What changed after the Man U game?

[roger the dodger]

we went crap and we were not that good before sort it out Nige for F.ucks sake

[Dan]

For all the shit Man Utd's defence get, they've conceded less than a goal a game discounting Leicester. We should not play down what we did that day. We were absolutely brilliant, I thought a win like that had been coming, but not to that extent.

 

I think a lot of people are deluded about other bottom half sides. I still maintain Leicester of last season would stay in this league.

[Guest Col city fan]

Nothing much changed with us...the opposition changed. They started to settle down, regain fitness and suss us out.

Anyone who says the standard of the bottom half of the Prem is no better than top half of the Championship is barmy....

[Leicester Lass]

Our whole philosophy has changed since the second half of that game against Burnley. We sat back and tried to defend our lead rather than continuing to take the game to them.

Since then we've been totally hopeless. Everything that made us a good team last season has disappeared. No consistent formation or team selection, no intensity or pressing the ball as a team, no width, no confidence.

[Guest Col city fan]

Our whole philosophy has changed since the second half of that game against Burnley. We sat back and tried to defend our lead rather than continuing to take the game to them.

Since then we've been totally hopeless. Everything that made us a good team last season has disappeared. No consistent formation or team selection, no intensity or pressing the ball as a team, no width, no confidence.

Yes....but why?

I think Nige has quickly realised he aint signed well in the summer and is trying to set us up so we don't get a good hiding. He's flapping, make no mistake. A confident manager and side will have a philosophy and a way of playing and, within reason, stick with it.

Take MON...time after time after time he liked to protect his defence with Lennon, give the ball to Parker, get it wide quickly and get the ball in the box. As I recollect, he rarely tinkered. Tinkering usually implies not knowing.

It may be that Pearson finally sets us up in the best way possible. .and has the courage to stick with it. But it must happen quickly.

[st albans fox]

Nothing much changed with us...the opposition changed. They started to settle down, regain fitness and suss us out.

Anyone who says the standard of the bottom half of the Prem is no better than top half of the Championship is barmy....

this

also, int he first few games we conceded loads of chances (teams regularly having 20+ shots though many from outside the box). Once we have tightened up, this has stopped (the opposition is poorer aswell). It means we have no out ball wide to stretch anyone. perhaps if teams are not coming onto us as they did early on, the management feel our wide men would be denied the space they had anyway.

[Leicester Lass]

Yes....but why?

I think Nige has quickly realised he aint signed well in the summer and is trying to set us up so we don't get a good hiding. He's flapping, make no mistake. A confident manager and side will have a philosophy and a way of playing and, within reason, stick with it.

Take MON...time after time after time he liked to protect his defence with Lennon, give the ball to Parker, get it wide quickly and get the ball in the box. As I recollect, he rarely tinkered. Tinkering usually implies not knowing.

It may be that Pearson finally sets us up in the best way possible. .and has the courage to stick with it. But it must happen quickly.

Think you've answered your own question.

I think we're playing a diamond to suit Cambiasso - despite the fact that it doesn't work for the other 3 midfielders. King has been largely anonymous in the last 2 games at the head of the diamond. Drinkwater and James both ineffective because of the areas they're being asked to play in. None of those 3 look comfortable with the role they're playing.

The blame all lies at Pearson's door I'm afraid. Changing to match the opposition just makes it seem like he doesn't have faith in our own team's strengths, despite us showing in the first few games that we could definitely compete at this level.

The difference between the team we had in the first 5 games to the team we have now is absolutely staggering.

[jamesmilner]

a good pre-season , followed by a decent start . the mentality of the whole club was fine . we went overboard on a freak man-utd result that kind of result happens in football especially our prem league . like in a game when you take your foot off the gas a bit , its hard to get that momentum back . Nugent buys a Ferrarri , a brand new mansion and forgets hes a footballer , form plummeted . morgan just wants to promote a ****ing tattoo parlour , knocky loses it in training and lads rebuff him etc etc . I think we just got " too big for our boots " . I blame pearson, his staff and the players . this is prem and needs prem respect and concentration and effort . we thought we were the bees knees after man-u and its ruined us .

[ImBlue]

a good pre-season , followed by a decent start . the mentality of the whole club was fine . we went overboard on a freak man-utd result that kind of result happens in football especially our prem league . like in a game when you take your foot off the gas a bit , its hard to get that momentum back . Nugent buys a Ferrarri , a brand new mansion and forgets hes a footballer , form plummeted . morgan just wants to promote a ****ing tattoo parlour , knocky loses it in training and lads rebuff him etc etc . I think we just got " too big for our boots " . I blame pearson, his staff and the players . this is prem and needs prem respect and concentration and effort . we thought we were the bees knees after man-u and its ruined us .

What a load of crap

[chapero82]

we stopped playing attacking football

[dbtcity]

Cambiasso is what has happened to us, seems like Pearson wants to play him every game and to do so we have to play him alongside another 2 central midfielders, so in my opinion the whole formation is being picked around him which would be a good idea if he was Messi.... but he's not he's a past it argentinian who's legs have gone

[Rob1742]

Nothing has changed, we didn't play good football before this game.

Energy got us points against Arsenal and Everton and we played Man U at the right time. If you went to Stoke you will have seen us get a real battering in the first half.

We basically picked up lucky points early on.

However, if we had picked a more attacking formation we could have well picked up better results versus Burnley, Newcastle and WBA.

I think formations against the lower teams has put us where we are today.

[dayday]

Think you've answered your own question.

I think we're playing a diamond to suit Cambiasso - despite the fact that it doesn't work for the other 3 midfielders. King has been largely anonymous in the last 2 games at the head of the diamond. Drinkwater and James both ineffective because of the areas they're being asked to play in. None of those 3 look comfortable with the role they're playing.

The blame all lies at Pearson's door I'm afraid. Changing to match the opposition just makes it seem like he doesn't have faith in our own team's strengths, despite us showing in the first few games that we could definitely compete at this level.

The difference between the team we had in the first 5 games to the team we have now is absolutely staggering.

Good post

[Captain...]

What has changed?

The point of the diamond, and I don't mean the reason behind it, but against Man United we played Nugent as the top of the diamond, we are now playing King there and King isn't that sort of player. The other personnel changes are like for like but King is ineffective there.