Nige - First 12 Months/ Post match Comments ( Further Down)

Nigel Pearson’s first year at Bristol City: flexibility and innovation and he’ll need more
Today marks a year since the current manager took over, watching that initial win over Middlesbrough from the stands through to beating Boro again last Saturday.

Adaptation has always been a hallmark of survival, as the World Wildlife Fund explains on their website.

The windy pitches up at Failand are certainly one ecosystem that brings occasional climatic conditions to be contended with, but there are others in football management too, where the average tenure in charge remains just 423 days in charge (according to a Sky Sports study last season).

Adjust and thrive in your habitat and you succeed. But even then, even if you do, eventually every manager or head coach is doomed to depart the club at some point and by some method.

Even if you’re Alan Dicks and have taken Bristol City up for a fine four-year spell in the top tier.

As Nigel Pearson completes his first year today, the current manager has much to prove in BS, but also shows clear tangible progress on the last few years in BS3.

We covered the improving home form on Sunday, a vital commodity to make sure City supporters are onside, following a fourth home win in a row. The best run for three years.

Meanwhile, the attacking play is promising too. Only four teams have scored more goals than City this season.

That’s quite an incredible turnaround given that as Steve Lansdown explained exactly a year ago, Bristol City had at one point “gone three and a half hours without a corner”. (Who would have thought that Bristol City would be building from the front first under Nigel Pearson, rather than the defence? Not many.)

Unfortunately, only two Championship clubs have currently conceded more goals than the Robins.

Entertainment is a given this campaign then, but that’s maybe no bad thing, given the stolid football and results that marked the end of the Lee Johnson era, with the last nine games of the head coach seeing City unable to score more than one goal per match.

Of course, when Pearson arrived a year ago, City were on a run of six defeats in a row, having lost 12 of the previous 15 league games, and given their injury problems, relegation looked a distinct possibility.

In came Nige, and the Robins staved off the drop, if doing very little else in 2020/21 bar blooding many youngsters and possibly being lucky that the campaign had not lasted longer than it did. City won just one of their last 13 games, but at least survival had once again ensued.

Pearson immediately grasped the nettle in the summer, and decisions since have mostly been made for the long term.

No loan signings, while talented young players George Tanner and Rob Atkinson arrived following a cull of the senior squad last summer.

A bit of balance was given as experience was acquired with (possibly) sticking-plaster signings Danny Simpson, Andy King and Matty James arriving to show the professional standards needed on a talented group of young players.

With the return of Andi Weimann and Chris Martin from injury, and with Nathan Baker re-joining the club, Pearson made adjustments but also avoided a common pitfall for many newly installed managers: changing too much too quickly.

Even the dumping of club captain Dan Bentley to the bench for 10 games could be viewed as a necessary hardship for the longer term. Max O’Leary has had a good chance and shown he’s not too far from the desired standard, while Bentley has returned to the XI with the bit between his teeth.

Tomas Kalas likewise has had to prove himself again to make spot in the side regularly his. No-one is guaranteed a spot in this team. A gradual evolution of the culture up at the High Performance Centre at play.

Three-year build
This was always stated as a three-year build, with accompanying new contract inked last April, with a lot of work ahead, and a need for patience from supporters to get there.

Perhaps Jon Lansdown forgot that last week, as he decried, “we should be competitively better than we are at the moment”.

So just where should this squad be? That’s often dictated by finance, and City’s wage bill - while high and previously unsustainable - is middle of the road. Maybe Jon Lansdown has a point, broadly, but that would fail to take in the work being done to reduce the wage bill this season.

With the club posting that £38.4m financial loss for the 2020/21 season in December, Pearson has been limited in what he can do to build the playing squad he wishes for. Timm Klose on a free for a Tyreeq Bakinson loan the limit of January’s work, but another indication of flexible thinking, with the manager unable to spend.

But there are more positives. As Pearson pointed out last week, several players are playing better than ever and over-performing what may have been expected.

Chiefly that’s in attack, where Andi Weimann is enjoying his most productive season over, Antoine Semenyo is blossoming and Chris Martin is enjoying a fine campaign too.

Look at the improvement of the young players too - Alex Scott’s emergence, Cam Pring becoming a regular and Han-Noah Massengo progressing - and it’s clear to see that much of the squad is flourishing. Pearson has not been shy of turning to the academy time and again for playing resources, just as the City board would like him too.

Flexibility and evolution
Pearson’s work in BS3 has also included tactical flexibility. Ideally the manager has said he would prefer to use a 4-3-3 or his often-used 4-2-3-1 derivative. But he has switched to a three at the back system recognising that it suits the playing squad more.

Then there was clear innovation shown at the weekend: Joe Williams as a ‘front sweeper’, utility forward Sam Bell fielded as a wing-back reminiscent of his father on the left side, and also the adaptation of Alex Scott to a central position. Jay Dasilva on the right anyone?

