Wheres the 'Pearson Tactically wrong' post?

[Jobyfox]

I suppose endlessly talking about formations keeps pundits employed, but I’ve always thought that you pick formations to suit the players you’ve got and not players to fit a formation. There is often a lot of talk about changing a formation to match the opposition but, if we are better than them, shouldn’t they be changing their formation to match ours.

 

I think we currently have a good balance across our team to play 4-4-2: Width, ball winning ability in the middle and strikers that understand that one might need to drop off whilst the other plays off the last man. Before we signed Mahrez an injury to either Dyer or Knocky would probably have necessitated a change to 4-3-3 unless you pick a player out wide who would do that job less effectively.

 

Linekar has banged on about England not being able to win the World Cup because we play 4-4-2 for years. In my opinion that’s just conveniently overlooking the fact that Spain, France, Italy and Brazil have consistently produced sides that are far superior to us technically. If we had the players that Spain had in the last world cup, for example, I reckon we’d have had a chance at winning it playing in a 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1, 3-5-2 or 4-4-1-1 formation – or maybe even in a bloody diamond!

[Thracian]

At the start of last season and this season, there where 100's of post saying Pearson is wrong to use 4-4-2.

I'm sure he's being using this in our run of 9 games?

So where are all the football manager gamer qualified gurus now?

 

I've never been much for criticising particular systems more than in passing but have almost always advocated the use of width, pace, passing and pressing whatever variations of system we might use. 

 

Notwithstanding that, Pearson has been tactically wrong on lots of occasions, has admitted himself only this week that our preparation last season was not as good as this and the two points - perhaps more than anything - define why I believe he's capable of being an absolutely outstanding manager...because he's looked, learned and improved.

 

So often managers come into a club in a blaze of glory. They do this or that to improve a team's performance and focus but when their approach wears thin, becomes repetitive or gets negated by the opposition they're lost because they don't have the flexibility of mind to cope.

 

Pearson has evolved and is a far better manager now and in so many ways. Blind faith champions of Pearson might be feeling smug but the fact is that many of us have encouraged just the approach we are taking now with all the four qualities i mentioned earlier.

 

Even remembering our incredibly bad run of last season I'm not the least bit concerned about a repeat because Pearson's learned from that and tweaked our team and our approach in various ways to prevent a repeat (the mark of a potential managerial heavyweight).

 

That's not to say we might not  get beaten again this season. But I don't see any special reason we should lose the next match or any others this season. Seems to me it's up to us. It's our attitudes and approach which will matter most and so, far, our attitudes, focus and intent have been fine.    .            

 

I'm 100% confident of Pearson but because of the way he's improved his decision making not because he was ever the finished article in the past. In fact I don't regret one criticism nor any paragraph of unreserved praise.

 

They were all made and meant constructively and the way Pearson changed even made me openly advocate his continuance as manager even if we somehow failed to get up this season because I honestly didn't think we could get anyone better to continue taking us forward at this level and, who knows, perhaps not  at any level.       

[Leicester_lad_92]

I suppose endlessly talking about formations keeps pundits employed, but I’ve always thought that you pick formations to suit the players you’ve got and not players to fit a formation. There is often a lot of talk about changing a formation to match the opposition but, if we are better than them, shouldn’t they be changing their formation to match ours.

I think we currently have a good balance across our team to play 4-4-2: Width, ball winning ability in the middle and strikers that understand that one might need to drop off whilst the other plays off the last man. Before we signed Mahrez an injury to either Dyer or Knocky would probably have necessitated a change to 4-3-3 unless you pick a player out wide who would do that job less effectively.

Linekar has banged on about England not being able to win the World Cup because we play 4-4-2 for years. In my opinion that’s just conveniently overlooking the fact that Spain, France, Italy and Brazil have consistently produced sides that are far superior to us technically. If we had the players that Spain had in the last world cup, for example, I reckon we’d have had a chance at winning it playing in a 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1, 3-5-2 or 4-4-1-1 formation – or maybe even in a bloody diamond!

Deffo agree well said mate, I always prefer 4-4-2 anyway tbh aha hate teams that go away and box midfield-.- we just go for it & get front two to chase them Down:) defending from the front

[hackneyfox]

These gloating threads are getting as predictable and tedious as the ones from the regular doom and gloom merchants last season. We're doing well - we're not at the finish line yet, but things are looking good - why can't we all enjoy this season rather than taking petty pot shots at eachother?

