I lost the faith

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LeeCovFox said:
Nigel has earned at least another season in charge and can now fairly be recognised as our best manager since Martin O'Neill was at the helm. But the truth is that his own approach is what put us in such a mess in the first place.
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Pretty much my view as well. Onwards and upwards now though eh?!
 
LeeCovFox said:
We were not bottom because of 'luck' or 'margins'. We were bottom because we deserved to be at that time and were playing horrible negative football which gave us no chance of scoring, let alone winning. There were long stretches during which we weren't creating anything like a meaningful goalscoring opportunity. For all that we were unlucky against Spurs or Liverpool there was West Brom, Sunderland, Hull, Palace, Burnley and Stoke at home in which we failed to gain points simply because we set up too negatively. It was not a case of simply waiting for our luck to turn.

I applaud Nigel Pearson and his team for recognising the trouble their negativity had put is in and it is no coincidence that we are now winning games when setting up more positively. Nigel has earned at least another season in charge and can now fairly be recognised as our best manager since Martin O'Neill was at the helm. But the truth is that his own approach is what put us in such a mess in the first place. I always thought that we had a good enough squad to survive and still maintain that we should have done so more comfortably than we have.
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I must have been watching different games. Apart from a few games, we were always in games and always had a chance. We never just tried to park the bus.

I think what changed was the tactics changing from. 'Do not lose, and try to nick a goal' to 'Just go out and win, but do not be afraid to lose doing so'.

This was exemplified not the Spurs 4-3 game but the Away game at Everton at the end of February.

They take the lead through Naismith after 57 minutes, we are back level 6 minutes later through Nugent. Cambiasso puts us in the lead after 70 minutes. Relentless Everton pressure leads to their equaliser on 88 minutes.

Do we park the bus to defend the draw? No we are back down the other end for 5 more miutes trying to get the winner. That for me was the turning point. Later Hull 0-0 was just a blip!
 
Losing hope is one thing anyone can do, it's no big deal. Who cares what anyone thought back in March?

The only thing I've found repulsive is the stream of thoughts from some who gave all the appearances of wanting us to keep losing so they could see the back of Pearson, one of the greatest managers I've known during my lifetime. The mindset of demanding instant success and intolerance of set-backs smacked of a repugnant sense of entitlement and a naivety in understanding the game.

But there's a lesson from Pearson here - you can **** up as long as you learn from the experience. I hope that next season people can find it within themselves not to be calling for his head the second the transfer window closes or the first time he barks at a journo.
 
I don't really buy what Pearson was saying at the time about performances not turning into results and it wasn't all down to bad fortune, but I am happy to say I have always been one of the ones that would prefer to stick with Pearson, to maintain stability and because there was no better available. Changing manager to try and beat relegation rarely seems to work and can have longer lasting repercussions as well.

We had some really unfortunate decisions go against us in a number of games but at the same time, we were making far too many individual errors defensively, Pearson was constantly chopping and changing the formation trying to find a formula that would get us out of a sticky run of results and in some games it was just evident that there was a little lack of quality in the final third at times. We look at our finish to the season, Pearson has settled on a 3-5-2 wing backs type of formation, Huth was bought in and his composure really helped. He became a mainstay in the team, as did Albrighton who works hard and is capable of a quality ball into the box. Schmeichel came back in to the side after a lengthy injury and made some important saves. Basically we finally settled and really had nothing to lose having been bottom of the table for so long.
 
TornadoShaunUK said:
I don't really buy what Pearson was saying at the time about performances not turning into results and it wasn't all down to bad fortune, but I am happy to say I have always been one of the ones that would prefer to stick with Pearson, to maintain stability and because there was no better available. Changing manager to try and beat relegation rarely seems to work and can have longer lasting repercussions as well.

We had some really unfortunate decisions go against us in a number of games but at the same time, we were making far too many individual errors defensively, Pearson was constantly chopping and changing the formation trying to find a formula that would get us out of a sticky run of results and in some games it was just evident that there was a little lack of quality in the final third at times. We look at our finish to the season, Pearson has settled on a 3-5-2 wing backs type of formation, Huth was bought in and his composure really helped. He became a mainstay in the team, as did Albrighton who works hard and is capable of a quality ball into the box. Schmeichel came back in to the side after a lengthy injury and made some important saves. Basically we finally settled and really had nothing to lose having been bottom of the table for so long.
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Pretty much it.

The bottom line is that the manager & players delivered the most sensational turn round in living memory.

How we got to be in the awful situation that we were in is a secondary issue - and one for Pearson to consider and given the qualities that he has shown I'm sure he alresdy has. Anyway for once a player (Albrighton) told it how it was on Saturday night. The manager and the players take all the credit but the backroom staff (for enabling the walking wounded to keep playing and the fantastic support should take a bow too.
 
Ahhh, surviving using a formation more closely related to the very one that gave us so many good years in the top flight in years gone by.
 
I pretty sure I did.

Watching the same thing happen every game was killing me.

Watching Paul Konchesky was killing me.

We seemed to concede on the 70th minute every week after missing a host of good chances.
 
The only thing that kept me going was how shit the other teams were.

The standard of a lot of these sides is really poor.
 
Miles Away said:
I pretty sure I did.

Watching the same thing happen every game was killing me.

Watching Paul Konchesky was killing me.

We seemed to concede on the 70th minute every week after missing a host of good chances.
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I'd agree, there was a period of about 8 games where from the first minute you could predict almost to the minute how the game was going to go
 
its been documented that the hull game was the point at which many decided that we werent getting out of the mess.

if we had played well and been unlucky then i suspect most would have stayed with it but our inept performance meant it was surely inconceivable that we would be able to exploit the favourable run in we all knew was coming.

the ability of the players to maintain their self belief, especially after a poor first half at the hawthorns is astonishing.
 
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