Not everything has been successful but the squad has nicely ticked over with everyone getting the chance to shine. Whether they’ve taken it is another story.

With Sam Bell, Ayman Benarous and Tommy Conway waiting in the wings, the Lansdown family may have just the man to get results and also develop young players too, in the way that Kasper Schmeichel did at the King Power Stadium.

But is that the extent of the club’s ambition? And will that satisfy Nige?

The manager last week questioned the club’s identity, making sure that he was not talking about the team’s. Is it to be developing academy talent and adding to it to slowly push for promotion, a la Coventry City and Preston in recent years?

Or do the Lansdowns genuinely expect more from a club currently lowering the wage bill and scrambling to stay on that Profitability and Sustainability tight rope?

Pearson may need more of that innovative thinking and ability to adapt going forward for the progression that the owners really desire, as money appears in short supply and next summer there is already talk of selling off one of the young assets to help make ends meet.

As CEO Richard Gould said recently, Bristol City “won’t be shopping in Chelsea” too much more.

Last week was frankly a stormy few days at Ashton Gate in every way with unexpected disagreements at the top of the club.

“Like I say, he’s the chairman, an owner so he can say what he thinks, but I don’t agree with him,” said a candid Pearson, who it was obvious wanted to make a statement in Thursday’s pre-Middlesbrough press conference.

Jon, who has recently started a new creative visual content agency called Reach Fever Pitch that was used for the Huboo announcements last week, may have been talking about the longer term and in general terms, but it also drew a response.

Bristol World understands that the Lansdowns were unhappy at the comments and specifically at the timing, given that the Ashton Gate Eight celebrations began the next day.

Pearson also called the club’s previous transfer strategy ‘bonkers’ and he is in most senses not wrong.

However, this is the mad world of football and high wage bills are like nuclear weapons: if one club has them, then everyone has to have them - to try and lure the best playing talent and hit the Premier League jackpot. Few sides spend within their means.

The threat of a points deduction looms on the horizon, but in general Pearson has handled a difficult inheritance well.

Future survival
When you’re on song as a manager, winning and winning, you can demand and say what you like to a degree.

But Pearson’s record is not spotless, and defensive problems remain a frustration. A lack of victories since arriving in BS3 - just 13 in 49 games over 12 months - does not look too good.

There is certainly room for improvement: no clean sheets since 4 December, no back-to-back wins so far this season, and an inability to win by more than one.

The late goals have been a frustrating habit too, while the jury is out still on several summer 2021 signings.

So the work goes on, with much still to do, as stated by Pearson himself, and hopefully a further future climb upwards. And with last week’s interaction between chairman and manager hopefully consigned to the waste bin and put down merely as contrasting opinions, or more likely a mis-communication.

Any further strident views may require flexibility, but all parties have shown an appetite for that up to now bar this once.

On with the show. Pearson has done enough to deserve extra time and there are enough signs of life in this current Robins vintage.

The former Leicester City manager has regularly talked about a collective work ethic, building a team that scraps for results, and is horrible to play against. A side that runs into the ground with a heart that matches the passion from the stands at Ashton Gate: survival of the fittest.
https://www.bristolworld.com/sport/...and-he-will-need-more-at-bristol-city-3575434

 

He has certainly had the balls with his reply to Junior L.
“Like I say, he’s the chairman, an owner so he can say what he thinks, but I don’t agree with him”

 

Every word Nigel Pearson said on Bristol City errors, Alex Scott and the change from last season
Full transcript of the Bristol City manager's post-match press conference following their 2-1 defeat to Coventry City at Ashton Gate

Nigel, one year down the line…
Oh, I’m not interested in that.

I thought you’d say that but Mark Robins has just said that that’s a completely different Bristol City team to the one he played last season, is that a fair reflection of how you feel?
Oh okay. It’s probably not a good time to catch me on that one, especially not after a result like that one.

I work in a position where it’s about results and results aren’t great when you look at it but in terms of where we are compared to last year, that’s your call. I know where we are and where we’ve progressed. I think we should just talk about the performance because I thought the performance tonight was really good.

I know we’ve given a lot of goals away late on but tonight didn’t feel the same as other situations because there’s no anxiety there. We played really well and we were looking for the winner. We’re punished by another mistake in the middle of the pitch which has cost us.

It’s quite hard for young players to deal with those types of situations but that’s how they get better.

Did you see it as an individual error for the second goal?
Of course it was.

Could you have covered it better?
If you just generalise then nobody gets apportioned blame and you’ve got to apportion blame but there are always lots of different aspects about what could be slightly better and the bottom line is we’ve conceded two goals.