 

This tit-for-tat nonsense is detracting from what should be a great time for Leicester City. Who cares what people were banging on about last season? Be the bigger person and just forget it - hopefully we can drop all this stupid 'I was right and you were wrong' nonsense from now on and actually unite as fans, y'know, like we all support the same team for a change?

 

 

One sure way to kill a forum off .... berate anyone discussing what they saw at the time, with the benefit of hindsight, and go on about how right you are .....

 

I'm loving the football and I'm loving NP2.0, the only cloud on the silver lining is the "told you so" brigade that ruin FT.

 

 

 

Yes. Yes. Yes. If i could give more than a plus 1 I would.

So agree with this, I've noticed that in the middle of the post match threads for the last 2 weeks a certain soeone has felt the need to make snide comments at bnet and seenitall.

Let's just enjoy it.

[Babylon]

What on earth does that have to do with posters starting threads which basically amount to a self-congratulatory 'I told you so' - how does that in any way right the wrongs of last season? I agree with you, some stuff was said that was ridiuclous at the time and I back Pearson to the hilt and repeatedly engaged in debate with nearly all of those who slagged him off. Now the trolls and idiots like Seenitall have cleared off, that should be the end of it. The only reason for these threads is to dredge it all up again and prove that 'yeah, we were right all along, how great are we!', when surely the mature and adult thing to do is to leave the past in the past and just enjoy the present. 

 

As for the stuff you've highlighted in my post - yes, I'm sure poeple are enjoying this season, but I know I'd certainly enjoy posting on this message board a lot more if this childish bullshit would stop. The posts this season where people are rubbing their hands saying stuff like 'I can't wait till the end of the season so I can find some old posts where some people said we should sack Pearson and rub their noses in it' are just as boring, tedious and pathetic to me as the ones which would pop up every time we lost a game last season saying 'sack coco the white-trainered, tactically-inept, badger-faced twat' etc.

 

Also, it might not be detracting from our season for you, but personally every time I log on here and see a thread like this, it just pisses me off. Do we really not have better things to talk about? And if people feel so personally about some of the stuff that was said last season that they feel the need to respond in kind, it just makes them as sad and boring as the people they're attacking with self-righteous threads like these. I was as vociferous as anyone on here in my defence of Pearson last season in threads calling for him to be sacked, but you don't see me starting threads like this now. Why? Because it just comes across as petty to me.  

IF and it's still a big IF, we get promoted, you might want to give some threads a miss for a day or two if it's going to ruin your enjoyment. There will be some dredging going on, here and on every other forum.

 

I take that as all part an parcel of airing your views on a public forum. Almost every thread already has an element of "I was right, you were wrong stuff" in them, to a smaller scale obviously. Whether it's match predictions, substitutes in match threads, transfers etc etc.

 

If Beckford banged in 25 goals for Bolton and got them promoted, I'd probably expect someone to remind me of the fact I thought he was a useless donkey. Again, that comes with putting my views out there in the public domain to a load of strangers.

[hackneyfox]

What on earth does that have to do with posters starting threads which basically amount to a self-congratulatory 'I told you so' - how does that in any way right the wrongs of last season? I agree with you, some stuff was said that was ridiuclous at the time and I back Pearson to the hilt and repeatedly engaged in debate with nearly all of those who slagged him off. Now the trolls and idiots like Seenitall have cleared off, that should be the end of it. The only reason for these threads is to dredge it all up again and prove that 'yeah, we were right all along, how great are we!', when surely the mature and adult thing to do is to leave the past in the past and just enjoy the present. 

 

As for the stuff you've highlighted in my post - yes, I'm sure poeple are enjoying this season, but I know I'd certainly enjoy posting on this message board a lot more if this childish bullshit would stop. The posts this season where people are rubbing their hands saying stuff like 'I can't wait till the end of the season so I can find some old posts where some people said we should sack Pearson and rub their noses in it' are just as boring, tedious and pathetic to me as the ones which would pop up every time we lost a game last season saying 'sack coco the white-trainered, tactically-inept, badger-faced twat' etc.

