Spike

My mates a Brum fan, he said yesterday was one of the worst performances he can remember watching which caught me off guard as he's largely a positive guy. I think it's a terrible decision, they seemed to be doing well, sacked a man who seemed to have everyone on board and replaced him with a "name" rather than a proven manager.

This is the part that defies all logic to me, like if SL wants his ego stroked then work work NP, imagine NP does get that promotion after SL works hand in hand with NP and helps push the plans forward. He could very well win back a lot of fans. It does make me question how out of touch SL is with the fans as I think all of the fans would sing his praises if he supported someone like NP. Imagine SL speaks to NP, they talk out NPs plans and it all goes well, the fans will remember that whilst NP did the work on the pitch SL would be the man supporting him in a way to allow NP to make that pitch magic happen. SL will never be the first man the fans thank, even if next year we're in the Premier League he won't be thanked for all of the improvements to the stadium, the training ground etc until after NP has been praised, but that's football. Short of SL giving himself the managers position and leading us into the Premier League the manager and players will always be the first to be praised. If SL really doesn't understand that NP is the first man to fully take control of this club and get everyone on the same wavelength in a very long time then we're just going to lose NP and probably end up going in circles for years.

The issue with those names though is to look where they've been since. Blackpool are a league below us and most of their fans would kill to be where we are right now, Cardiff survived relegation due to a points deduction of they'd be down there too, Huddersfield also avoided relegation thanks to points deductions, QPR have been mediocre for the longest time and Luton will probably be in the same situation if they can't find a way to start in the Premier League for a few seasons. This is why I think SL is so coy about promotion now, not a lot of teams in our financial group have gone up and managed to adapt and all of them have struggled with the jump. With Pearson we have some structure in the football part of the club, with SL we have financial strength but in the middle where you link these together we seem to have no one capable and that's a recipe for distaster. People need to stop comparing us to "teams who made it" because for every success story there are 20 stories of failure. We're not Luton, we're not Brentford, we're not Cardiff, QPR, Huddersfield and so on, we're Bristol City and we need to do it our own way, not by looking at other clubs and saying "well they did it", especially when a lot of those who "did it" are now below us or less competitive than before they managed it.

I think when it comes to Pearson and a new contract the fans want him to stay, I think with the right backing he'd want to stay and if he falls in line with the boards finances he will stay. The problem IMO is after all of the money saving NP has had to do for us I think he's going to want some real investment and the club are probably looking to prevent over spending. I think Nigel may walk because he wants a real investment going forward and the club will have already set their finances which won't meet his demands. I want Nigel to stay but my concern is he wants to make us competitive and his view of how to do that doesn't match the owners financial plans. If he walks I'm not going to blame the board solely as some are suggesting because at the end of the day he took on the job knowing what the board expected. If Pearson wants to push on but it doesn't match the clubs plans then does the club take a roll of the dice and potentially end up in a bad financial situation again or does it let Pearson go and hope the new man can gain success without that large investment? I'm very much on the side that I'd like Pearson to stay on but I do wonder if perhaps he's expecting the club to invest a lot and they simply don't meet his expectations which will end in him walking away.

With the injuries my confidence in our own squad isn't at it's highest and having seen some of the football they can play it'll only concern me more but it's not like this isn't the Championship, shock results, crazy moments and anyone can beat anyone, we're always in with a chance.

So we can move the Rovers thread in there? I mean they like our old players right?

I don't think this way because it's where I want us to be but the reality of it. Every time this discussion is had one person is accepting and one is demanding. The accepting person takes my stance, the demanding one says "If Brighton can do it, why can't we?" which is a fair comment but they seem to ignore the multitude of teams who are all feeling the same way and have failed to achieve the same. I mean for every Brighton there is a Sheffield Wednesday, QPR, Blackburn and many more. All three of those teams and many others could say "Well if Brighton can do it, why can't we?" but the truth is it's because there is a whole league system and for every "small club, big success" story there are a huge number more of it not working.

Every time we struggle against a club with much more stature, better FFP due to being relegated or just having more generated money we call our squad "very average" and yet I'm not that disappointed if we're very average if that means we're in the middle of the team in the Championship because I'd dare to argue that there are that many clubs who should be finishing above us based on their stature, finances etc. I think we have a great squad for who we are, if we were Leeds with the same players I could say "yeah, you know what, this isn't good enough" but we're not Leeds, we're not Leicester, we're not Southampton etc, we're a club who has never played in the Premier League in a league where so many have. I think we've been ok today, as the match goes on and we get more tired the raw pace that Leeds have becomes harder to deal with and they're leading so their concentration is at it's peak whilst our players grow more and more frustrated trying to make something happen. I don't think we've done ourselves and injustice, we've not sat back and let them bully us, we've pushed forward but they are a good defensive team, big, strong etc I think we've played well but we're outmatched and both teams are playing well so the difference is the quality in their players.

Seeing the pace of some of Leeds players really shows that lack of a few of ours, so mismatched. Well, that would have been O'Learys fault, lucky he was offside.

Sykes almost cost us a goal there but in that 3 on 2 for Leeds Cornick bust his ass getting back, we could do with more of that attitude.

What's doing on with Dickie? He looks so slow and planted today, looks like he's really struggling. also these subs are crazy.

