How can improved consistency be instilled into a talented squad?

[Rampage]

Derby County have a talented squad, a jigsaw of capable players. There is a missing factor which contributed to us missing out on promotion over the last three years. Assuming a limited budget caused by Fair Play rules, how can Nigel Pearson now achieve what the last three managers could not achieve? Can it be done in one season? This is not an opportunity to criticise individual players but an opportunity to describe what can be done to achieve our common aim. Any useful suggestions?

[Seth's left foot]

Better luck with injuries.

Thorne,Hughes and Bryson playing together injury free will give us a great chance of promotion.

Tempo! Ince doesn't suit our style of play so is Camara the key to balance out playing Russell on the other side?

All guess work until NP decides on a system and personnel,i'd be shocked if he didn't bring in some new blood.

[Rampage]

Nigel has been talking about creating a positive atmosphere at the club to allow players to develop. Interesting that Nigel appears to be taking U18, U21 and First Team Squad players all together to Portugal for a week. is this the first sign of an all inclusive approach? It sounds like a step in the right direction at such an early stage.

[Mafiabob]

Thought this was a Curtains thread for a brief moment.....

[EnigmaRam]

By getting a better manager than we have had in the last 3 years...........hey presto! He's arrived...........hopefully.

job done

[Alph]

One thing I think Pearson will give is consistency.

I don't know what sort of team he will produce or how good his team will be. But you'd expect from an experienced manager of 50+ game campaigns that he knows how to maintain a level.

With the less experienced managers of the tempo/fixture list I think you're always going to see a team that's showing 90% of its ability one week and 60% another week.

Think with experience on our side we'll see a more even level. You might not see a "wow!" performance as often but you won't see many hopeless efforts either.

The trick is to maintain a high level of routine performance.  Don't go chasing perfection. McClaren went through a period of wanting more defensively after that 3-3 with Birmingham. 

But we'd found a level that worked.

Sometimes your 85% won't be enough. Sometimes it'll land you a 5-0. But you'd hope if the manager finds the style and the right blend of players that you can plod along all season doing what you do and it'll be enough. 

 

[Rampage]

Both Maclaren and Clement attained consistency for twenty games or so, which just evaporated.

Pearson could go twenty games with a couple of defeats but what would happen if it started to fall apart? I think there would be a different result.

[eddie]

1 hour ago, Mafiabob said:

Thought this was a Curtains thread for a brief moment.....

Don't be daft.

It's 2 hours old and the OP  @Rampage has posted in it less than 50 times.

[Mafiabob]

2 minutes ago, eddie said:

Don't be daft.

It's 2 hours old and the OP  @Rampage has posted in it less than 50 times.

Apologies, didn't realise how silly I was there 

[Rammeister]

How can improved consistency be instilled into a talented squad?

Enemas.

[eddie]

4 minutes ago, Rammeister said:

How can improved consistency be instilled into a talented squad?

Enemas.

Chillies

[jono]

I honestly think there is something in football management akin to the sort of algorithms that Google have.

there's combinations of players that generally work together .. Is it Bryson Hughes, Hendrick Bryson or whatever

Then there is how we set up to play on any given day - formation

then there is the oppositions players and how they stack up skill for skill ability for ability against our team on the day

then there is the oppositions set up 

then you get all the other bits .. Individual confidence, form, team spirit, stud choice, weather, pitch, even crowd and atmosphere. 

I guess a good manager, will get consistency if he makes enough right choices relative to those criteria on a regular basis. 

Ever the optimist I think NP might just be able to make the right decisions more often than recent encumbents and he has an ability to inspire team spirit 

so that's it .. Obviously after all that highly technical peer reviewed non science we are going to win the league without breaking a sweat. 

[Rampage]

21 minutes ago, Rammeister said:

How can improved consistency be instilled into a talented squad?

Enemas.

You mean Immodium do you not? 

[Rampage]

Great post jono. How can you go twenty games unbeaten and then fall apart? Too many negative variables come into play at the same time and confidence flees away?

[jagerbob]

In respect of the initial question on this thread.

Pearson struck a chord with me at the press conference when he talked about consistancy is largely finding different ways to win games and avoid defeat. This immediately reminded me how in close games with few chances, so many games are decided by set pieces, corners etc. An area which we have been poor in. I would even say they are our weakness.