 

Also, it might not be detracting from our season for you, but personally every time I log on here and see a thread like this, it just pisses me off. Do we really not have better things to talk about? And if people feel so personally about some of the stuff that was said last season that they feel the need to respond in kind, it just makes them as sad and boring as the people they're attacking with self-righteous threads like these. I was as vociferous as anyone on here in my defence of Pearson last season in threads calling for him to be sacked, but you don't see me starting threads like this now. Why? Because it just comes across as petty to me.  

good post

[Babylon]

So agree with this, I've noticed that in the middle of the post match threads for the last 2 weeks a certain soeone has felt the need to make snide comments at bnet and seenitall.

Let's just enjoy it.

 

I'm sure people are enjoying it.

 

If you are going to come on here and state Pearson is the worst manager we've ever had, people are going to remember that.

[hackneyfox]

 

I'm sure people are enjoying it.

 

If you are going to come on here and state Pearson is the worst manager we've ever had, people are going to remember that.

Well it seems to be only you that feels the need to bring these things up within a couple of hours of another win.

I felt like mentioning it at the time but didn't want to change the general feeling of threads about victories.

As you help oversee the board perhaps you should give the appearance of being bigger than that.

[Babylon]

Well it seems to be only you that feels the need to bring these things up within a couple of hours of another win.

I felt like mentioning it at the time but didn't want to change the general feeling of threads about victories.

As you help oversee the board perhaps you should give the appearance of being bigger than that.

Since when do I oversee the board? I've had nothing to do with it for 6 months +. So you can jog on with telling me what appearance I should and shouldn't give.

 

You didn't seem so bothered about "snide" comments about the manager?

[Bob Weasel Fox]

These gloating threads are getting as predictable and tedious as the ones from the regular doom and gloom merchants last season. We're doing well - we're not at the finish line yet, but things are looking good - why can't we all enjoy this season rather than taking petty pot shots at eachother?

This tit-for-tat nonsense is detracting from what should be a great time for Leicester City. Who cares what people were banging on about last season? Be the bigger person and just forget it - hopefully we can drop all this stupid 'I was right and you were wrong' nonsense from now on and actually unite as fans, y'know, like we all support the same team for a change?

Haven't always agreed with your posts Rich but this is spot on for me. Let's not get carried away were not there yet

[hackneyfox]

Since when do I oversee the board? I've had nothing to do with it for 6 months +. So you can jog on with telling me what appearance I should and shouldn't give.

 

You didn't seem so bothered about "snide" comments about the manager?

I apologise if you no longer have anything to do with the board.

 

This is a football board, of course it is going to be full of snide comments about both manager and players at times when we've played poorly.

 

I just don't think there's a need for snide comments about other posters when it's in a match winning thread.

As you aren't admin anymore then those comments aren't quite as bad as I felt they were.

 

Doesn't change the fact that there's no need for them at the moment.

[Mark_w]

One sure way to kill a forum off .... berate anyone discussing what they saw at the time, with the benefit of hindsight, and go on about how right you are .....

 

I was berating you and going on about how right I am without the benefit of hindsight. Can I carry on?

[Captain...]

Were people actually wrong to criticise Pearson's tactics last season? We went on a horrendous run and took us from looking good for automatics to scraping into the play-offs thanks to Bolton not winning.

 

NP and the players, mostly the same we have now, have to take the blame for that and poor performances and were rightly criticised. As manager Pearson has to take a large part of the responsibility, his team selection and tactics were criticised because they weren't working. There was a lot of over the top reactions, but it is a passionate sport and people get carried away. Was a post after the Barnsely match last season slagging off NP or the team, really wrong? It was a shocking performance and on a run of terrible results.

 

Ultimately people give their opinion at the time of what they think, things change, anyone criticising tactics and performances is completely justified,  what pissed me off was all those over the summer who instead of backing the manager, like the owners did, just spent ages slating him and calling for him to be sacked. They can have their ridiculous drivel exposed at the end of the season.

[Babylon]

I apologise if you no longer have anything to do with the board.

 

This is a football board, of course it is going to be full of snide comments about both manager and players at times when we've played poorly.

 

I just don't think there's a need for snide comments about other posters when it's in a match winning thread.

As you aren't admin anymore then those comments aren't quite as bad as I felt they were.

 

Doesn't change the fact that there's no need for them at the moment.

Apology accepted

 

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. There are lots of people, yourself included, that moaned about Pearson and who, in my opinion went a bit to far on certain things. I feel no need to pass comment on you or them, as it was always based around an element of truth, no matter how much you stretched it sometimes 

 

Then, there were one or two comments from a few individuals that I can't and won't forget. Especially when one of them openly admitted to posting on here to wind people up. If it makes me boring, not the bigger man etc etc... I don't really give a crap.

