So everyone seems to have accepted our fate now and there's various views on Pearson's future in different threads but it'd be interesting to see everyone's thoughts in one place - visitors views welcome if they're genuine. My thoughts are in the fence Pros He's been a great servant The squad are close and if we can keep them together we can bounce back Generally the sentimental side of me that doesn't want us to lose the stability and start again Cons Off field antics as well as off have been a different side of him I have my doubts he can learn and adapt after this experience. Is championship management his limit and could be take us to the next level. See Southamptons brave decision to lose Adkins when they were not in the bottom 3. Any others that I've missed? Overall I would say replace him if it's an inspiring appointment but not for the sake of it
Pros: Much better squad than before Some great signings Promotion Cons: No idea what his best team is, relying on players to come in and make an impact Stubborn team selections, wheres Albrighton? We are going to go down, so there is no point replacing him now, he'll be judged alot more on his first, maybe, 8 performances back in the championship next year and if hes going the same way as Sousa, then he'll be replaced as ive no doubt the minimum goal for next year will be promotion.
Pros: -Built the most attacking Leicester side i've seen. -The entire club is in a far better state than when he joined. -Players love him. -Can look after himself. -Doesn't conform to the media, says what he wants. Cons: -Always been poor with substitutions. -Doesn't throttle enough referees/opposition players. -Didn't finish James McCarthur off. -Didn't do well enough in either transfer window.
Actually reading Sterling Archer's comments in another thread and yours above as made me wonder if Pearson is excellent at buying players that WILL be great, but has trouble attracting players that are already good. Even our two big money signings were untested at Prem level and - at least in Krammy case - will be better in the future than they are now. Although he did bring in Cambiasso obviously.
Narrow victories, other than a stand out performance against Derby and constantly playing 4-4-2 with basically the same team every week. This season, we aren't really playing to our new signings strengths due to constant team changes and formation tinkering. When we bought Ulloa, i thought we needed a good crosser to get the best out of him, we got Albrighton and how much time have they been on the pitch together
I can't really detract from what we did last season tbf - always felt that the team (and tactics) largely had the measure of the opposition - very different to this season where we have been tactically outmanoeuvered several times, perhaps more so than we've actually been outplayed (overall) - but I just can't fathom some decisions - e.g the latest - a recall for Kasper on the basis of a run out for the development squad (where he still conceded 2 goals) against a keeper who has really started to perform - OK if our season was already dead and buried mathematically perhaps ... but it wasn't - God did that come back to bite us on the arse .... - in the cold light of day I feel we are knocking on the door of being a side that could (and perhaps should) survive at this level - but we constantly come up short - whether it be tactically or by individual error - we can't keep blaming officials - it wasn't the ref that told Nuge to take a touch rather than hoofing that ball clear - I suspect Nigel was less than pleased with him once back in the dressing room and the comments at the ref were part deflective - but the fact that we can't seem to redress such factors suggests that we are going down ... Two wins on the bounce could still spark a glorious escape - but are we capable of it? - the heart says "why not" - the head is starting to wonder why we haven't done it already if it is within us? - the maths are beginning to stack against us - it looks gloomy I'm afraid... but where there's life there's hope ...
I think the word 'great` is over used these days, to me someone like Messi is a great player. Most other professional footballers are then generally very good, good, average etc. I'm not NP's biggest fan but fair play to him last year he did the job he was tasked to do ie achieve promotion, very well. His team selections were pretty consistent, tactics were good and virtually all his substitutions were successful when made. The players gelled as a team and the unbeaten run they put together from January to the Brighton home game was a class above anything else in the division. I think the majority of his buys were top championship level players with the possibility that others Mahrez, Vardy, Schmeicel, Drinkwater(?), Schlupp & Vardy could then step up to premiership standard. In a way his loyalty to the entire squad was conducive to keeping the spirit & togetherness in place, but in reality, in my opinion, it should have been identified that several of the players were not good enough to step up and that more players of a higher quality were needed. I obviously don't know what the clubs spend budget was or how players were selected - Manager or Director of Football or both? - the situation with Albrighton & Hamer suggests it wasn't that harmonious and given that NP survived I guess he won that power struggle. This season, in my opinion, it has proved that NP is not the man to lead us in a premiership campaign. Unlike last season there has been no smooth ride and I feel he has resorted back to the season before last when frankly he didn't appear to have any answers to the poor performances and poor results we were getting. Selections this year have been all over the place, after the first few games tactics have been sometimes rather baffling and changes have only been made when they have been forced into rather than proactively made based on our & the oppositions game performances. Do the coaching staff not see what most of the fans see? Finally I think NP's public persona is detrimental to the clubs image - if he really is a nice humorous guy why cant he act naturally in front of the cameras or radio microphone instead of acting like a spoilt child?
For me, he goes to a club with problems, he steadies the ship, puts in a good foundation then... That's him done. It's what did for us and for you. I know there's a popular view he's a great championship manager but I think it's not that straight forward. If you keep him, if you go down, I'd be surprised if he brought you back up. Imo if you go down, you'd need rid on the last day of the season. My worry would be he could go somewhere like Leeds and turn them around. That's the thing he's good at.
