Merrick's Marvels

Yes, King made a couple of costly mistakes. But Pearson knows more than a bit about what it takes to be a top class centre half. And as important as kicking it and heading it in that position is the ability to communicate with those around you - to organise and to lead. Top class players and top class teams communicate. None of our defenders do, not even the best ones like Kalas and Baker. So last summer he introduced a talker, an organiser, a leader. Naismith - who also happened to be a good ball player - introduced to talk, organise, get us in control of the ball more, improve our possession stats. When Naismith got injured, Pearson decided the team still required a talker, an organiser, a leader at CB. One who could also pass out from the back and continue the job Naismith was tasked with. That's why he picked King there. That's the plan. Not because King was the next best CB available but because he was the next best at providing essential qualities Pearson, a former top class CB himself, knows are required in a top class team. Qualities our team, our squad - someone else's squad he's inherited and has yet had the chance to change - patently lack. So just like Weimann, King gets shunted around the team to compensate for deficencies in the squad. Yes, King made a costly error or two - he played the Naismith role so well, he not only talked and organised and passed, he gave goals away! In Pearson's judgement, the short term damage of those errors can be absorbed while individual players, and the team as a whole, learn valuable lessons about what it takes to be top class which will stand them and us in good stead for the long term. Pearson knows full well he has to do this - and address a multitude of other deficiencies besides - without getting us relegated. He understands the risks. These are big calls and he's well paid to make them. We should respect his judgement for as long as possible, even if the ride gets bumpy and scary. And if I was Rob Atkinson I couldn't think of anyone better to learn from. Pearson has already stated he sees him playing in the Premier League, there's never been any suggestion he doubts the player's physical ability. What dropping him and playing King did was challenge Atkinson mentally. Challenge him to not be such an introvert, to demonstrate he believes in himself, to push himself to be better every single day. Maybe in training - stuff we never see - he saw Atkinson already coasting, thinking he'd already made it onto easy street at easy BCFC. Maybe Pearson knows that Atkinson can be so much better than that and this was his way of teaching him a valuable lesson for the long term. It's exactly the same thing he did with Alex Scott. No doubts about his ability - let's stick him at Right Wing Back and see how he reacts mentally. The lad passed that particular examination with flying colours and Pearson found out he had a player made of the right stuff on his hands. Atkinson is learning the same lesson. Tanner is being asked to play RCB, another player whose ability is not in doubt, but who's being challenged mentally to adapt, improve, make the very best of himself, day in day out - because that's what it takes to be top class. Pearson should know, he's been there and done it. He's even started using Pat Lam's mantra - "strive to be the best version of yourself every day". And Atkinson, Scott, Tanner and others will thank Pearson for it in the long term. City fans will thank him for it too, if they haven't already hounded the bloke out with cheap jibes, social media meltdowns and a failure to understand the magnitude of the mess he's clearing up or the way he's going about it. Even when picking Andy King at CB, there's method not madness, hard as it might be for some to comprehend. Mind, after the Lincoln shitshow, I'd never have picked King again, anywhere.

Well said. Well said. We're basically like that tanker that got stuck sideways in the suez canal last year or, in our more abject moments, like Austin Powers stuck in a corridor on that golf cart or whatever it was. I'd do a gif but such newfangled social media nonsense is beyond me. Anyway, fingers crossed for tonight. COYR!

Again, a crass misreading. It appears you have a PhD in it, if that's what you think of him.

Good advice. Different opinions are absolutely fine - those based on evidence or, failing that, logic. But those based on crass fuckwittery, a basic misreading of the evidence that leads to 2 + 2 equalling anything but 4, tend to get my goat. As social media is, by and large, a megaphone for morons, I have to agree it's probably not the place for me. But you'll have to excuse me, I'm off to argue with a poster who believes Pearson hasn't improved performances, despite the evidence which indicates we frequently went entire matches under his predecessor without a single shot on goal or a single corner, our possession stats were risible, and games felt like the siege of the alamo. Whereas now there's clear evidence to the contrary, of an improvement. (Results are something else, of course! Still an improvement on his predecessor but not by enough - everyone, yes everyone, agrees on that.) So - evidence, facts, reliable data, that's what I'm interested in and I appreciate that's not what social media is about, by and large. PS. Given your hypothesis is a crass misreading of the available evidence, I maintain it's horseshit ?

