Again we're heading into speculation here. We don't know what happened or why. I've gone through this a few times so I won't elaborate too much again, but there were a number of factors involved in our run of wins, including opponents moving away from negative tactics after securing safety, Jamie Vardy regaining form (or adapting to the Prem), Cambiasso getting better with each game, Huth allowing us to play three at the back etc. I said all season our performances were better than a bottom three side, so I don't agree there were too many "turgid performances" - results and overall game entertainment value were lacking on occasion, but we have rarely been a clear second best in matches. Teams coming to our place and stifling the game is a massive compliment to us - opponents feared us after the Man Utd game. Unfortunately, we struggled to break down negative sides who know how to defend - as do most sides without world class attacking players. The "baffling team selection" I can only assume refers to Konch and Simpson as part of a back five, but this was during a tough run of away games in which we wanted to become hard to beat. Sadly, in that regard, they're the best we have at full back but they were dropped when the away run finished. We lost most of the games in that away run, so you COULD argue that we might has well have played a more attacking line-up - or you COULD argue that we could have been murdered in morale shattering style. I suppose you're also referring to Nugent too, but we have always disagreed on his contribution to the side. And yes, it was an amazing escape. As it was when he kept Southampton up. And Carlisle. And we qualified for the Play-offs at Forest on the last day. Add to that two league titles won with comfort with us and taking us straight out of League One into the play-offs, and you have to start to ask when some fans will stop saying "he only just managed it" and start saying "he achieved his goal...again". Because at the end of the day that's ALL that matters. I am pretty certain that Pearson knew full well what Albrighton was capable of. He signed him after all. Again we don't have the facts, so we can (and many are) only speculating about the situation. But one thing is for sure - the Albrighton stick is the only one to hit Pearson with now. People said he wouldn't get us up. They were wrong. Then they said he wouldn't keep us up. Wrong again. So all that's left is to say we could have stayed up more convincingly (for which the Albrighton argument has become shorthand), which, considering our history over the last 15 years, is unbelievable quite frankly. Nugent was playing as part of a front three and played WITH Ulloa. Nugent's place was really taken by Mahrez (playing behind the front two), who had previously lost his place to Albrighton. Ulloa came back into the team when we dropped Kramaric, which was a brave decision after paying what we did for Krammy (and some fans did go off on one about it), but Pearson was proven right. As Mahrez didn't finish the season particularly strongly, I don't think we have been any worse with Nugent. He played his part in the wins over West Ham and West Brom and the good performance at Tottenham. Forgive me my friend but you've said this before at the end of the 2012-13 season. Yet he remains after being in the bottom three for around 3/4 of the season. I don't think there's a manager alive - actually a person alive - that doesn't make mistakes. He's held his hands up over a few. But we also need to remember that we only see half the picture - if that. Besides, even if the conclusions that some fans are bounding to do have merit, these perceived faults still pale into insignificance when compared to his achievements.
If you step back and look at it on paper... 1st in League One (Won the league at a canter, promotion back to the Championship at our first attempt, which isn't exactly "easy", just ask Leeds, Forest...) Playoffs in our first season back in the Championship Came back to us when we were 12th in the Championship, with a complete mess of a squad. Finished 9th Finished 6th, losing to Watford in the playoffs Won the Championship at a canter, with over 100 points. Survived our first season in the Premier League. When will people stop questioning him, and actually admit he has done a bloody great job? Or is he literally just the luckiest man alive? Nobody is perfect, and I don't paint him to be. But you really can't argue with that record.
.... all about opinions. .. Mahrez v Nugent? ... would Nuge have bagged two from open play against Southampton?... not fot me ... and on bizarre management decisiy Hamer-Schwarzer-Kasper and the undroppable Wes when he was desperately poor ...
Would Mahrez have scored the goals Nugent did against Everton, Tottenham and the crucial equaliser at West Brom? Kasper clearly justified coming straight back into the squad and Wes had a bad run but once Huth came in he looked better each week Overall yes Nigel made some mistakes but he still kept us up quite comfortably in the end
I'd like to think I'd have scored the goal against Everton ... balls up between Baines and Howard left it as a tap in to an empty net ... the WBA one was hardly a class finish ... the one against Spurs was excellent ... but typical of Nuge ... no pressure because the game is dead ... his Achilles heel has always been scoring like a top notch striker does ... ... comparing Mahrez to him is rather unfair ... on his day Mahrez is virtually unplayable ... that could never be said about Nuge at any time in his career ... Kasper didn't quite justify coming straight back into the squad ... he was awful at Spurs ... what he did do was get a lot better ... ... as for staying up comfortably! ... we did it by getting a hard earned point in our second last game of the season because results elsewhere went our way! ... not my idea of comfortable Stoke and Palace did that ... but if Nige ever needs a spin doctor ...
