Looking at City & Pearson from outside.

[And Its Smith]

Just now, Redland said:

Unfortunately he hasn’t got his facts right. He refers to us scoring lots of last-minute goals whereas the late goal at Millwall was an exception. The reality is that we concede many late goals and regularly drop points from a winning position. This is hardly indicative of the resilience that he talks about.

Do you have any stats to back that up as my memory must be failing if it’s true. We haven’t been like that for a while now. 

[And Its Smith]

7 minutes ago, Redland said:

Unfortunately he hasn’t got his facts right. He refers to us scoring lots of last-minute goals whereas the late goal at Millwall was an exception. The reality is that we concede many late goals and regularly drop points from a winning position. This is hardly indicative of the resilience that he talks about.

I’ve just checked and in the last 22 games (as far back as my app goes) we have scored 5 goals in the last 10 mins of matches and conceded zero. 

[Robbored]

1 hour ago, REDOXO said:

As much as you get on my baps sometimes just being you and your obsession with Danny Wilson (and let’s be fair GJ)you are right in this and a couple of other instances recently

We are lucky to have him. I don’t have any confidence that there was anyone else able to unpick “juniors” mess Without relegation. 
 

As for the bloke who gave the critique. Nice job. There are a few that still can’t wait for things to go wrong on this forum, but wherever it goes from now the achievements are remarkable.
 

Maybe just maybe having to bumble through the Johnson years was what was required for a brighter future. 

I just located Mike Holden ala Fox Punter on YouTube - Wow! I’ve never come across this guy before and quickly fathomed  that he’s one very smart cookie.

His piece on LJ and Sunderland and Nige at Bristol City were obviously recorded over two years ago but his views on Pearson have turned out to 100% accurate - that really impressed me.

His use of Myers-Briggs personality traits was a model we were exposed to in my career but largely poo - pooed by doctors as ‘unscientific’ and to be fair it’s not that reliable.

I’ve subscribed to his channel - maybe I’ll learn something!

Edited August 16, 2023 by Robbored

[Malago]

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/video/pearson-previews-blues-test/

 

Posted the Nige presser v Brum here, rather than starting a new link, simply because what he says reinforces the OP video.

Consistency of message.

[cidercity1987]

Very interesting

Pearson has always packaged this as a three year project and we are of course now into the third year. I don't think we quite have the layers mentioned in place for top six yet, as we are missing something going forward and an ability to control possession. This guy mentions a 4 or 5 year project and I reckon he's right.

Pearson has done well to turn us around and now needs more time to drag us up the league. The only problem and the only thing I'll disagree with is the suggestion that Pearson is perfect for the Lansdowns. Pearson is perfect for Bristol City but not perfect for the Lansdowns in their wisdom. I would be very surprised therefore if Pearson is afforded the 4th or 5th year without significant success this year. He himself has said in the past that it may well be that he lays the foundations for his successor. 

Let's hope the successor does not ruin what Pearson has created.

[chinapig]

9 minutes ago, Malago said:

https://www.bcfc.co.uk/video/pearson-previews-blues-test/

 

Posted the Nige presser v Brum here, rather than starting a new link, simply because what he says reinforces the OP video.

Consistency of message.

Trigger Warning:

Those who were annoyed by a commentator at the World Cup earlier this week for using the term I should warn you that Nigel uses transition in this interview.

[eardun]

4 hours ago, pl00peh91 said:

Interesting analysis about the resilient culture Pearson is building at the club. Hopefully we can see it come to fruition this season.

Enjoyed watching it so thought it would be worth a share. Sorry not able to embed the link for some reason but here it is:

https://x.com/foxpunter/status/1691795542261587992?s=46&t=FbdIExP5l4WfbK9ETY63_g

Thanks, I’d missed that. I hadn’t appreciated the amount of late goals stats that he posted here. We’re on the right track.

https://x.com/foxpunter/status/1690999556589129728?s=46&t=Lrw08Dd2QjCu1binMEvLeQ

 

[CheddarReds]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Very interesting point about consistency.

I had a meeting with Dave Rennie just before they want off to Austria.  He approached me (I was a bit shocked) because he’d read some of my stuff on twitter and here, and wondered if it’d like to meet up to chat about “data in football”.  As you can imagine I jumped at the chance.

