You know when you have that feelin......

[Col city fan]

The younger peeps on the forum, unfortunately, won't know what I'm on about, but the older ones will.

After about ten(ish) games in under Martin O'Neil, we could see that the team was improving week-in, week-out. Suddenly, it all started to click and to gel and we kinda knew that we were possibly going places.

After watching City for the past few games, I've got that same feeling.

We aren't full of flair, but we are solid and finally have that all important ingredient in the team... pace.

We look confident... The boys are starting to knock it about, knowing that we can win football matches.

Yes, I know, it's early days and we need to take this season one game at a time. And I don't mean to put the kiss of death on it.

BUT, I just have that feeling (Christ, I hope I'm not wrong ) that this COULD just be our season. Like watching the team under O'Neil, there's a steely self-belief going on, that's not been present for many many years.

Anyway, fingers crossed and all that. Suffice it to say, I think that Nige is slowly getting it right and that some of the errors have last season appear to be being put right. I hope it continues in this vein.

Onwards and upwards LCFC....

[The Year Of The Fox]

I'm a fan of NP everyone knows that but I've never actually thought we'd do so well. We're starting to look the real deal.

[Aus Fox]

And still some morons were calling for his head, was it Sheff Utd at Filbert St? When they were calling for his head?

[Col city fan]

And still some morons were calling for his head, was it Sheff Utd at Filbert St? When they were calling for his head?

O'Neil apparently nearly walked... He got spat on by our own fans as he was walking down the tunnel. Thank God he didn't..

[Filbert_Ross]

E I e I e I o

This team is going up.

[Finnegan]

I will be amazed if we go the whole season without a wobble. We've played some piss poor teams so far (although credit where it's due, we've put them down professionally.)

Eventually, we're going to have a wobble and the real test of Pearson's leadership will come. Last season he showed an abject inability to correct a run of ill form and lift the spirits of his squad and until we're faced with a few poor results we won't know if he's learned from that.

I've a lot of renewed faith in Nige this season, I want to like him. We started with this terrible, defensive, unbelievably boring 352 attempt and credit where it's due, he recognized it was awful and took us back to what we do best.

I like his willingness to watch from the stands, I like the renewed faith he has in Knockaert and Vardy and the fact they (along with Wood) look eager to repay him when chances come. But there's still big, big challenges ahead and it's a little too early to start celebrating and a little bit early to start comparing him to MON.

Hopefully he stays the course and keeps us correct, hopefully the "haters" will stay gone and I won't have to read pages of marbella's doldrum diatribe interlaced with Bab's desperate bids to keep rationality. But if we flop again the critics will have ever right to resurface. Fingers crossed.

[johnny the fox]

Nigel is going to to get a lot of the credit , rightly so , but is it just a coincidence there is now a director of football involved? how much credit should he get?

[langtonfox]

Good point jonny, have much input is the DoF having? Anyone any ideas or ITK?

[Guest]

Nigel is going to to get a lot of the credit , rightly so , but is it just a coincidence there is now a director of football involved? how much credit should he get?

****ing hell anybody BUT Pearson round here

[Trav Le Bleu]

Nigel is going to to get a lot of the credit , rightly so , but is it just a coincidence there is now a director of football involved? how much credit should he get?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the DoF is primarily concerned with signing players and contracts. In which case Wasilewski aside (Miquel was before (I think) and hasn't played so much), whilst I'm not going to criticise our DoF I can't say he's made much difference. This team is pretty much the same one we had last year. I think maybe having less loanees might be helping - players who really are part of the club might have a little more fight about them.

[Corky]

Nigel is going to to get a lot of the credit , rightly so , but is it just a coincidence there is now a director of football involved? how much credit should he get?

 

How many regulars have been signed since the DoF joined?

 

They have improved the squad though.

[johnny the fox]

****ing hell anybody BUT Pearson round here

 

thanks for distorting a straight  question to start another for and against nigel argument.. poor..

[sylofox]

Do you mean that feeling of fear.

 

When you need a shite and the public loo's are locked still lol

[Bilo]

Based on yesterday's display, I do get that feeling.

 

Watford are nothing like the team they were last year, but the amount of progress we'd made with essentially the same squad was frightening. 

 

I think this is one of the advantages of having a young, yet settled, team and squad. They're growing up and getting experience together, so they'll naturally make progress. We looked better on the ball, looked positively evil on the break and took our chances while restricting them largely to half chances. 

 

If we can sustain that level of performance, albeit with the inevitable wobble that even 90% of promoted teams will have at some point, then I see little reason why this can't be a very good season for us. We'll need to do it against some class teams over the next few weeks though. We have now to play Forest at home, a tricky trip to Ipswich, a home game against Millwall who've become a bit of a bogey side for us, Sheffield Wednesday away followed by Brighton, Burnley and QPR in quick succession. All of which is punctuated by the small matter of a cup quarter-final against Manchester City.