No, no and no. All available evidence suggests the opposite. Absolutely incredible how you could even hypothesise such nonsense out of thin air. His man management of players is his strength. Have you not heard any Leicester players talk about him? Why do you think Matty James came here when he would have better paid offers elsewhere? Or King for that matter. Where is the evidence any of our players aren't putting the effort in for him? How come players he's dropped have come back into the team and performed well? Where the hell do people get this shit from? **** me.

Given what Pearson thinks of agents, I'm surprised he's got one! Anyway, perhaps Mr Eldredge could change his twitter handle to @CorporalJones because his tweets read like a man telling everyone not to panic while doing precisely that. A piece of advice, mate - stop over-reacting to know nothing gobshites on social media. They're a minority, loud but a minority. The silent majority are well aware of the problems your man is wrestling with.

Well, we gifted them 3 points at AG via a blunder from our keeper, coming 18 yards for a ball he then didn't deal with. Not his last gaffe, either. So let's start with a keeper who's not going to drop a bollock. Not sure we've got one of those. Pearson admitted after that game we struggle against big, physical sides. So expect him to pick the biggest, strongest side he can. Not sure we've got any fit ones big enough or strong enough though - a surprise return for Kalas would help, big Rob Atkinson to the left, tall Naismith in the middle. Tanner and Pring are our strongest full backs. The rest picks itself. Williams needs to bring some niggle and physicality, without getting into trouble with the ref. I'd pick Semenyo up front, or even Martin!, to fight fire with fire in both boxes. It won't be a classic, avoiding defeat would be a good day out.

Yeah, having an open mind is too much like hard work, isn't it?

Thanks

So if I've got this right, he's twice sold Palace to people who didn't have enough money to keep the club going, resulting in Palace twice going into administration? Interesting appointment then, given our current owner is looking to sell up and will presumably rely on our new CEO to find a suitable buyer.

Flags, flares and standing up to watch football - what's not to like? Certainly helps with the "bouncing around" ?

Nice try, Harry. Last season we finished 17th. This season we hoped to do a bit better. We still can - 18th at the minute but only half way through the season. Yes the football's less than scintillating and we continue to fritter away points but keep the faith! I don't mean that to sound glib - it's effing frustrating, is what it is. You're right, LJ did have us 1 point off the playoffs when Covid struck in March 20 but we all know what happens then don't we - before May we hit a losing streak and blow it. Funny how you didn't use stats from the season before: In April 2019 we beat West Brom 3-2 at home. We're 5th, 6 games left to play, 5 points clear of 7th place with a game in hand. Play offs here we come! We hit a losing streak and finished 8th. And of the 7 starting players against WBA in April 2019 who are no longer here, I'd have every single one of them in today's team/squad. Plus Pisano and Kelly, who came on as subs. So - imho - the tools currently at Pearson's disposal are inferior by some way. That finish to 2018-19 was peak Johnson - get into a great position, then fail to deliver. Is that what you're pining for? Merry xmas!

Well said.

Yeah, Pearson's really holding us back isn't he. We'd be in the Prem now if it wasn't for him. Useless.

100%

Yep, agree with most of that. But we are not a successful football club, we are a massively under achieving one both right here, right now and in the bigger, historical context.

Yes, because the ambitions of both clubs, the problems their managers are trying to resolve, and their ability to address those problems, are so similar aren't they? **** me.

So you're saying we've been competently run? Fair enough.

Which part of my original post is being critical?

So, the posts you haven't read do say that yes we have made strides, some very necessary ones at that (stadium/academy), but where it really matters - the ultimate stride forward - is on the pitch. And there, we're no further forward than before he arrived. Given Mr Lansdown continually states the Prem is the aim - and he's sacked managers for failing to deliver even the play-offs - I don't think it's unreasonable for some people to question his leadership when we continually fail to deliver the ultimate goal he himself has stated we are aiming for.

Reaching the Prem is what the owner has talked about since he got here. It's what umpteen managers, including the present incumbent, have talked about. So I think we can assume that's the goal, that's success. What I'm happy with is neither here nor there.

