characters gradually drag everyone down to a certain level

I'm guessing this is exactly what happens in your workplace because I know it does at mine

Unless you have a strong manager then the workers get the upper hand

Why should LCFC be any different to your workplace ?

If you have come across a really good manager at work you will know what I mean

[dayday]

Changed a pressing style game to longball guff say no more.

[nlukka]

I think what's gone wrong is that we're unable to get results against teams that want to stop us from playing. As the season has gone up, more and more teams have realised that the way to stop us is the pack the midfield, press us, and put a few rough challenges in. We lack the mental strength and the tactical nous to respond to that. If you look at the only game that we have won recently, Blackburn, they played two up front first half and didn't really close us down. In that game, the likes of Drinkwater, King and Marshall looked excellent. But contrast that to Charlton and Leeds and you can see what I mean.

In terms of can it be fixed, honestly I think it is a little too late now. It's a shame because I am a big fan of Pearson and I really bought into his philosophy of buying younger players with potential to improve. But his lack of tactical flexibility looks to be costing us and right now our team looks completely void of confidence. Not sure if even a new manager can change that with so little time until the end of the season.

[Swiss_tony]

i'm having deja vu with wycombe and taylor. it feels like that season all over again. for wycombe/taylor see huddersfield/pearson. we got found out.

the difference is, taylor was running on MON's signings for the most part, but made some stupid decisions early in charge by letting go some of the guys that had outperformed for MON.

with pearson this is almost exclusivley, bar a couple of players, his team that he assembled.

it's as baffling as a conundrum as i have ever seen.

[Happy Fox]

There still some strong and opionated players in and around the team who have a massive influence on what happens on and off the pitch

When they are not playing they don't like it and say as much but not to the management

These strong characters gradually drag everyone down to a certain level

I'm guessing this is exactly what happens in your workplace because I know it does at mine

Unless you have a strong manager then the workers get the upper hand

Why should LCFC be any different to your workplace ?

If you have come across a really good manager at work you will know what I mean

You mean the likes of Wellens and Gallagher... who NP reintroduced back into the team setting great move from NP there NOT.

[Fox92]

Changed a pressing style game to longball guff say no more.

Exactly this. Don't understand why, but it's horrible.

It can't be 'because of Wood' which some people say. When he first joined we still played attacking and attractive football on the ground, he scored goals on the ground. But during this run of form we seem to be launching the ball long and relying on Wood to win the ball, which he doesn't do that often because the opposition centre backs are generally more dominant in the air (Shittu as an example).

Kasper long (more often than not, to long) > we don't win it > ball comes back and we lose it again. But this seems to repeat. Surely one of the players, or the manager and his staff, can see it doesn't work. It's so frustrating.

Also, the FA Cup proved (or seemed) to be a distraction. Changing the team for Huddersfield now looks like a mistake.

[Cropwellfox]

A few thoughts

Pearson has completely failed to deal with the balance of our central midfielders and we have become rediculously easy to play against and dominate

Enough coaching staff for the first team? Given last time we had both Powell and Taggs here?

More experienced players, Wes apart, going backwards quickly in terms of performance,(ie konchesky, dyer, whitbred) therefore not enough strong senior players to get around the less experienced ones

The need to obviously have to save money am save it quickly. Surely NP wouldn't be running with such a small squad if he didnt have to?

Some bad decisions on players. Tom Kennedy > Konchesky for example

Lack of leadership during games

Whatever has happened to the dressing room and what his role was in it we will probably never know but he now seems at a complete loss.

[johnny the fox]

A character flaw can be hidden and disguised for so long, it always emerges in the end and is his undoing.. he is not a leader of men, they will not go over the top for a bloke they don't believe in..

[stevelcfc]

What on earth has gone wrong? - I don't know, i don't think any one does, more worryingly I don't think Pearson does. As time goes on i am becoming more and more convinced it is something 'behind the scenes' that has happened and caused shock waves within the team because I don't believe tinkering with the team a little can cause the following 1 win in 11.