Rolls in when you're watching it on a replay that's slowed down. It's a hard low shot into the corner with a defender blocking the view until the shot has already left the foot.

Can't allow Leeds to have that much sustained pressure, I mean it's a great goal and no way O'Leary is getting that but it's that sustained pressure that's cost us.

I always thought that was because his free kicks are technically the best of everyone's, TGH has now come in and has a much better technical pass which means if we're confident enough not to have both TGH and Naismith over the ball we can finally get Naismith on the end of it. I guess the simple enough reason he's not in the box, we never had anyone good enough at delivering it to him until now.

Yeah it's the off-field situation and attitude that I think is holding his career hostage. I feel like he's under bad management and it's cost him a lot already.

I've lost count of how many times Robins TV has been awful whilst a stream from our opponents is spot on perfect.

Oh we've not played bad, we played well but then made a very basic mistake that allowed Leeds to take control. Our equaliser was very much against the run of play but I wouldn't say we deserve to be out of the game. I think a lot of the negative comments are from frustration of us making the same mistakes game after game and not learning from them. You can play better for 85 minutes of a game and lose 3-0, it only takes a few seconds to make a silly mistake that costs you a goal and the goal today summed that up perfectly, a basic mistake followed by another and poor marking and we're behind, can't blame people for saying "we keep doing this" or "Another stupid mistake" when they're referring to a consistent that is costing us points.

I feel like that is our motto these days, we play really well, defend well and then all of a sudden it's like someone flicks a switch and all our players go to sleep.

Ball looked like it had swerve but even so, we had plenty of time to deal with it after that and didn't. Our issue is trying to play the ball out when we can't manage it yet we still play a lot of long ball passes under less pressure when in possession.

Another goal where it's come back and we're ball-watching.

Shame some of our fans are a reduction in quality. Cornick gives so much, missed a few good chances when he first played for us and has been branded an awful player, truth is he's just as good as Wells but gets less opportunity in his best position and has way more potential than Wells does. I kind of hope we end up selling Cornick and he goes on to show his potential and ability because it's there but our fans seem determined to just shit all over him until he leaves despite the fact Pearson sees potential and ability, I mean why else sign him. Also as I say that, Cornick twists and turns through 3-4 players in a very tight position and gets the cross in only for no-one to be there. Just irks me, Wells missed from 6 yards one week... nothing said, Cornick doesn't score a genuinely difficult opportunity that he's created himself and gets slated.

I mean if Conway is down to fitness then fair enough but why give Cornick a game, he performs and then replace him in the next game. Cornick won't improve without consistency, he out performed almost every player in the last match with the little to no good supply. When Wells plays and gets the same kind of poor supply he just disappears and has no influence, Rotherham played a very scrappy game and so Cornick worked so hard to try and regain possession high up the pitch, he showed flashes of creativity and still gets dropped. I thought Nigel said before that if players perform then they'll get their chance but to me this feels like he's performed even without supply and he's been replaced for a player who seems to only thrive when we supply him clear cut chances, I can't remember the last time Wells took on a pass with a player behind him and created something from it. I like the fact Wells works hard and runs a lot and it benefits him when the defence make mistakes as he's good at reading that and making the opposition panic but Leeds aren't that kind of team that panic in defence meaning we need someone who will go at them non stop and battle with them, that's just not Wells IMO.

I just don't understand the logic... Cornick plays better than most of the starters last game, Conway comes on and scores 2 winning the game for us so who plays that position.... Wells. I guess Pearson sees or knows something we don't, otherwise this just baffles me, I'd have him 3rd pick at this point for that position.

I'm very much in the agreement camp on Knight being a talent and that makes me feel like our best midfield has to be Knight, James and Naismith. Naismith offers that technical passing ability when coming forward as well as the confidence to carry the ball forward where many of our other players just play it long. James offers that calm cool head and the ability to read the game and do all the parts that are seriously over looked and then Knight, well, as the thread says, a quality player. So I have a question, would anyone change that midfield 3? Naismith coming out would allow us someone who is better suited to the pace we play at but would come at the expense of that ability to go direct from a deep position and I can't think of another player in the midfield who offers that. I don't think James or Knight can be dropped based on the season so far as they've both given 100% and look driven. It's an interesting discussion imo.

I think for me it depends on when the promotion comes. This season - no, not a chance I would want to see us go up as we don't have any Premier league quality players right now. If we're going to go up to the top flight then we need at least the spine of the team to be Premier league quality or our first season in the Premier League wouldn't be about surviving, it would be about trying not to be embarrassed. Luton are a good example, they didn't have many Premier League quality players, if any, when they went up and now they're one of the favourites to come back down and rightfully so. I think before we get promoted we need some players who can make that step up so that in the window we'd be able to add to them and potentially get at the very least a capable starting 11 at that level. I think realistically we're far more likely to be a slow build, losing players who develop into Premier League quality players to keep us a float financially whilst we try to build up the squad to a better overall standard. I'd love to see us in the Premier League, but I don't see the point in getting there if we can't stay there for a season or two to build up our finances and squad strength so that if we do come back down we're in a position where we are at an advantage over a lot of teams as many teams are over us right now.