There’s a little bit of naivety in the first one but it’s my decision to select players who are young and out of position and I’m happy to do that. I think tonight the performance that we got was a very positive one. I’m not worried about the future for where this group of players are. We’ve got a lot of talent within the group and we’ve made a really strong progression in terms of our ability to play games.

What we haven’t done is the solved that final problem of winning those types of games. We’ve lost so many points late in games but tonight’s story is a bit different to that. It’s not because we’ve looked anxious.

I just told the players that we played against a side at the weekend that monked us when we played them earlier but they monked us because we were nervous and we showed a weakness that I don’t think is here now.

You look at it however you want. However you see it, you see it in whichever way but tonight in terms of performance it was really good.

It was chalk and cheese between this season and last season, there’s entertainment value with attacking football…
Well, entertainment is one thing. For me it’s not about entertainment, bah humbug!

I always say to the players it’s nice to play well and win but it is about winning and unfortunately we don’t win often enough. If we continue to work in the same way, we will get there.

Last season was a hard watch, this isn’t a hard watch…
Last season was a tough experience because there was a lot that needed to be sorted out. You make your own judgement on whether it has or hasn’t, that’s your opinion, I don’t have to sell any story to anybody.

I have a job to do and my job is to try and manage us through a situation which takes a bit of tenacity and a bit of patience too.

Nights like this are a learning curve for the younger players…
Learning curve? It’s easy to say it but they only learn if they show progression. Learning is about how you process information or an experience and whether you can then do things differently when a similar sort of experience occurs. That’s why I think it’s important for me to recognise that tonight what we didn’t do was lose the game because we showed anxiety, it wasn’t about that.

We got punished and I don’t want to take from Mark’s team who set up against us like I would set up against us. That is let you have the ball and counter-attack because we’ve not really been a possession side. I would do the same, let you have the ball and hit you on the break.

Their game plans worked really well but I would have expected them to be quite nervous in the second half because we were really at it.

How impressed are you with what Mark has done and how far they have come?
Mark is one of the most underrated managers that there is out there. I’ve come across him for years and years now.

When he was at Rotherham he did a great job there. He’s the type of manager who you don’t really recognise the types of job he’s done. For me him and someone like Darren Ferguson for instance, who have been around quite a long time and had lots of success themselves, relative success.

I don’t think people really understand what it is to manage with not a lot and manage under pressure. Coventry City has had a really tough period of time where they’ve lost their own home, they’ve been playing at other people’s grounds, they’ve been in a bit of a state and for them to be as competitive as they are is credit to them as a club and a lot on their management and staff.

I never judge managers by status because a lot of the top end managers don’t have to think about balancing books. They inherit the best players and then they add to it with even better players and the majority of managers who work out there have a different set of rules to work by.

The lads who are at the top end and go from one big job to another, they wouldn’t survive doing that type of job.


Alex Scott was playing slightly deeper, did he take on that Joe Williams role from Saturday?
The tactics were different tonight because we thought Mark might set up with a switch between one striker and two strikers up top and if they have one then they have two players playing just in behind.

It was an interesting game because they allowed us to have the ball out from the back pretty easily, they were sitting hoping to spring so for Alex he didn’t have to play in the same way Joe did because Boro are a lot more aggressive with how they play and they play a different shape.

Alex will play anywhere because he’s bright enough, he was great tonight.

Did you know those fans next to you because it looked like you were having a conversation?
No, I don’t know them. They’re sat there and they’ve always got something to say so I gave them something back.

Mark pointed out the desire of your team. After the Swansea game how impressed have you been with that aspect of your game?
The players are doing everything that they can to produce winning performances. That’s all I can say because I’ve said to you, one thing our punters can’t criticise us for is a lack of honesty because there’s a real honesty in the group and how we go about it.

We’ve made mistakes this season but doesn’t everybody? They’re having a go and we are making progress.

A result like tonight is a big hit because we didn’t deserve that but it’s what football is I’m afraid and that’s as much a part of putting the pieces together as anything. You’ve got to deal with disappointment in life and certainly as a footballer you’re going to get a smack round the face from time to time because things don’t happen in the way that you want to.

They’ll be fine because it’ll be the same group of players again at the weekend. There aren’t going to be many changes. People want to have an opinion on how big squads are, I look at it and think we’ve got what we’ve got at the moment, when players come back they’ll have to play well to get in the team because the team’s playing alright.

Whether we win enough games or not is a different story. Nobody is going to find it easy to get back into the group at the minute. It’s what it is. The youngsters are gaining some tough experiences but some very valuable experiences, it’s whether they process it well and that’ our job as manager and coaches to help them through that because what I don’t want to do is, players know when they’ve made mistakes.

You don’t need to hammer home so hard just because it makes you feel better. It’s about them being able to improve based on them experiencing either good things or bad things.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/nigel-pearson-bristol-alex-scott-6706014