Why did we appoint Nigel Pearson?

[Bris Vegas]

4 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

So if Pearson is a good coach he will also identify strengths and weaknesses.

The fact that Clough signed most of the players that McLaren played show that players can, and should, be adaptable to different systems.

Pearson is a 442 man, and I fully suspect he is now banging on the door of MM and telling him to bring in players who fit his style of play as we certainly have a group who don't or can't to the standard needed.

Any player can play in any position. Will Hughes could play at LB, RW or CF if you asked him to. But what are his best attributes - and what would you consider his best position?

If it's CM, how do you enhance is ability to have a positive effect on the team. Do you instruct him to play as a box-to-box midfielder, and holding midfielder, a playmaker of sort?

We've seen him play as the holding role, and may feel it's wasting his talents. Likewise, would you play Craig Bryson as a DM? or in a midfield two. @valleyram will back me up on this when I say Bryson's best role is a further forward midfielder where his energy and running beyond the opposition midfield are his better attributes and thus gets the best out of hm and us as a team.

 

[ariotofmyown]

Bris, what does 'clearly a bit loose upstairs' mean.

You obviously want to be taken serious as a football thinker who knows more than most. Making offensive remarks like this make you look stupid.

[G STAR RAM]

3 minutes ago, Bris Vegas said:

Pearson is a 442 man, and I fully suspect he is now banging on the door of MM and telling him to bring in players who fit his style of play as we certainly have a group who don't or can't to the standard needed.

Any player can play in any position. Will Hughes could play at LB, RW or CF if you asked him to. But what are his best attributes - and what would you consider his best position?

If it's CM, how do you enhance is ability to have a positive effect on the team. Do you instruct him to play as a box-to-box midfielder, and holding midfielder, a playmaker of sort?

We've seen him play as the holding role, and may feel it's wasting his talents. Likewise, would you play Craig Bryson as a DM? or in a midfield two. @valleyram will back me up on this when I say Bryson's best role is a further forward midfielder where his energy and running beyond the opposition midfield are his better attributes and thus gets the best out of hm and us as a team.

 

We all have an idea of what a players best attributes are but if they are only effective in one formation they should not be professional footballers.

[Cisse]

For once I found enough strenght to read the whole thread so far. After reading all the posts I seriously question pretty much all the managers and coaches that work in football. For just reading a few posts I now know what we should do and how we should do it.

Simple really. How can these professionals not see the most obvious solutions to get us promoted and other teams succeed as well?

[Bris Vegas]

2 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Bris, what does 'clearly a bit loose upstairs' mean.

You obviously want to be taken serious as a football thinker who knows more than most. Making offensive remarks like this make you look stupid.

Erm, I'm saying Pearson while he has plenty of qualities both as a person and manager, he is at times susceptible to doing things a little out of the ordinary and somewhat controversial.

You know, just those average things you see in football all the time like pinning an opposition player down to the ground by his throat, calling a reporter an ostrich and telling a fan to eff off and die.

 

 

[cannable]

This isn't about people thinking Pearson isn't a good manager.

People are saying that he doesn't really suit this current crop of players; so either back him or if he's being expected to work with this current crop of players then he's a bad appointment.

It's alright saying 'support the team, one game blah blah blah'… it doesn't mean you aren't allowed to show concern.

Either Pearson has to adapt or we're in for another rebuilding job, fine. But if neither happens then I'm very concerned.

Typically managers have favoured systems and try to model their teams in that shape. 

There are a number of fans worried about our direction and philosophy (see that thread labelled similar), it doesn't mean we don't support the team.

 

[Seth's left foot]

Nigel will no doubt make changes for the Grimsby game and his next league selection will reflect how the players have started this season.

With plenty of games coming up before the transfer window shuts and Thorne due back it will take about 10 games for his ideas to gel. Obviously we need to pick up some points during this period but I believe we have the right man in charge.

[Anon]

We appointed Pearson because he's not afraid to try new things. I was loving the radical new formation we tested today;

                                                      CF CF

                                                        CM

                                                        CM

                                                     CM CM

LB                                              CB        CB                                              RB

                                                        GK

 

[Sexydadbod]

This thread is exactly what Leicester fans let us know about before hand. I believe one Leicester fan even came on this forum and that said something like he will do strange things from time to time and make you question him as a manager but his decisions always work out, that's why he is paid the big bucks. 

[Derby blood]

Stop this madness please, Pearson is right man for the job, some fans need to realise this is the first game of the season.Nigel is the man so back him. And judge him at the end of the season not one bloody game.

[Bris Vegas]

1 minute ago, G STAR RAM said:

We all have an idea of what a players best attributes are but if they are only effective in one formation they should not be professional footballers.

Each system or formation has specific player roles, that's the whole idea of a system. Like I said, players excel at certain roles and playing them in a position which doesn't get the best out of them is simply bad management.

Any player can play in any postion, but each player will have a specific role which they are best at and when playing a 442,  that system doens't get the best out of a good 80% of our forward thinking players.

In fact, other than Ince and Bent, who does 442 or 4411 actually benefit? Thorne, Hughes, Martin, Russell, Bryson, Hendrick and Buttefield certainly play better in a 433.

