No pace, no width, no Kalas: Nigel Pearson is under pressure as Bristol City fans deserve more Our fan columnist Math Withers reflects on the trip to Middlesbrough and what urgently must change at Bristol City ahead of Tuesday's Championship encounter against Reading By Matthew Withers please log in to view this image Is it crazy to say that Nigel Pearson is a man under pressure after only two games in the new Championship season? Along with a lot of other fans I think he is. Three wins from 17 Championship fixtures since Pearson took charge and arguably that should really be two wins from 16 fixtures, as the first win was, coincidentally, against Saturdays opponents at the Riverside where he watched that game from the stands, and so his influence was debatable. We are winless in 12 Championship games, the last three points coming way back on March 13 and we have suffered 10 defeats in that run. Not great stats whoever you are and whatever reputation you have. I personally do like the manager and I think that given time he will turn things around, but time is not often a commodity afforded in the modern football world. In the season opener at home to Blackpool last week I did see some good signs but most of my initial positivity has been somewhat drained following a fairly lacklustre defeat on penalties to Forest Green Rovers in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, and then a very average performance and defeat to Middlesbrough. Cup shocks aren’t a surprise and had City been more professional in the last few minutes of that game and similarly in the match against Blackpool, we would have been making the 528 mile round trip to Middlesbrough in good spirits on the back of two wins, but we didn’t see those games out and so even this early on in the season the pressure is on. The number of changes against Forest Green on Tuesday was expected and I wasn’t surprised when the only alteration to the starting line up for the Boro game from the 11 that started against Blackpool, was Kasey Palmer coming in for the injured Callum O’Dowda I wasn’t surprised but I did think Pearson had gotten it wrong. It is hard for anyone to argue that Tomas Kalas isn’t Bristol City’s best defender and so why he didn’t start against Neil Warnock’s side is beyond me. I know that the manager wants to play a 4-2-3-1 formation, but I just don’t think that we have the players to do that. When playing a one-up top you need either a strong physical No9 who can hold the ball up and bring onrushing midfielders into play or you need a quick direct striker who can run in behind and cause problems; Chris Martin through no fault of his own is neither of these. This current Bristol City side has no width, has no pace, and lacks leadership. We are too easy to play against and I am struggling to see any improvement from the style of football and performance than that which I witnessed in Lee Johnson’s last games in charge and pretty much for all of Dean Holden’s tenure. I’m not calling for a change and maybe I am just a grumpy 50-year-old but when you travel over 500 miles you hope for at least some entertainment and I genuinely didn’t get any. We must get Kalas back in the side and I would opt for playing five at the back; Kalas, Nathan Baker and Rob Atkinson in the middle with Zak Vyner on the right and Cam Pring on the left. I would have Matty James, Han Noah Massengo and Tyreeq Bakinson in the middle with Nahki Wells and Chris Martin up top in a two. People will ask where the creativity will come from but frankly, we are seeing very little creativity with Palmer, Andi Weimann and Alex Scott in the team. If we stick with a four at the back, then Baker drops out for me. The lack of pace in the side is a real concern for me, we had 62% possession on Saturday and 10 shots on target but honestly it never felt like that. We didn’t really threaten Boro aside from the goal which was a spot-on delivery from Matty James and good movement or feigned movement from King and then for five minutes after. Other than that, for me Boro always looked the more likely and in my view deserved the win. The very fact that Pearson came down from his position in the stands 15 minutes into the second-half showed that he was unhappy with what he was seeing. Many will say that the manager being in the stand is not an issue. It is for me. I want to see my manager as a presence on the side of the pitch, I want the players to see him there. He can get his message across, and for a 10-minute period after he came down, we performed a little better. It also coincided with the introduction of Wells. It’s true that we shot ourselves in the foot, we defended badly for both Boro goals and when in possession we just gave it away too easily. We hit too many diagonal balls that went out of play, we gave Martin terrible service and when he did manage to hold the ball up no one was running off him. We got into several advanced positions but weren’t brave enough to take it on, too often turning back and returning the ball to the defenders. The manager talks about the players being empowered and taking responsibility and maybe that’s where not having leaders on the pitch is an issue. Someone to encourage the creative talents that we must drive on and take the risk. I’d like to see Pearson make changes for Tuesday’s game at Reading. I’d like to see him on the touchline from the start and applauding his fans before and after the game. I’d also like to see a better connection between the manager and Bristol Live’s Gregor MacGregor; Gregor is doing his job and deserves a little more respect in terms of the manner of response. I accept that Pearson doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but Gregor is asking questions that fans want asked and whilst I don’t expect the manager to divulge information you can still respond in the correct manner, even if you don’t like the question. Of course, most of all I’d like to see a win. Our 3 Peaps In a Podcast Bonus show rating were: Dan Bentley 5, Zak Vyner 4, Jay Dasilva 6, Nathan Baker 6, Rob Atkinson 6* MotM, Andy King 5, Matty James 5, Alex Scott 5, Kasey Palmer 5, Andi Weimann 5, Chris Martin 6. Nigel Pearson scored a 4. Tomas Kalas needs to be in the side, and we need to eradicate the basic defensive mistakes and get more attacking intent in the side. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/nigel-pearson-kalas-bristol-city-5790590
Interesting! Something does feel off about Pearson, but not sure what. We all wanted a 'proven' manager after 2 young inexperienced managers, but it doesn't seem to be changing much, yet. I still believe fully in Pearson, but he does need to be less truculent with the media, otherwise, they will hound him out of the club.
Can't imagine we can go too many games without a win for Pearson to be under pressure....he should have the experience and ability to sort it out..
Of course NP will be feeling pressure - he knows himself that 13 games without a win is unacceptable and he has been lucky last season ended when it did and reset the table. It's the Kalas thing that puzzles and worries me. Very strange.
cant see why 4me had to have a dig at NP regarding GMG ...4me and GMG are 2 different styles 4me reports what he see's , very interesting read and GMG tries to put words into and second guess rather than ask a straight forward question [ he does ask some straight forward, but is expecting an answer to what he wants to hear or IT agrees with him, nothing to do with lack of respect from NP ] There is a few 000's of Bristol City "MANAGERS OUT THERE" all saying the same thing, most on here, including me … would like to see changes … sometimes there is, and those that got their way feel quite smug! those that didn't get who they thought, and is not a good result … live to fret till another day...…
I think NP will be fretting over 2 results [3 with FGR! ] the games last season was a test bed to see the potential tried various combo's and got the broom out … whether the right players went out with the last stroke will never be proved it was right for them to go. likely a meeting to plan ahead and like most clubs no income wage bill needed to trim.... players that left possibly saved £200k a week ??? [ £10m a year?] brought in 3 probably £4m per year ??? so saving of £6m????? rule of 10 [ games ] need to have better than 12 points on the board [ relegation usually 54 or less ] !!! Janneh, Massengo and Bakinson … along with Semenyo could be our saviours! Deny them a couple of games early and get them hungry ……
I have been off the radar for a couple of days but was worried about the inter-personal dynamics ruining our start to the season prior to my departure. It is starting to resemble days of yore when our dressing room had a split personality disorder the width of the Atlantic never to be re paired. The days are still early but whatever ails us needs fixing, stat or sooner, before we self destruct and then be placing ads for new staff. Whoever is the reason for this slight glitch should wake up and smell the roses before swallowing their pride and start getting on with the real business.
