Newcastle game, make or break for City
Pearson has not managed to convince anyone with his rotation policy

THE CUNNING FOX, 29.01.2010

Older foxes fans can remember the great days as City supporters and we all know how great City teams have been build and managed. Pearson has not yet convinced anyone with his rotation philosophy.

To see Chris Powell back in the City line-up is of course nice for the player himself, but it is also a sign that we all would rather not see. A young defender on loan is benched for a 40 year old has been.

Ryan McGivern was given a new chance to impress after signing a new loan deal with the club for the rest of the season. He has experience from full international level with N Ireland and should be able to cope with Championship football.

McGivern is on the books at Man City and looked up on as a young and exciting back prospect, but so far it has been difficult for him to be a good cover for Bruno Berner, and to be honest Chris Powell looked the better alternative when he was used against Barnsley.

As a fan you don't know everything that goes on, but you can see a pattern over a certain number of games. When City had Martin O'Neill as a manager or another favourite of mine, Jimmy Bloomfield, it was not difficult to understand the way they build up their teams even if they had a number of problems to field their best 11.

Nigel Pearson had a great start to the season with a good mix of players and a first team alternative that worked well. The fact that he signed Paul Gallagher from Blackburn and used him wide in midfield makes you think, why on earth did he sign Gallagher and not a player that was naturally a flank alternative.

City's squad has over the last two years been a bit unbalanced with too may natural forwards in the squad, few alternatives in central defence and central midfield and maybe to many squad players that has more or less the same skills and level.

The signing of Nobby Solano is ok, and he will hopefully add experience and skill that will get City back on winning ways. But so far no one has seen Nobby in action and if he has to use a month or two to get back in shape, you can start wondering why they have even bothered to sign him up and sold Max Gradel. Hopefully Nobby will be in the squad for the Newcastle game and ready to compete at Championship level.

Pearson has done a number of great transfer deals with Weale, Berner, Powell, Wellens, Brown, Hobbs, N'Guessan and Dyer all doing a good job when they are playing. All of them have taken the Championship level well.

Yann Kermorgant, Martyn Waghorn, Paul Gallagher, Robbie Neilson and Ryan McGivern have not yet convinced anyone that they can play well and contribute in the way you would like when they are called up on. Gallagher is a good player but mostly played out of his best position and that must frustrate him a bit. Gallagher is a forward and not a flank player, despite doing well from time to time. He was played in a deeper role behind the forwards against Watford and had a great game in the first half, but faded off into the wilderness in the 2nd half.

The fact that Nicky Adams is given a chance to play at Leyton Orient on loan, makes you wonder why he was used so much in the start of the season and now looked up on as a player that we don't need.

The situation with DJ Campbell is also a strange scenario. Frozen out in the start of the season, given a chance to get his career back on track at the club and suddenly loaned out to Derby. This makes you wonder what sort of policy the manager have on his mind when building a competetive squad.

To be honest TCF would like to see another pattern in the way Pearson is working. TCF would like a more settled squad with a group of players that should be more confident than they are, and a more settled team and system.

Goalkeepers

No problem to pick the best, Chris Weale is our first choice, also a fact for Pearson. No use in trying Logan or Pentney as first team choices, they are covering well and Logan has experience from this level and is a good alternative 2, with Pentney covering as 3rd choice. No really goalkeeper problem.

Right back
Robbie Neilson was brought in to play in this position, but he has failed to convince Pearson he is an alternative. Nobby Solano can play here and Michael Morrison and Luke O'Neill are two other alternatives. Morrison is not the best right back in the world and his best position is in central defence. O'Neill is a very interesting young prospet but maybe not the best alternative yet. Michael Morrison is for TCF the best alternative.

Left back
Pearson has in many ways a big problem here as long as Bruno Berner is not fit. Berner has played fantastically well and we miss him a lot. Chris Powell looks at the moment as the best alternative with Berner not available. Morrison is a third alternative.

Central defence
Jack Hobbs and Wayne Brown has been the preferred partnership, and they are the best alternative when using Morrison on the right. Morrison can be cover for both Brown and Hobbs, but why change something that has worked so well over the last months. Brown and Hobbs have looked as a great partnership and hopefully Pearson will stick with the duo. Tunchev is a great player but at the moment not fit to play.