So in order to win different ways it can mean sneaking a goal under the cosh, perhaps a break away, or a single goal from a set play. One critisism, and frustration of the current squad is we only play one way, and our best chance is to play that one way better.

Who remembers the Plan B argument, to which McClaren once responded, "execute plan A better".

 

The other way for greater consistancy is to not beat ourselves, I feel this is a mental toughness issue, and a concentration issue. So many defeats come as a result of the team wanting to take the game to the opposition, then they get frustrated when it is not working, and take their "eye off the ball" at the other end of the field. Wolves Away in the last 2 visits have had a similar pattern, that when our game isnt working offensively, and we concede, we then decide the best way to rectify this is to commit more forward and leave ourselves even more open at the back to conceding more. Hull home leg play off and a couple of away defeats to Boro usually fall into this category too.

[archied]

Agree with all of the above and also what Pearson said about he manages people ,, that's the vital spark that's a kind of gift that good managers just seem to have ,they just know the right thing to say to players at the right time to get them producing , when and how to rest them or sub them ,, there's been a lot said about him taking no crap and players fearing him wel my guess is there's far more to Pearson than that aspect , it's clear players and other in the mould of christy Powell respect him and respect ot that type can't be earned by fear factor alone ,, players play and find ways to win for good managers , it's always been that way and always will be 

[Rampage]

8 hours ago, jagerbob said:

In respect of the initial question on this thread.

Pearson struck a chord with me at the press conference when he talked about consistancy is largely finding different ways to win games and avoid defeat. This immediately reminded me how in close games with few chances, so many games are decided by set pieces, corners etc. An area which we have been poor in. I would even say they are our weakness.

So in order to win different ways it can mean sneaking a goal under the cosh, perhaps a break away, or a single goal from a set play. One critisism, and frustration of the current squad is we only play one way, and our best chance is to play that one way better.

Who remembers the Plan B argument, to which McClaren once responded, "execute plan A better".

 

The other way for greater consistancy is to not beat ourselves, I feel this is a mental toughness issue, and a concentration issue. So many defeats come as a result of the team wanting to take the game to the opposition, then they get frustrated when it is not working, and take their "eye off the ball" at the other end of the field. Wolves Away in the last 2 visits have had a similar pattern, that when our game isnt working offensively, and we concede, we then decide the best way to rectify this is to commit more forward and leave ourselves even more open at the back to conceding more. Hull home leg play off and a couple of away defeats to Boro usually fall into this category too.

Excellent post, jagerbob. Seems so simple to solve but we have not done it. I think that it will be something that Pearson has got his eye on. If so, he may sign someone that can accurately cross a ball on a regular basis

[Rampage]

6 hours ago, archied said:

Agree with all of the above and also what Pearson said about he manages people ,, that's the vital spark that's a kind of gift that good managers just seem to have ,they just know the right thing to say to players at the right time to get them producing , when and how to rest them or sub them ,, there's been a lot said about him taking no crap and players fearing him wel my guess is there's far more to Pearson than that aspect , it's clear players and other in the mould of christy Powell respect him and respect ot that type can't be earned by fear factor alone ,, players play and find ways to win for good managers , it's always been that way and always will be 

This is your best post in my opinion, archied.

[cannable]

11 hours ago, jagerbob said:

So in order to win different ways it can mean sneaking a goal under the cosh, perhaps a break away, or a single goal from a set play. One critisism, and frustration of the current squad is we only play one way, and our best chance is to play that one way better.

Who remembers the Plan B argument, to which McClaren once responded, "execute plan A better".

But we did win games without dominating them. Ipswich away last season was a pure battle. We nicked a goal from a set-piece against QPR at home and spent large spells of the game under the cosh. The 5-0 game saw Forest dominate possession and we just slaughtered them on the counter. Brighton away in the play-offs saw us under the cosh but we hit them on the counter.

That's from the top of my head, I'm sure there are other examples.

[jono]

12 hours ago, Rampage said:

Great post jono. How can you go twenty games unbeaten and then fall apart? Too many negative variables come into play at the same time and confidence flees away?

Exactly Rampage. It isn't that one player has a bad game, or they set up banks of 4 and play keep ball... It's when too many single issues go the wrong way at the same time. Engineers call it a build up of tolerances.