Craig Bryson believes former Derby County manager Nigel Pearson would have gotten it right with time as he tells Steve Bloomer’s Washing podcast of his turbulent spell.
Bryson joined Aberdeen in the summer following eight years at Derby County.
The Scotland international played under as many as six permanent managers at Pride Park. One, in particular, the midfielder admits not seeing eye to eye with.
But Bryson rather surprisingly had kind words for Nigel Pearson. The former Leicester City boss lasted just nine games at Derby before receiving the sack.
I quite liked him, I got on with him. Given time, I thought he would have probably got it right. I think maybe the only thing he got wrong was he tried to play his formation straight away when for the past few years we had signed a lot of players to play a certain way and he tried to change it too quickly. Results and performances weren’t going great on the pitch. But I think given time and a couple of transfer windows he’d have done well.
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Nigel Pearson’s disastrious Derby County reign:
Pearson became the Derby manager in the summer of 2016.
He arrived at Pride Park having won the Championship with Leicester City in the 2013-14 campaign before keeping the Foxes in the Premier League a year later.
Many Derby supporters felt at the time he was exactly what the club needed following failures to secure promotion under Steve McClaren and Paul Clement.
But few could predict the disaster which was to follow. Derby won just one of their opening nine league games under Pearson, scoring a mere three goals. His final game in charge, a 2-1 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers, left the Rams in the Championship’s bottom three.
Pearson inherited a squad which had challenged for promotion for three straight seasons. He spent some £12 million on Matej Vydra and Ikechi Anya to bolster a squad already boasting quality players such as Will Hughes, Craig Bryson, Tom Ince, Chris Martin and Scott Carson.
It just didn’t work out for him. Derby went on to finish eighth that season while hiring and firing Steve McClaren and ending the campaign with Gary Rowett in charge.
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