We met up and had a best part of 2-hour natter about all manner of things, mainly football, a fair bit about data.  We talked about Leicester.  In particular he talked about that first season up in the PL when they got out of jail avoiding relegation.  Before the West Ham game (after they’d lost to Spurs 4-3) some of the staff went to Nige and said “we need to change things, we are going down”.  Nige’s response was “do you really think so”.  Staff response was “yes, we do”.  Nige was disappointed and responded “if you really think we should do something different, you should’ve suggested it last summer when we’re planning this season, not now”.

Nige could see it was coming together, he thought they’d started to find the consistency FoxPunter above mentioned, and he stuck to the plan.  They all thought it was the right plan when it was conceived, he wasn’t gonna change it.

The rest is (kinda) history.

Bet this was a fascinating chat. Nice to have your efforts recognised too. 

What were some of your key takeaways (that you're able to share publicly)?

[eardun]

2 hours ago, CheddarReds said:

His theory of Pearson's foundations being complemented by Ranieri's tweaks at Leicester is an interesting one too. 

I’ve seen a number of Leicester fans say similar; they recognise and appreciate Pearson’s role in their Premier League win. 

[tin]

3 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

Just seen this on Twitter, interesting video looking at Pearson and what has happened over the period.
Interesting as it looks at us and Nige in a slightly different way and brings up some good points. Nice to see someone talking about us with some real knowledge. Mike Holden's Twitter bio says;

Unique football analysis applying psychology, philosophy and mental models with a big focus on personality profiling of managers and their leadership styles.

Don't let that put you off.

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing that. He’s bang on the money IMO, although I can’t help but think it would be bloody typical of SL to rip it all up at the end of the season destroying all the hard work. 

[1960maaan]

18 minutes ago, chinapig said:

Trigger Warning:

Those who were annoyed by a commentator at the World Cup earlier this week for using the term I should warn you that Nigel uses transition in this interview.

Wait until he mentions double pivot, this place will blow  

[Nuno Gomes]

Excellent listen and thanks for posting.  It sort explains why I have found myself (finally) warming to the guy.  Yes I see him as old school but what this points out is that does not necessarily mean a bad thing.   He clearly has brought stability and a focus and as others have said has utilised the hand dealt him through our excellent Academy.  I’m not getting carried away and like most still see us as a mid table outfit but if there is movement I would expect it to be upwards rather than down.

[RED4LIFE]

1 hour ago, stephenkibby. said:

Has to be your best post ever.

The irony behind his post is that he has alienated virtually anyone with a brain cell on this forum yet still has the audacity to think that most of us agrees with whatever he posts.

There's all the evidence I need to keep him on my ignore list for another 10 years 

The saying don't feed the troll has never been more apt when it comes to that particular member of this forum. 

[slartibartfast]

3 hours ago, ralphindevon said:

We’re the Kelly Holmes of football.

Gold medals incoming!

That's good....I love women too ! 

[Fred89]

3 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Like most things, it ain't rocket science (although the science of this i find interesting).

It just comes down to creating an environment - wherever you work - of trust, belief and respect. It's there in Pearson's recent interview with The Athletic.

Pearson has created an environment where the players will run through brick walls - for him, for the team and, thus, for us. Because they trust him, believe in him, he commands their respect. 

Do players similarly trust Lee Johnson, believe in him, respect him? Do they ****, given enough time. 

You reap what you so. 

Pearson would be a great leader whatever job he had. 

Did Lee Johnson ever lose the dressing room confused by this ? We always competed at the top end bar his first full season, year before he saved us?

Unfortunatley at this level if you keeping having your best players sold eventually it becomes hard to compete 

[Davefevs]

39 minutes ago, CheddarReds said:

Bet this was a fascinating chat. Nice to have your efforts recognised too. 

What were some of your key takeaways (that you're able to share publicly)?

It was massively fascinating, I really didn’t know what to expect. Lovely guy too.  

The big takeaways for me that are shareable (not that he told me anything top secret either), paraphrased a bit were:

• they are massively into data, everyone is bought into it.  They don’t knee-jerk on anything, they confirm  good and bad with data.  They wouldn’t tell a player he was poor on Saturday without being able to back it up, that might be running data, touches in areas of the pitch, performance data of his opponent, etc.  And conversely they wouldn’t blow smoke up a players arse for having a good game without showing them data as to why too.  Hence no feelings of favouritism, a lot of trust as a result, even if there is obvious banter around teachers pets like Jamo!
• how insular football / pro football can be and that they sometimes miss stuff because they are used to looking at things.  As Rennie isn’t from a football background originally, he can give a different perspective.  Nige will ask him what eleven he’d pick, it’s not just Fleming and Euell, ditto Tinnion.  He might not change, but he is keen to understand “why” they might choose a different line-up to him.  It gives him another perspective.