 

If we can pass the test of the next two months without a real downturn in form, then we're clearly in very good shape. The next seven-eight weeks is as tough as it gets at this level.

[Hungry Hungry Fox]

Hate it when people say "we've only played poor teams so far", this is the championship, sheffield Wednesday beat reading 5-1 yesterday

[Bilo]

Hate it when people say "we've only played poor teams so far", this is the championship, sheffield Wednesday beat reading 5-1 yesterday

 

Exactly.

 

The only game where you would expect us to get something and failed was at Doncaster. That'll happen to every team, relegated Peterborough did the double over eventual champions Cardiff last season.

 

Every other potential mid-table and relegation battling side we've met has been dispatched with professionalism, and I see that as the mark of a good side.

[Aus Fox]

I will be amazed if we go the whole season without a wobble. We've played some piss poor teams so far (although credit where it's due, we've put them down professionally.)

Eventually, we're going to have a wobble and the real test of Pearson's leadership will come. Last season he showed an abject inability to correct a run of ill form and lift the spirits of his squad and until we're faced with a few poor results we won't know if he's learned from that.

I've a lot of renewed faith in Nige this season, I want to like him. We started with this terrible, defensive, unbelievably boring 352 attempt and credit where it's due, he recognized it was awful and took us back to what we do best.

I like his willingness to watch from the stands, I like the renewed faith he has in Knockaert and Vardy and the fact they (along with Wood) look eager to repay him when chances come. But there's still big, big challenges ahead and it's a little too early to start celebrating and a little bit early to start comparing him to MON.

Hopefully he stays the course and keeps us correct, hopefully the "haters" will stay gone and I won't have to read pages of marbella's doldrum diatribe interlaced with Bab's desperate bids to keep rationality. But if we flop again the critics will have ever right to resurface. Fingers crossed.

You say we've played done piss poor teams so far but if the 9 teams we haven't played yet 5 of them are in the bottom half.

We have played Blackpool, Watford, Derby, middlesbourgh away not easy placed to go to and beat the fa cup holders at home in a run of 8 wins in a row!

Still got QPR, Forest, Burnley and Reading to go but things are looking very positive at the minute

[Captain...]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the DoF is primarily concerned with signing players and contracts. In which case Wasilewski aside (Miquel was before (I think) and hasn't played so much), whilst I'm not going to criticise our DoF I can't say he's made much difference. This team is pretty much the same one we had last year. I think maybe having less loanees might be helping - players who really are part of the club might have a little more fight about them.

 

But what it has done is taken that responsibility away from Nigel, so that means he has less things to think about, and the players know that financial matters are out of Nigel's hands, so they have to impress him on the pitch to get a new contract, then it is a matter for the DoF to sort out the financial matters. Last season there were some strong rumours that the financial disparity between Sven and Nigel contracts caused a lot of tension. This way those sort of grievances are being handled away from the playing side.

 

Further to that since the DoF has come in we have sent Whitbread, Danns, Waghorn, Gallagher on loan, I'm not sure if he was around for the sale of Marshall, there have also been a number of academy lads out on loan. And brought in Hammond, Was and GTF, who are just the sort of squad players we lacked last season.

 

I don't know how much direct responsibility we can place on his shoulders, but he has certainly been busy and more than anything that must free up time for Nigel to focus on the playing side.

[Kitchandro]

This is defo the kiss of death, you couldn't have waited week could you Col?

 

The thing is we were saying a similar thing this time last season. It all looked so promising. Hell, it even looked promising by the end of January.

 

I'm really pleased with the way we're playing, we're passing the ball intelligently (like this time last year) and creating plenty of chances (like this time last year). I'm very positive but we must keep it up, there is a long, long way to go yet.

 

I couldn't really see any signs of us collapsing like we did last season but we did. Players need to stay in form, Nigel needs to react to bad results properly and we need to keep doing the things that are bringing us success.

 

I do think there are bigger tests ahead. We've not played QPR or Burnley, we've got Forest next week who have some talent. I think we've still got weaknesses and I think Nigel still has weaknesses.

 

I'm just happy with what we're doing at  the moment, I'm not even thinking about us 'going places' or where we'll end up at the end of the season. It's a cliche but I'm looking at it one game at a time. Let's just keep winning.

[Happy Fox]

I don't think we will have a wobble if you

Mean by losing a game we will lose another one afterwards this team

Has in abundance strength in character, I don't want to jinx it but we are looking like title contenders.

[Les-TA-Jon]

It looked pretty similar to this last season, even as late as January, as Kitchandro says. Although, of course we've had an even better start this time round. 

 

A wobble WILL be ahead of us at some point. But the reassuring thing is that a lot of last seasons problems seem to have been dealt with.