Again way TOO much was made over the goalkeeper situation. Kasper was heralded as the best thing since sliced bread last summer. When we signed Hamer, nobody thought he was anything special and certainly nobody thought he'd oust Kasper. Then Kasper gets injured and Hamer has to come in. He did a decent job, but was never intended to play the majority of a season in the Premier League, so we brought Schwarzer in, a tried and tested top flight keeper. He was admittedly rusty, but he soon settled, and if I recall rightly, you yourself thought that his last appearances were worthy of note. Then Kasper returned and took his no. 1 shirt and did well. I never got the fuss over this at the time and I still don't. Some fans just look for something to blame when results don't go our way. Morgan - well I think he come good in the end, playing almost as a defensively midfielder, using his mobility to clear up in front of Huth and Wassa. I still think he'd struggle in a back four, but he very much has a place in a back five. Before signing Huth and with Upson injured and Moore out of his depth, we really had no other option than to play him in the back four. As someone who called for a back five as early as September, I won't go back on that now by saying that we should have gone to a back four without him when Huth came in, especially since the back five was so successful. So all-in-all, I think Pearson was proven right on this in the end. Nugent scored more goals than Mahrez, so I'll let the stats speak for themselves on that point.
No, he's a centre forward, and Mahrez is an ATTACKING wide player. Vardy is a striker though, his performances have earned an England call-up. Nugent scored the same number of goals as Vardy. Nugent is naturally unselfish in this style of playing; creative with good vision. Others enjoy the glory from his hard work.
Mahrez wouldnt have got into the postion Nugent did at Everton. Comparing them is laughable as ones a striker and the other is a winger. Kasper kept 5 clean sheets from the last 9 and we won 7 of them so yes thats more then justified in my book We finished 6 points clear of the relegation zone, safe with a game to go aswell so yes thats comfortable. We went to hard way about it but at the end of the day the table says we had a comfortable season We won the league last year with ease and now stayed up winning 7 out the last 9 yet people still want to shoot holes in Nigel Pearson. All of his decisions paid off in the end as we stayed up. We achieved the goal and anyone who thought we would sail through without problems needs a reality check. We will probably hit some more problems next season aswell As ive said before i find it bemusing and laughable the amount of flack Pearson gets
Not sure what 'flack' Pearson is getting. Think you may mistake flack with a lack of adoration to the level that you have, Personally think that overall he has done a reasonably good job. After seeing teams led by Matt Gillies, Jimmy Bloomfield, Jock Wallace and MON he still has some way to go - but he does have time to get to that level. Dont think anybody is on a high horse concerning NP - just varying opinions, and if you cant accept that then life will always be a conflict.
I have never ever asked NP to be sacked, Think he his the best manager we could have, but like others on here I have questioned his team selection at times they just did not make sense. IMO the last nine games saved our season when things clicked because we got Huth to sort out the defense and a player who could cross a ball into the box and not forgetting the magic of Cambasso!
Its not adoration and to say a reasonable good job? 2 Play off semi finals League 1 Champions Championship Champions 14th Premier League What more do you expect from the bloke? Since Martin O'Neill he is the only manager who knows what he is doing and because of what he has acheived at this club i respect him for it and whenever we have hit a wall in the past Pearson has guided us through so I back him to do it again I get people dont like him as a person and people will question him as a manager but every manager gets questioned but everytime Nigel decisions have seen us achieve our targets
FF has spelled out some of the flack in his posts above. Earlier in the season, fans were looking for something to blame our poor results on. Some were calling for the managers head (where are these posters by the way?). Some were critical of Pearson's team selections (and still hold that view). But patience was always going to be the key and, eventually, it paid off. In the end, only a couple of players didn't adapt well enough (Konch and Simpson, both of whom are looking likely to leave us now) so persisting (or being stubborn, as was often the accusation) with Vardy, Nugent, Morgan, Wassa, Ulloa, James and Kasper all paid off, despite some dark moments. I agree that we all have different opinions and that's fine. But remember this works both ways, and for every fan that can't understand Pearson's "stubbornness", there are those of us that understand it takes time for inexperienced players to adjust to a different level of football. For every fan that thinks the wrong players were being picked, there are those of us that think there's more to it than that. For every fan that thinks we were "turgid" earlier in the season, there are those of us that realise that we've been in nearly every minute of every match this season (how many teams in the league never lost by three goals at any point - I know the champs can't say that). And for every fan that wants a quick solution, there are those of us that realise there are 38 games in a season, and it's where you are in the table after the 38th game that matters. If you survive, the trial and error that got you there through the course of those 38 games is immaterial.