@Nuno Gomes He certainly didn’t think Nige was old-skool, said he was very modern in his approaches, both coaching / tactical and medical.  I guess the FoxPunter video sums up where his focus is and that’s getting the foundations laid first.

When are we gonna see chaos!!!  sounds like it could be fun.

 

[Nogbad the Bad]

It's very rare that someone can talk almost non stop for 13 minutes and not only hold your attention but make sense all the way through.

Especially with the ever lurking distraction behind him making you regularly think 'what the hell has happened to that tree?'

[BLRed]

Chaos come when Lansdown doesn’t renew Pearson’s contract after all the good work and we end up back at square one

[Olé]

7 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

One bit I found interesting was how Johnson controlled everything, then when things went wrong there was no one on the pitch to stand up. I seem to remember one of the first things he mentioned was getting players to take responsibility on the pitch.
I find Pearson a breath of fresh air compared to LJ. 

That was the part of the comparison I probably recognised and enjoyed the most too - because it’s painfully true. 

This isn’t an LJ bashing session because I always gave him his dues for some amazing performances, especially away, but there were lots of reasons we never built a team, culture or identity under him and Foxpunter has absolutely nailed it.

I remember saying season in season out under LJ we had a real defecit in leaders, and that LJ appeared to be terrified of having anyone that spoke back or had an opinion - precisely the sort of "taking responsibility" Pearson encourages.

As Foxpunter has perfectly encapsulated, as the complex tactician and innovator, LJ wanted malleable young robots who should do whatever he told them, form no plan of their own, and (my view) get blamed or humiliated when they didn't.

Which meant whenever it went wrong, they were completely emasculated, just pieces on a board that either through fear or sheer neutralisation would look to LJ for what to do next, or more commonly need subbing off and throwing away. 

It's such a clear transition to NPs constant "take responsibility" and "players finding solutions" and culture of leadership. The great irony being NP wrongly has a rep as a bully yet it's LJ's approach to players that far far more exhibits that.

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by Olé

[mozo]

7 hours ago, BLRed said:

Chaos come when Lansdown doesn’t renew Pearson’s contract after all the good work and we end up back at square one

I was pondering yesterday; if City start the season well and are looking good in say November or December, will the crowd start demanding a contract for Nige with some sort of 'Sign him up' chant, a la Tomlin?

 

[David Brent]

11 hours ago, mozo said:

One big factor that wasn't mentioned was the overhaul of personnel. There have been some very notable outgoings, both playing staff and off-field staff.

Then he brought in his cultural leaders in James, King and Simpson. 

In the beginning everything was against Nige, including his own health, but he also lucked out with the emergence of some fantastic young talent, and some decent scouting.

I think this is all essential to the story, but perhaps the video is more about management style than events.

What I would say though is that the homegrown profile of the squad is a big factor in the current enthusiasm amongst our fanbase, not just the turnaround in attitude.

Our homegrown profile owes a lot to Nige imo. The likes of Conway and Bell may not have featured in a previous regime. I really believe that. 

[CyderHead92]

8 hours ago, BLRed said:

Chaos come when Lansdown doesn’t renew Pearson’s contract after all the good work and we end up back at square one

It would be bloody typical wouldn’t it

[Garland-sweden]

NP has and have done a good job here. Slowly slowly we get little better and we play better al around the pitch. The teams in this leauge are often level and think the mind of NP is right, Its not a quick fix as everybody knows. The culture is important, as he says on twitter: outside City no one noticed that. Not carried away but the feeling is good.

[Out of his pie crust]

9 hours ago, Davefevs said:

It was massively fascinating, I really didn’t know what to expect. Lovely guy too.  

