Pearson debate...

As I recall, the general view last summer, shared in the end by Pearson's doubters and cheerleaders alike, was that he ought to be given a full season to show what he could do. I'm amongst the doubters, but I remain of that view: a new manager appointed at this stage would be a real gamble. Pearson deserves his full shot at it.

Whether the owners will be of the same mind I'm not at all sure, however. They panicked over Sven, and l might easily do so again.

Found myself earlier this week watching the DVD of our 2010/11 season, and was reminded of how excellently Andy King was performing then. Where has all that gone - the deft touch, the losing of his markers and ghosting into the box, the many GOALS, and general Cleverness of his game? He and we have really lost something potent and valuable since then.

I'm not one of Pearson's greatest admirers, but he should be given until the end of the season and I hope he is. He's got us in the promotion mix and, whilst we've been dreadful the last three games, there's perhaps been a slight overreaction from some quarters. We're still fifth, we have games in hand and we've recovered from alarming slumps in form before this season so it's hardly the end of the world.

That said, if we don't get promoted this season I do think he'll be axed in the summer and he can't have too many complaints if that happens. Adkins would be my, and I think most people's choice as a replacement, but Di Canio is a promising young manager too.

Dung i will put them up you hit them.

Look despite this run of poor performances two wins and we are back on track. but why the drop in form and confidence we where playing the best football i have seen in years whats going wrong.
Do players think they are going to be selected whatever happens or how they perform?

Shakky knew how Charlton where going to set up why did we still play 442 or is that Pearsons weakness?

Malling - I think out of everyone in the squad, King is still to "bring it all together". He used to do exactly that, then got marked out of the game and disappeared. These days he sits back more, covering gaps pretty effectively in defence and allowing other defenders to go forward, but his attacking game has diminished.

I'm still not quite sure what his best role is. I'm not convinced that King himself knows either. His current, more defensive game would benefit from a couple of things: Most importantly, finding more space to receive the ball when we're in possession. This is something that an in-form Drinkwater does excellently and it gives him a lot of time on the ball. King has technical skills that are just as good but doesn't give himself enough time to use them. If he does this, his visible influence on the game would go up dramatically. The other thing he could do is shoot more from range - I don't really know why he stopped doing this in the first place.

However, I maintain that he's had far too much undeserved criticism of late.

Nev - I think we're playing 4-4-2 because that's what suits the strikers. When Wood was out, we probably should have gone 4-2-3-1 but Pearson gave other strikers a chance instead. And now we know.

I was actually tempted to bring on Dyer for Konchesky at half time and go 3-4-1-2 (and I'm very rarely that radical). But that kind of decision is fraught with a whole new set of dangers.

Also, don't forget that we started the same team in the same formation against Huddersfield in early January; they played 4-5-1 and we slammed them 6-1. Perhaps Pearson's logic was that with a target man like Wood we'd have more power to win against a team parking the bus. Sometimes you only find out you're wrong when it's too late.

Good thread and debate but ludicrous we're discussing this in my opinion. I personally would give Pearson another season irrespective of where we finish.

We have the foundations of an aitomatic promotion team. It's taken Pearson 12 months to get us here. Give him another 12 to build on those foundations - don't break them all again and start from square 1. New manager, new ideas, new face. A potential improvement but more likely a backwards step and another new manager in!!!

Give Pearson the time to develop the squad with the strength and quality to become a real top 2 team.

And Paulo DiCanio? Hilarious, why don't we get in Gazza - probably more emotionally stable than him and more managerial experience. Don't make me laugh!

Oh, and worth pointing out that repeatedly changing manager has really worked wonders in the last 8 years!!

No, it hasn't Mersey and stability is what rather club needs but other than a select few teams who has long term stability? Football has changed, and quite a lot for the worse.

It's been good to see the different thoughts though (and also good that people have respected other opinions, unlike some other forums!)....

Just looking over the comments it is really interesting to see that a lot of people still don't have 100% confidence in Pearson but he should be given to the end of the season at least...time will tell but one thing for sure is that Saturdays game is massive now.

I kind of think Mersey was joking in his last paragraph, Bedford.