What more do you expect from the bloke? The challenge to be a really good manager will always be what he does in the Premiership. What more do I expect - I dont. I sincerely hope he succeeds, but I dont expect anything. I wish him all the luck in the world and hope he achieves success for us. Just not sure why you feel it necessary to question others beliefs cos they dont match yours. The managers that I mentioned ALL achieved success of varying heights in the top division of English football. NP has yet to do that, but like I said earlier, has time to do this. He, overall, has done an admirable job for our club - and like I say, I wish him well.
...Amen to that ... again spot on and perhaps the differential as to why the older heads on here feel there is still an awful lot to prove ... a club like Leicester City SHOULD never have been in the first division ... coming up again was to be expected ... being competitive in the Championship was again something that we SHOULD expect ... yes we won that league in style but it is only the 'means' not the 'end' ... it would be very sad if winning the Championship is what defines a club's success ... do we as football fans think back to Reading's record point score in that division with nostalgia? ... course we don't because it is not how footballing success is measured ... it is not a cup and it is not the Premiership title ...Wigan and Wimbledon have put their names in the footballing records books ... Nigel hasn't done that for us (yet) ... neither has he achieved what the manager's that Barwell mentioned did ... making us established competitive top flight members ... so whilst I loved what happened last season I'm not getting carried away ... I want much more than our 'comfortable' survival before I'll have a tear in my eye about Nigel Pearson's tenure ....
... in your opinion .... Kasper had been dog ****e before his injury ... let's be frank. QPR away Palace away ... flapping like he was getting attacked by a wasp.... Hamer came in and played much better than Kasper had (in MY opinion) ... dropping him for Scwarzer was a strange decision to many of us on here ... I would suggest most ... and in Schwarzer's first couple of games he spilled shots that led to goals .... but we then did start to improve and he was having stormers when he was then in turn dropped for Kasper ... You said 'too much' was made of this ... but even Nigel felt he needed to explain that decision in the wake of Kasper's first and calamitous return against Spurs .. it was for his 'distribution' ... against Spurs some national papers even ranked Kasper's performance below that of Lloris ... who went off with injury in the first 10 mins! .... Kasper demonstrated all the flappy frailties from his earlier performances ... That he got remarkably better is there for everyone to see ...(Huth was key in this) but I don't think it is surprising that many of us (I suspect most of us) were baffled by the keeper changes at the time...
... correct I did say that at the end of the 2012-13 season .... but in direct reference to our forthcoming season in the Championship ... no thoughts about the Prem at that stage. ... and I would stick by that ... if we had gone on such a losing run in the Championship then I do believe the owners would have acted . they showed this season in 'sack gate' that they will act if they feel the need ... By contrast, I advocated against sacking Pearson (changing manager) throughout the bad run this season ..because I felt that would be detrimental to survival chances and that the team were showing some positive signs performance wise even when we were losing .. I even went as far as to say that I would be inclined to give him the opportunity to bring us back up if, as was seeming likely, we were relegated .... so I guess I'm not one of those that you cited as calling for his head in a later post? ... tbf I don't think there very many in that regard ... and probably for the same reasons that I've mentioned ...
............. and I will give NP his due. He has been our manager during the period that we have really moved into the 21st century. The upgrade to training facilities, the academy, sports science, club shop, back room staff etc. Whilst the owners have funded this, no doubt that NP had input in moving this forward. As Proud and Lesta have both stated, mistakes have been made - who in their life hasnt made mistakes? Not a problem of those being discussed on a fans forum, and not a problem (to me) of the manager being defended or deficiencies highlighted. As an older member of the forum, I have seen some incredible highs (and lows) for our club, so my level of hoped for success may be different to some of you younger guys - something that I need to bear in mind - cos no doubt NP has achieved more than any other manager since MON.
