Groundhog Day

No excuses for that one, Spoonfox, and I don't think anyone pretends there is.

I think we expect a spirited performance against Blackpool now, although that's far from saying Pearson's job is on the line there as was suggested by one or two texters on the radio. The bigger picture still needs to be seen that this squad has just started and to fire the manager now would be suicide for the season.

At the end of the day, Burton wanted it a lot more than we did. I can't understand Pearson's team selection either...
A: 2 Centre Backs returning from injury and never played together.
2: Gallagher doesn't fit in the squad anymore, time for him to leave.
3: I thought he wanted a consistant playing team so why break it up?
4: Vardy, Marshall & Dyer all left out.
5: Beckford on the bench, been looking good all season.

Rapidly losing faith if not lost it already.

That performance and result will have pushed NP considerably closer to the revolving door - we know the owners have a hair trigger; September is a huge month for him.

I like NP, and I wouldn't want to see him go, but his selection last night is beyond comprehension.

It's the kind of selection that looks excellent if it works. If we'd won, then:
- Whitbread and St. Ledger would have had 90 minutes under the belts each and Pearson would have had a straight choice between them for Saturday.
- Many fringe players would have had a competitive run-out to maintain their sharpness. One or two might have impressed enough to be challenging for a first team spot.
- Much of the first 11 would be fresher for Saturday.

However, it didn't work, neither centre back looked good enough to deserve Moore's spot, nobody except maybe Knockaert can be considered to be knocking on the door of the first team and now Saturday's match has a lot of pressure against probably /the/ in-form team in the league. Not only that, but instead of showcasing some talents, there are certain players who I suspect many of us are thinking that we wouldn't care if we never saw them in a Leicester shirt again. (I can think of three who started last night that applies to.)

I think of Charlton and Blackburn as being disappointments but nothing to be overly worried about. This is the first minor crisis of the season and the first real test of the manager, as it's highlighted problems in the reserve side, both in attitude and aptitude and put a question mark over the goalkeeper to boot. However, I believe it's how Pearson reacts this rather than what led up to this which is the most important thing.

I don't think it's entirely fair to make Danns the scape-goat.

I wasn't there but from what I can glean from Dunge's excellent summary of player ratings, Danns was absolute pants but so were many others.

The player did enough last year to make us believe he has the ability and it's the old chicken and egg situation - he needs first team games to prove it.

But I'm not (and never have been) a Waghorne fan. Get him out on loan or get rid. In my opinion, he is behind Nugent, Beckford, Vardy, Schlupp and Futacs. Too far off the pecking order I'm afraid.