Should we be surprised?

[sh1t_ref_again]

Not sure what some expect judging by some of the OTT comments. Barnsley maybe at the bottom but are no walk overs, they have only lost 1 in 6, plus just drew with Fulham after leading most of the game.

Our defence playing only its 2nd game as a new line up which is made up of Klose, a recently signed out of contract player, past his prime but doing a good job, Atkinson, signed from lower league and just back from injury who was signed as a bit part player, Cundy playing his 2nd full game after making the jump from Under 23's, DaSiva who played OK, but is too small for a defender and playing our leading goal scorer initially at RWB because we don't have one. Both goals came from lack of experience and know how, which as much as you can practice and talk about its only by playing games at this level the likes of Atkinson and Cundy will learn as they are just not use to playing against players at this level.

We are missing, Kalas our £8 million pound international, who I do not always rate, but does give you experience and honest endeavour, Baker, lots of experience and determination, Tanner our only natural RWB and Vyner sat on the bench, as a regular OTIB scapegoat most would not want starting anyway. We did have Pring on the bench who I would have liked to have started.

Our squad is 26 players, of which 7 are injured or coming back from injury (not including the 2 new injuries last night), 12 of the 26 are young players that have either come up from the u23's, signed to develop or be back up or still in early years of football development and experience. Also we have 7 that are over 30 and twilight of careers (although not sure that applies to Peter Pan AW)

The re-build started last year and we all acknowledge it was needed, expectation were just about survival this year (obviously forgotten by some on here) with another round of players in and outs in the summer. We know our financial situation is dyer, but we are lucky to have a couple of fantastic young players, which whilst we would all love them to stay and develop into a promotion winning squad, reality is we will need to cash in on at least 1 to bring in the quality and experience we need.

Its easy to be a keyboard warrior, and fire off sack Pearson, get rid of SL with out any real appreciation of what is going on behind the scenes and determining some of the decisions that are being made or giving realistic alternatives. 

Sometimes you get beaten by a better team, sometimes someone makes a mistake and concede, sometimes the game plan does not work, sh1t happens its called football, but you can't lose sight of the bigger picture and be realistic with expectations

[steveybadger]

The fluctuations in form and recurring defensive issues are frustrating, but as the OP alludes to this season was always going to be transitional. My hope for this year was simply based on us being more competitive than Pearson’s first 6 months, and ultimately avoiding relegation. This has been achieved along with now being a much better team to watch. There’s always highs and lows from individual games and matches but it’s the table that counts.

Next season however will arguably be even more challenging, when more will be expected with possibly less resources.

[steveybadger]

38 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Not sure what some expect judging by some of the OTT comments. Barnsley maybe at the bottom but are no walk overs, they have only lost 1 in 6, plus just drew with Fulham after leading most of the game.

Our defence playing only its 2nd game as a new line up which is made up of Klose, a recently signed out of contract player, past his prime but doing a good job, Atkinson, signed from lower league and just back from injury who was signed as a bit part player, Cundy playing his 2nd full game after making the jump from Under 23's, DaSiva who played OK, but is too small for a defender and playing our leading goal scorer initially at RWB because we don't have one. Both goals came from lack of experience and know how, which as much as you can practice and talk about its only by playing games at this level the likes of Atkinson and Cundy will learn as they are just not use to playing against players at this level.

We are missing, Kalas our £8 million pound international, who I do not always rate, but does give you experience and honest endeavour, Baker, lots of experience and determination, Tanner our only natural RWB and Vyner sat on the bench, as a regular OTIB scapegoat most would not want starting anyway. We did have Pring on the bench who I would have liked to have started.

Our squad is 26 players, of which 7 are injured or coming back from injury (not including the 2 new injuries last night), 12 of the 26 are young players that have either come up from the u23's, signed to develop or be back up or still in early years of football development and experience. Also we have 7 that are over 30 and twilight of careers (although not sure that applies to Peter Pan AW)

The re-build started last year and we all acknowledge it was needed, expectation were just about survival this year (obviously forgotten by some on here) with another round of players in and outs in the summer. We know our financial situation is dyer, but we are lucky to have a couple of fantastic young players, which whilst we would all love them to stay and develop into a promotion winning squad, reality is we will need to cash in on at least 1 to bring in the quality and experience we need.

Its easy to be a keyboard warrior, and fire off sack Pearson, get rid of SL with out any real appreciation of what is going on behind the scenes and determining some of the decisions that are being made or giving realistic alternatives. 

Sometimes you get beaten by a better team, sometimes someone makes a mistake and concede, sometimes the game plan does not work, sh1t happens its called football, but you can't lose sight of the bigger picture and be realistic with expectations

Agree regarding Barnsley. In general people seem to overlook current form as an indicator of what will happen in a match. See also Blackburn - 2 goals scored in 8 games (?)  which meant even our defence kept them out, despite them being top 6.

[BasSavage88]

46 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Its easy to be a keyboard warrior, and fire off sack Pearson, get rid of SL with out any real appreciation of what is going on behind the scenes and determining some of the decisions that are being made or giving realistic alternatives. 

 

Just because there are issues possibly going on behind the scenes doesn't excuse 30 losses in 54 games and the longer fans like yourself use this as a defence for Pearson the longer the dinosaur will be around 

[Davefevs]

5 minutes ago, BasSavage88 said:

 

Just because there are issues possibly going on behind the scenes doesn't excuse 30 losses in 54 games and the longer fans like yourself use this as a defence for Pearson the longer the dinosaur will be around 

So you don’t think the financial mess we are in has any bearing?