You're absolutely right, it isn't a guarantee. We're living proof of that. But all those things are an advantage if a club is run competently, by competent people, making competent decisions. By and large, we haven't been. By and large, we've been the opposite - incompetent. Incompetent FC. Just one of too many pejorative adjectives you could apply to Bristol City FC. And that's what drives most of us to distraction - the ridiculous, laughable, criminal, frustrating, incompetent (more adjectives are available) waste of the massive potential that is BCFC.

I agree we should be doing better - mid table, perhaps. And, whilst it's true every club has been affected by covid, not every club was as perilously close to a breach as we were. Which has hamstrung us in a way unlike many of our rivals. We can't do what, say, Forest did when they were staring at relegation - spend so much money they got promoted. Not every club has been financially mis-managed for years the way we have - our ratio of wages to income has been dangerously out of control for years and far more so than most other clubs in this division. So not every club has had such drastic problems off the pitch to address. Not every club has had such drastic problems to address on it either. The trajectory of our results on the pitch has been on a downward spiral for years too. Not every club has had a basically spineless team for the last several seasons - ie. we've had long term injuries to cornerstone players at centre back, central midfield and striker. On taking the job, Pearson had every right to be enthused about building a side around Bentley-Kalas-Baker-Williams-James-Weimann. He's discovered the keeper and his deputy are flaky and the rest of that spine has been decimated by injury. We've been spineless for years, literally and metaphorically. Pearson's managed to fashion alternatives up front from within the squad but has had no meaningful money to re-inforce the other areas - to the point every other team in the division can spend more than us at present. Not every other club has a squad as unbalanced as ours - over reliant on naive youngsters and old pros. Not every other club has had to blood so many kids because they've no other option. Thank goodness one or two are half tidy. Not every other club has had so few players in the right age range - 25 year olds with games under their belt, under contract, happy to be here and motivated. Not every other club had a medical department unfit for purpose that needed sorting. In fact, not every other club had a whole culture that needed sorting - comfortable, lazy, life on easy street at BCFC. From top to bottom the mentality is wrong (which is how minnows out do us - you know them, Luton, Millwall, Brentford on and on). This perhaps is Pearson's greatest challenge - changing mentality and behaviours. I could go on but you get the point. Fact is, Pearson is having to tackle a quite unique - and awful - set of circumstances. To say everyone else is in the same boat as us is nonsense.

Some of us don't judge ourselves against the gas, Swindon and Plymouth, mate. We need to set the bar higher than that! Some just wonder why a club from the 8th biggest city in the country, with so many obvious advantages over about 75% of other professional clubs, continues to be such an under achieving mess - year after year after year. One of the reasons for that is because some people are just happy we're doing better than the gas, Swindon and Plymouth, btw! That sort of mediocre mindset is one of a multitude of problems Pearson has to contend with here. It may even be the thing that defeats him - that not enough people want it, really want success down to their bones, want it so much it hurts. Perhaps Bristol City - from whoever the owner is at the top, through whoever works for the club on and off the pitch, to whoever supports it from the stands - doesn't want success so much that it hurts? Perhaps we're all happy to just be doing ok, so long as it's better than the gas and Swindon and Plymouth? Perhaps it's something in the water or it's the Bristol DNA - success is nice but we can take it or leave at the end of the day? What else can explain over 100 years of mediocrity, given all that we'vegot going for us? Imo Pearson isn't just trying to fix a leaky back 4, wobbly keepers, a non existent midfield, players eyeing more money and new contracts elsewhere, players offered less money to stay, an FFP blackhole - the death star that's sucking us backwards towards League 1. That's not all he's got on his plate. That's not all he's trying to fix. Whether he realises it or not, he's also trying to fix Bristol and Bristolians. He's wrestling with a question of attitude, of mentality. And it might be the one thing that beats him, like it's beaten so many before. Pray God, it doesn't. "Somerset, and the livin is easy, wurzels sleepin cos the cider is dry" as George Gershwin so accurately wrote.

"It's like waiting for death" is how he described it. An extraordinary quote I'll never forget. It brought to mind Max von Sydow in some existential Bergman film!