 

Problems>Solutions:

 

- Driftwood in the squad>Sell them to Bolton

- Unbalanced squad>Sign Hammond,Was,GTF

- Lack of bite and strength>Was, Vardy, Hammond (Plus King and Particularly DD looking more tough)

- Lack of plan B>442/352/433

- Inability to close out games when winning by a tight margain>so far doing that well and actually being cynical enough to waste time, take short throw ins and mess about with it in the corners!

 

We'll need to continue to execute our A game well enough, and to have the confidence to do so even away from home (as we did yesterday). We'll need to fall back on and utilise all of the above solutions to last seasons problems. We'll need to show resilience to pick up points even when we're in bad form (as we did for the first 5 or so games). And we'll need to bounce back quickly from bad results (which we have done so far, after our 2 defeats).

 

 

It's looking good, but of course we'll need to keep all of this ^^^^ up.

 

EDIT: My only concern is injuries to any/all of dyer,knocky or vardy. Their pace is so vital to our play at the minute. Also they're our only wingers! Seriously, how could we field a 4-4-2 team, with Knocky or Dyer injured?

[suffolk fox]

This is defo the kiss of death, you couldn't have waited week could you Col?

 

The thing is we were saying a similar thing this time last season. It all looked so promising. Hell, it even looked promising by the end of January.

 

I'm really pleased with the way we're playing, we're passing the ball intelligently (like this time last year) and creating plenty of chances (like this time last year). I'm very positive but we must keep it up, there is a long, long way to go yet.

 

I couldn't really see any signs of us collapsing like we did last season but we did. Players need to stay in form, Nigel needs to react to bad results properly and we need to keep doing the things that are bringing us success

 

I do think there are bigger tests ahead. We've not played QPR or Burnley, we've got Forest next week who have some talent. I think we've still got weaknesses and I think Nigel still has weaknesses.

 

I'm just happy with what we're doing at  the moment, I'm not even thinking about us 'going places' or where we'll end up at the end of the season. It's a cliche but I'm looking at it one game at a time. Let's just keep winning.

.

Top post this. Agree with every word let us not get carried away we have won nothing yet.

[DANGEROUS TIGER]

The younger peeps on the forum, unfortunately, won't know what I'm on about, but the older ones will.

After about ten(ish) games in under Martin O'Neil, we could see that the team was improving week-in, week-out. Suddenly, it all started to click and to gel and we kinda knew that we were possibly going places.

After watching City for the past few games, I've got that same feeling.

We aren't full of flair, but we are solid and finally have that all important ingredient in the team... pace.

We look confident... The boys are starting to knock it about, knowing that we can win football matches.

Yes, I know, it's early days and we need to take this season one game at a time. And I don't mean to put the kiss of death on it.

BUT, I just have that feeling (Christ, I hope I'm not wrong ) that this COULD just be our season. Like watching the team under O'Neil, there's a steely self-belief going on, that's not been present for many many years.

Anyway, fingers crossed and all that. Suffice it to say, I think that Nige is slowly getting it right and that some of the errors have last season appear to be being put right. I hope it continues in this vein.

Onwards and upwards LCFC....

Well, I couldn't have put it better myself. This season shows a marked improvement all round. Long may it last.

[dedlock]

I am optimistic ,like Col. This is a more mature,more resilient team to last season.

When I saw yesterdays team I worried that we might be overrun in midfield.NP's tactics were spot on, first half the FB's pressed Watford's wing backs. On paper we were 442,in reality it was a fluid system.going forward on the counter we had3, 4or 5 attacking.In defence,there were 8 or 9 as circumstances demanded. Above all we showed positive intent.

In the 2nd half Watford went 343 and were more dangerous. We created as many missed chances as Watford.

Last season our away form let us down. I wasn't at Donnie but thought we could have got more at Charlton but for Mr Deadloss.

 

Take it one game at a time,but this year I came away feeling a lot more positive than the corresponding fixture last season

[shearfox]

I am optimistic ,like Col. This is a more mature,more resilient team to last season.

When I saw yesterdays team I worried that we might be overrun in midfield.NP's tactics were spot on, first half the FB's pressed Watford's wing backs. On paper we were 442,in reality it was a fluid system.going forward on the counter we had3, 4or 5 attacking.In defence,there were 8 or 9 as circumstances demanded. Above all we showed positive intent.

In the 2nd half Watford went 343 and were more dangerous. We created as many missed chances as Watford.

Last season our away form let us down. I wasn't at Donnie but thought we could have got more at Charlton but for Mr Deadloss.

Take it one game at a time,but this year I came away feeling a lot more positive than the corresponding fixture last season

I agree it certainly isn't a rigid system Pearson plays, we were 442 going forward while switching to 451 when having to defend... really worked yesterday... that is the difference Pearson has learned from his past mistakes...