[GrahamC]

No one is changing their mind here, are they?

There are some who think Pearson is at fault no matter the extenuating circumstances, that shaving a third off the wage bill, playing far more youngsters more often isn’t a factor in our inconsistency & because he brought in a couple of low cost former players of his that haven’t worked out, he can’t be trusted to make signings.

He made a decision earlier this season that the attritional football that gained us a few results wasn’t the way forward & since then we have scored far more & conceded too many.

I have no idea how this will play out, but unless he chooses to walk I do expect him to still be in charge for the start of the new season.

 

[BasSavage88]

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

So you don’t think the financial mess we are in has any bearing?

Some, not all.

Derby are in a far worse position on and off the pitch with much worse going on in the background with a Manager with 0 experience and have 2 more points this season than us.

[Davefevs]

23 minutes ago, BasSavage88 said:

Some, not all.

Derby are in a far worse position on and off the pitch with much worse going on in the background with a Manager with 0 experience and have 2 more points this season than us.

I’d argue until the 1st Feb they had a better (much better - debate / discuss) squad than us, despite their situation off the pitch.  They’ve got some very good players.  They still have, just no depth since the window closed.  The reason they had a better squad was because they acquired some of those players during the “cheating years”, e.g. Tom Lawrence.

They have won 3 / 10 (no draws / 9 points) since the window closed and they lost some players.  Those wins were against Peterborough, Barnsley and Hull.

Rooney has done a decent job in fairness, but it’s not like he’s had to play 11 kids every week.

[Mr Popodopolous]

3 hours ago, GrahamC said:

No one is changing their mind here, are they?

There are some who think Pearson is at fault no matter the extenuating circumstances, that shaving a third off the wage bill, playing far more youngsters more often isn’t a factor in our inconsistency & because he brought in a couple of low cost former players of his that haven’t worked out, he can’t be trusted to make signings.

He made a decision earlier this season that the attritional football that gained us a few results wasn’t the way forward & since then we have scored far more & conceded too many.

I have no idea how this will play out, but unless he chooses to walk I do expect him to still be in charge for the start of the new season.

 

Largely agree with your post, would be quite happy to see him in charge still.

If that bolded bit is true, I'm delighted and need to recalibrate my figures positively. Most quoted figure I've seen is £6m.

Simpson I think was past his best, King- had his uses or would if fit, albeit as a squad player James surely speaks for himself- started well. More young players is also positive and will mean ups and downs.

16 from 11 was useful and not all bad...though we were also riding our luck a bit- xG has somewhat worse off than our current pts tally but still indicates- and we can see it attacking and intent wise- better than much of last season.

[grifty]

5 hours ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Not sure what some expect

Obviously I can only speak for myself, but I expect the team to be able to;

1. Complete 5 yard passes extremely regularly. I don't mind if a risky through ball attempt is cut out or mis-judged, but the amount of simple 5 yard passes that are astray are astounding. Every pass seems to be to a players wrong foot, behind them, bouncing up to waist height meaning it's tough to control.

2. Control the ball. The amount of times one of our centre backs or centre mids is completely open in the central area of the pitch with time to bring it down so they just aimlessly head it back where it came from. I don't know if its a communication issue, a confidence issue, but it's rubbish.

3. Understand tactics/football. Why oh why a player thinks at the 35th time of trying that lumping a ball over the top for Chris Martin to chase is not going to work I do not know. They should know and play to his strengths. Put the ball into his feet or chest and he has a far better chance of controlling it and bring others into play. Playing a through ball for a man known at Derby as the Wardrobe or pumping high balls to a guy who game is not arial dominance is madness.

4. Move. The amount of times a centre back has the ball, looks forward and HNM or MJ last night and they were completely stationary was crazy. They don't try to even get out the way to make some space behind them that some of the attacking players can move into a receive the ball.

5. Play to players strengths. Semenyo now gets the ball and stops. He doesn't use his explosive power or speed, he cuts back and allows people to crowd him out. Alex Scott will influence the game in almost any position, get him at RWB, move Andi back into the front 3 where he isn't wasted. Scott has excellent defensive positioning too so would help Cundy out.

6. Attack the ball. Cundy, Klose or Atkinson do not attack the ball to head it. They try to lever players out the way and let the ball fall onto their head meaning they get no distance or accuracy on their clearances which puts us under pressure. We need someone like Flint who was absolutely unmarkable at corners/free kicks with his movement and aggression and very rarely lost a header from goal kicks, etc. The 3 we have are too nice. Kalas is a bit more aggressive but not as physically dominant.

I don't expect us to play like Fulham, win every game, play perfectly for 90 mins, but I expect the basics of football to be followed pretty much perfectly from people earning £10k+ p/w.

[TonyTonyTony]

Barnsley, playing at home and fighting to avoid relegation had more motivation last night against us, who lets face it, have nothing really to play for. Not likely to get relegated, and not near the top 6. Its not right yes, but often mid/lower mid table teams just have nothing to play for as we head into spring.

I still back NP, but i think i read on here or somewhere that if you listen to his post match interviews now, they are almost identical to 12 months ago. "Poor decision making", "stupid mistakes", "lack of desire" - come on mate - you can influence all of these things as Manager