I'd argue Weimann also, and Blackman only excels as a striker, playing on the right of a two-man attack.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

From what I gathered from his interview today, Pearson is making us difficult to beat first and foremost, he is trying to get rid of that losing mentality that has been evident over the past few seasons, shame he can't do the same to some fans on here ;-)

The personnel and formation are almost irrelevant at this moment in time, that will come with time.  

[Cisse]

In my mind no team deserves to win any league or promotion if they are able to only play with one tactic. If the team can only play 442, 352, 451 or something else and can't cope with anything else let them rot.

[DCFCArmy]

If only Mel hired the fifa players in the stands... we'd have won this league with 120 points in 2014-15, and we'd have won the prem with 100 points last season... 

[Bris Vegas]

1 minute ago, Cisse said:

In my mind no team deserves to win any league or promotion if they are able to only play with one tactic. If the team can only play 442, 352, 451 or something else and can't cope with anything else let them rot.

The best teams, such as Manchester United under SAF and Barcelona 09-16, predominently play the same formation as they have a system, and the signings they target have to fit the required roles.

Zlatab Ibrahimovic is a very clear case of a world class player not fitting the profile at Barca. Is he a bad player? Of course not, he just didn't fit in with their style of play.

Scale that down to Derby and then wonder why Martin doens't fit in to a 442!

[Cisse]

1 minute ago, Bris Vegas said:

The best teams, such as Manchester United under SAF and Barcelona 09-16, predominently play the same formation as they have a system, and the signings they target have to fit the required roles.

Zlatab Ibrahimovic is a very clear case of a world class player not fitting the profile at Barca. Is he a bad player? Of course not, he just didn't fit in with their style of play.

Scale that down to Derby and then wonder why Martin doens't fit in to a 442!

ManU and Barcelona do have kind of different players that hundreds of other clubs. I wouldn't compare Barca with regular teams from Championship or Eredivision or such. And I'm pretty sure players at Barca can play different styles if demanded by their manager.

[LazloW]

This thread makes me sad too. 

[Alex W]

1 hour ago, Bris Vegas said:

I'm not knocking the manager as I believe he's a top coach despite clearly being a bit loose upstairs, but I don't understand why we have appointed him taking everything in to consideration.

Nigel Pearson plays a variation of 4-4-2, be it 4-4-1-1 or something of that ilk. He did it at Southampton, Leicester City, Hull City and later at Leicester again - and each time he enjoyed some success or other.

But we don't have the personnel to play this formation. That is so evident, and Mel Morris spoke before about creating an identity or system at the club whereby managers can come and go but the style will remain.

Southampton and Swansea City have both followed this route, and done so with great success.

Why have we appointed a 4-4-2 man when we have pretty much built a squad for 4-3-3 over the past few years? You can't argue it doesn't work, only injuries and a lack of application has prevented us.

If we are going to move away from the 4-3-3 and work towards Pearson's preferred system, then why haven't we made a single move in the transfer market which would at least give the guy a better chance?

Pearson's starting eleven today suggested he has tried to work best with what he has, but it was poor. I'm sorry but if Bent, Blackman and Johnson is the best we have in a 4-4-2 then we're going to struggle to make the top six this year!

I was struggling to see what the hell we tried to do 12 months ago and openly criticised our recruitment team, but this summer it has arguably been even more baffling. Who has been behind these decisions? They're nonsensical IMO.

Bent = 15 goals a season striker.

Johnson = Norwich POTY in double figures the season before we bought him,

Blackman = Reading's key striker wanted by multiple promotion aiming clubs.

The squad we have is adequate, it's about how they gel. Those players themselves can certainly be part of a promotion push, the question of whether they all gel together is a different one. 

If he plays a 4-4-1-1 regularly then we can only assume he believes that either the squad are capable of doing so currently or he's working with what he has and hasn't had the targets become available that he wants. Not to mention the need to trim the squad first.

Darren Bent would've been a harsh drop given his pre-season, today my main issue was a midfield consisting of Johnson/Bryson/Hendrick which offers very little width or creativity. Ince is unproven and Bent relies on service, making the absence of Russell very strange. 

The idea that we should question his appointment due to the current squad is a silly one, the squad will change and have to adapt to a system. That takes time and personnel tweaks, something we'll have both of in the near future I'm sure.

[JaguarRam]

Let's fire all of them until we get players and a manager that wins every game 5-0.. Soon as that performance drops fire them all again... #sarcasm 

[Bris Vegas]

2 minutes ago, Cisse said:

ManU and Barcelona do have kind of different players that hundreds of other clubs. I wouldn't compare Barca with regular teams from Championship or Eredivision or such. And I'm pretty sure players at Barca can play different styles if demanded by their manager.

Yeh I'm not comparing, but pointing out that it's not necessary to have multiple systems to succeed.

You could have one basic formation, but a change in mentality to suit opponents. A 433 can be both attacking and defensive, as shown by Steve McClaren and Paul Clement!

It will be interesting to see where we go from here. But I can't hep feel we're miles off at present, and even if we bring players in to fit NP's 442 system, they should have come in two months ago not after the first game of the season.

Those responsible should have known months ago what was needed to improve this team.