The big takeaways for me that are shareable (not that he told me anything top secret either), paraphrased a bit were:

• they are massively into data, everyone is bought into it.  They don’t knee-jerk on anything, they confirm  good and bad with data.  They wouldn’t tell a player he was poor on Saturday without being able to back it up, that might be running data, touches in areas of the pitch, performance data of his opponent, etc.  And conversely they wouldn’t blow smoke up a players arse for having a good game without showing them data as to why too.  Hence no feelings of favouritism, a lot of trust as a result, even if there is obvious banter around teachers pets like Jamo!
• how insular football / pro football can be and that they sometimes miss stuff because they are used to looking at things.  As Rennie isn’t from a football background originally, he can give a different perspective.  Nige will ask him what eleven he’d pick, it’s not just Fleming and Euell, ditto Tinnion.  He might not change, but he is keen to understand “why” they might choose a different line-up to him.  It gives him another perspective.

@Nuno Gomes He certainly didn’t think Nige was old-skool, said he was very modern in his approaches, both coaching / tactical and medical.  I guess the FoxPunter video sums up where his focus is and that’s getting the foundations laid first.

When are we gonna see chaos!!!  sounds like it could be fun.

 

Job for @Davefevs in the offing at the club then ?

[Redland]

Sorry, double post

Edited August 17, 2023 by Redland

[Redland]

11 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

I’ve just checked and in the last 22 games (as far back as my app goes) we have scored 5 goals in the last 10 mins of matches and conceded zero. 

Well for a start the last home game against Preston.

[Bourne End Red]

10 hours ago, Davefevs said:

It was massively fascinating, I really didn’t know what to expect. Lovely guy too.  

The big takeaways for me that are shareable (not that he told me anything top secret either), paraphrased a bit were:

• they are massively into data, everyone is bought into it.  They don’t knee-jerk on anything, they confirm  good and bad with data.  They wouldn’t tell a player he was poor on Saturday without being able to back it up, that might be running data, touches in areas of the pitch, performance data of his opponent, etc.  And conversely they wouldn’t blow smoke up a players arse for having a good game without showing them data as to why too.  Hence no feelings of favouritism, a lot of trust as a result, even if there is obvious banter around teachers pets like Jamo!
• how insular football / pro football can be and that they sometimes miss stuff because they are used to looking at things.  As Rennie isn’t from a football background originally, he can give a different perspective.  Nige will ask him what eleven he’d pick, it’s not just Fleming and Euell, ditto Tinnion.  He might not change, but he is keen to understand “why” they might choose a different line-up to him.  It gives him another perspective.

@Nuno Gomes He certainly didn’t think Nige was old-skool, said he was very modern in his approaches, both coaching / tactical and medical.  I guess the FoxPunter video sums up where his focus is and that’s getting the foundations laid first.

When are we gonna see chaos!!!  sounds like it could be fun.

 

Well done Dave, great to see some recognition from the club for all your efforts.

I know we all massively appreciate your time and opinions on this forum.

Was there any hint of maybe a job or some sort of consultancy type role for you at the club in the future, you’re obviously on their radar…..

[chinapig]

18 minutes ago, Out of his pie crust said:

Job for @Davefevs in the offing at the club then ?

No but as a promising young analyst they may offer Dave an unpaid internship.

[And Its Smith]

18 minutes ago, Redland said:

Well for a start the last home game against Preston.

Yes I did miss that one. So 1 conceded in over 20 games. Not a lot is it.  And 5 scored. Shows we do actually actually score late

[1960maaan]

10 hours ago, Davefevs said:

He certainly didn’t think Nige was old-skool, said he was very modern in his approaches, both coaching / tactical and medical.  I guess the FoxPunter video sums up where his focus is and that’s getting the foundations laid first.

That is old school. TBF , he has been given the time needed to , not only sort out the mess left by Previous regimes , but to lay those foundations. In that respect it is old school as you don't often get that time, which in turn can mean (like Chris Hughton apparently wanted to do) buying in a whole new squad and buying "your" team. Nige has been afforded the time to get the behind the scenes right while slowly changing the mindset and culture of the Club. Old School.

10 hours ago, Davefevs said:

When are we gonna see chaos!!!

I think Pearson has alluded to that himself. From Sky Sports last Novemeber ;

Pearson admitted that he would like a maverick-type player in his squad. At Leicester City he had Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, who were able to change games on their own and played with a swagger and confidence.

This was when we were looking at signing Reda Khadra , but I think it can be levelled at Mehmeti and some of the recent names we have been linked with. Of course they have to still fit into the team framework , that's why I imagine he was gutted at losing Scott , the perfect example of team player / maverick IMO.