Right flank
Matt Oakley or Nobby Solano. that is the question. With Nobby you will get the creativity and great crosses, with Matt you have a more balanced player who can also cover and do a more centrally defensive job, not to be underestimated. Nobby would be my selection and hopefully he can add better support for our forwards. N'Guessan is a third alternative in this position, but in my view a clear third choice.

Left flank
At the moment there are few options in this position. Lloyd Dyer knows this position well and the only clear alternative. Let him play and build confidence. Pushing him in and out of the team is for me difficult to understand, when the other alternative used is to play Paul Gallagher here in a position he is not really comfortable with.

Central midfield
Richie Wellens is a certainty, but he has lately not shown the form we would like. Hopefully he will manage to get back to his form and be the the only choice for Pearson. Andy King is at the moment the other man in the centre, with Matt Oakley looking as the third alternative. Oakley and King is for me the same, but to rotate them all is not a good alternative. Pearson must decide on his best two and leave the third player as a cover. TCF would have chosen King. This is also a position where City should have signed a new player, but only if they find one that could go straight into the team and be a clear choice from day one.

Forwards
Steve Howard and Matty Fryatt are the best alternative. Yann Kermorgant shows some promise and Paul Gallagher is also a good alternative. You also have Martyn Waghorn as an alternative, but not convinced he can at his age play week in and week out with a level that makes City a contender for a promotion push. The fact that we also have Paul Dickov and DJ Campbell in the squad, makes you wonder why on earth Pearson decided to use up Milan's money on Gallagher ?

TCF would go for this line up
Weale - Morrison, Berner (Powell), Hobbs, Brown - Wellens, King (Oakley), Solano (Oakley), Dyer - Fryatt, Howard

Pearson has no money to use in the transfer window, if no one is sold, and he must be questioned on the additions of Ajdarevic, Neilson, McGivern. Waghorn, Kermorgant and Gallagher. All of them are in a way not giving us enough and TCF feels that when you add 6 players to your squad and none of them strengthens your team, you have a problem.

Instead of six new players that gives you a selection problem, TCF would have added one or two players that in a way would have been more or less certainties in the team.

TCF is in favour of smaller squads with four or five players among your best 18 that can play in more than one position and that also can cope with that and perform well.

Martin O'Neill showed how well he managed to use few players and at the same time manage to give them challanges that they could cope with. This is also a formula used by people like Sir Bobby Robson, Brian Clough, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho. Don Revie also had great success with this when in charge of Leeds in the 70's.

You build great confidence with such a policy, but you cannot change too much if a game or two is going wrong, that is the way a great manager works. The blend of youth, experience and footballing knowledge is also vital. Pearson could have chosen this policy, but so far he is not yet doing this the right way. He is not as wild as Peter Taylor and Micky Adams were, and far away from Craig Levein's Russian revelution policy, and hopefully he will end up in the right box and be positive and stick with a smaller group of players.

This is the pattern TCF would like to see and it could be possible to do that today as well, but you need to decide on how many players you would like in the squad and how you would like to run your team and your squad strategy.

TCF is not 100 % convinced on Pearson and his strategy, but hopefully he will not end up like Micky Adams, Peter Taylor, Frank McLintock and Craig Levein who lost their heads and dumped to a level of management which slowly drows you in to a relegation contender.

You try one thing, doesn't work, you try another thing, doesn't work and you try a third thing it doesn't work. You change systems more often than you change underwear and suddenly your training sessions is not mirrored with the way you want to play and when your squad starts to questioning the way you work, you have lost.

TCF have one plea to Mr Pearson, stick with your team, mirror the work you do in training with the way you want to perform in the games and not use too many players and certainly not play them in positions they cannot cope with.

TCF hope that experiments are over and that Pearson knows how to field his best team, and that he can keep up the good work and the Newcastle game will be the start of great run until the end of the season.

TCF would like to be convinced that Nigel Pearson is the right choise for City, what bothers me is that he is a former central defender and that his knowledge of football is defensively orientated and that movements offensively is a bit neglected.

Let's hope that TCF is wrong and that Pearson has the skill needed to get City back to the top. There is no need to talk about money, not yet. Pearson should have done a better job over the summer and he can be punished hard if he can't get things right asap