Can it be rectified? - Of course, everything can be. I'm not sure Pearson, should in be a footballing matter, knows how to though. Should it be a 'behind the scenes' issue then the cause of it needs to be removed and quickly, whoever that may be.

[MGLCFC]

Said it back in January - need 2 or 3 quality signings otherwise we'd do a Forest and burn out like they did when Billy Davies wanted to strengthen but wasn't given the funds. Ultimately he left because of the boards inability to back him - I think had Pearson gone all out for 3 quality signings Top would have backed him. We missed out on Frazier Campbell, Robbie Brady and should have gone for Shaun Derry. IMO

[Ian W LCFC]

Unfortunately today was the final straw for me. He has to go, having a care-taker manager will probably give the players more motivation than Pearson is at the moment. It is a real shame considering the fantastic start. But we are at the crucial part of the season and I think bringing in someone else now would give the players a boost at the perfect time: just before the play-offs, if we get there of course.

I was a big pearson fan until the last 2 games. The lads have no desire with him as manager. Bye bye Pearson, but thanks foor fixing the wage bill and signing Wes and Knocky.

[accessory]

There still some strong and opionated players in and around the team who have a massive influence on what happens on and off the pitch

When they are not playing they don't like it and say as much but not to the management

These strong characters gradually drag everyone down to a certain level

I'm guessing this is exactly what happens in your workplace because I know it does at mine

Unless you have a strong manager then the workers get the upper hand

Why should LCFC be any different to your workplace ?

If you have come across a really good manager at work you will know what I mean

We do know what you mean. We saw it happen with Sousa + SGE.

Is it coincidence that the slump has occurred after a certain gruesome twosome were welcomed back into the fold?

[Ian W LCFC]

Unfortunately today was the final straw for me. He has to go, having a care-taker manager will probably give the players more motivation than Pearson is at the moment. It is a real shame considering the fantastic start. But we are at the crucial part of the season and I think bringing in someone else now would give the players a boost at the perfect time: just before the play-offs, if we get there of course.

I was a big pearson fan until the last 2 games. The lads have no desire with him as manager. Bye bye Pearson, but thanks foor fixing the wage bill and signing Wes and Knocky.

[volpeazzurro]

Trying hard to suggest some logic, how about:

1. DeLaet, James, Schlupp, Marshall, Knockhardt, Wood. All young lads with very little experience in Championship (some more than others), certainly for a full season. All however are good prospects to achieve higher things if given the right coaching.

2. Is our coaching good enough? Will these young lads train on with the current coaching staff? Why for example has no-one took Marshall aside to speak re corner taking. Also for that matter, for all his shot stopping heroics, also a word with Caspar re his poor distribution (good against Millwall in fairness). Why is Wood not using his size/phisique more?

3. Tactics. We could go on about formations etc but why would you play people so obviously out of position e.g. bring in Kane and stick him on the wing. If we have a purple patch like Huddersfield etc, why not look at the formation and team selection and if possible persevere with it, only change it due to injuries or a specific situation in a game and let the opposition cope with us.

4. Midfield! When half the crowd can see problems, why can't the management team? I don't want to slag any particular individual off as they can all play their part on their day but... it's a long time since the Palace match now when our weaknesses first started to manifest themselves i.e. being bullied out of the game, why has this not been addressed, we needed a Lennon type player far more than a Kane.Why not try Keane just in front of our back four if no new signings. If our midfield performed better we have enough in our current front men to score the goals.

5. Are the management team inspirational? They don't currently appear to be.

[sorrelite]

Went today and the first thing is that Barnsley were good. I can see how they beat Palace and Watford playing quick passing and movement football which made City look like donkeys.

The only time we came into it is when Schlupp came on offering speed and outlet which in turn gave Nugent some room to get involved. And that maybe offers some reason for the slump? We have become too static up top, too predictable and get picked off easily.