 

If they want to have a giggle at our expense, then I'll have one at theirs.

[The Don]

At the start of last season and this season, there where 100's of post saying Pearson is wrong to use 4-4-2.

I'm sure he's being using this in our run of 9 games?

So where are all the football manager gamer qualified gurus now?

Is it tactically right what he has done though? He has found a winning formula and has stuck to it.

It is also less important tactically, if you have a team better than others.

I think we will get a better idea how tactically astute or niave NP is, when we are playing better teams week in week out.

Pearson is doing a wonderful job this year, far better than I thought, especially after our dip last year, where Pearson appeared to have lost the plot.

[wight88]

Even taking all the above into account doesn't alter the fact we have a lot of mutinous gimps amongst our support just waiting to crawl back from under their rocks if we are bottom of the prem at Christmas. They may support Leicester but that doesn't stop me from breaking wind in their general direction.

[Kitchandro]

These gloating threads are getting as predictable and tedious as the ones from the regular doom and gloom merchants last season. We're doing well - we're not at the finish line yet, but things are looking good - why can't we all enjoy this season rather than taking petty pot shots at eachother?

 

This tit-for-tat nonsense is detracting from what should be a great time for Leicester City. Who cares what people were banging on about last season? Be the bigger person and just forget it - hopefully we can drop all this stupid 'I was right and you were wrong' nonsense from now on and actually unite as fans, y'know, like we all support the same team for a change?

 

I do agree in general, but I also think this thread deserves a bit more respect than that.

 

This isn't just a potshot - it's a fair point about tactics and I'm glad it's been raised.

 

Maybe the tone was a bit too cocky, but a decent point nonetheless.

[Babylon]

Even taking all the above into account doesn't alter the fact we have a lot of mutinous gimps amongst our support just waiting to crawl back from under their rocks if we are bottom of the prem at Christmas. They may support Leicester but that doesn't stop me from breaking wind in their general direction.

 

 

Eloquently put.

[Mark_w]

Is Colin still waiting to be handed the job next time we lose a few games in a row?

 

He must be getting bored.

[Nalis]

Bit off topic but, as mentioned previously, its about using the best formation possible for the players at your disposal.

Anyway, the popularity of a particular formation / tactic is usually cyclical as the game evolves. I for one am happy to see the return of 4-4-2.

I remember reading an article little more than a year ago which announced the death of the strike partnership. Now Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Leicester and others have successful strike partnerships.

[Nalis]

Bit off topic but, as mentioned previously, its about using the best formation possible for the players at your disposal.

Anyway, the popularity of a particular formation / tactic is usually cyclical as the game evolves. I for one am happy to see the return of 4-4-2.

I remember reading an article little more than a year ago which announced the death of the strike partnership. Now Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd, Leicester and others have successful strike partnerships.

[queensguardfox]

Although i agree with the majority of post on this thread it was aimed less at me being the 'i told you so', it was aimed more at the people that play FM14 and base it on Leicester or real life scenarios.

 

As to the Gary Lineker statement i totally disagree with that its less a formation problem more of a our player aint good enough problem.

 

If the Man u's man citys and leicester city's of the world do good with it, why cant England? the fact is the player aint good enough for there competion they're in. 

[5waller5]

I was berating you and going on about how right I am without the benefit of hindsight. Can I carry on?

 

 

If it makes you feel better, be my guest Waggy.

[Babylon]

If it makes you feel better, be my guest Waggy.

[MooseBreath]

Some people were calling for 433 as recently as a couple of months ago, even after it had been a pretty much unqualified disaster every time we'd played it. I reckon had we not spent the first dozen or so games arsing around with fancy formations we'd be a good seven or eight points further ahead by now, and I said so at the time too, in numerous threads. It was obvious to anyone with any knowledge about football at all and who was paying attention to the games that 442 was far and away our strongest formation and that calls for anything else were completely wrong.

Yes, this is an 'I told you so' post and yes, it is a bit sad but no, I will not resist.

One thing to consider re formations is next season if we get promoted. 442 and trying to boss every game with expansive, attacking football is fine when you're one of the best teams in the league, but it's a totally different proposition altogether when you're fighting relegation and maybe looking to keep things tight.