Pearson: Collective Spirit A Key Strength

The Foxes went four games without a win in December 2013, losing three of those, but after beating then table-topping Queens Park Rangers, went on to register a Club record nine straight league wins.
Facing Sunderland in front of a sold out King Power Stadium on Saturday, a win could see City jump out of the bottom three and up into 14th place, leapfrogging the Black Cats in the process.
Calling for focus amidst a frustrating period for the Club, Pearson said: “There seems to be this perception that when things are going well, everyone’s just carefree and happy. And when results don’t go well, everybody’s doom and gloom.
“That’s not the reality of how things work. One of the strengths that we have as a group of people is that there is a collective spirit which enables you to go through both extremes.
“You don’t become a side that’s capable of winning things through throwing a group of players together. If you spend time around the training ground, you wouldn’t visibly see things being completely different to last season.
“Although last season was a very successful year, we had some difficult spells through that as well. What you have to do is remind people about what’s expected, what we’re good at and where we need to improve.
“Our biggest strength is our ability to remain focused as a group of people because that will allow our players with more flare to shine through. They can only do that if we’re able to be effective as a team, first and foremost.”
Despite not finding the back of the net since the 2-2 draw with Burnley in early October, City’s form at King Power Stadium will certainly be something Pearson’s men can draw positives from. Just one loss in five home games in the league is good reading for the Blue Army, that coming in the 1-0 defeat to West Bromwich Albion earlier this month.
“The margins are so small,” said Pearson. “I don’t buy into this notion that we’re a million miles away – we’re not. I have to keep a close eye on the difference between how other people are perceiving what’s happening and what is actually happening in terms of performance.
“As a manager, I’m going to be judged by results – I’m not trying to shy away from that as a reality – but ultimately, this group of players have made a big transition and they’re capable of getting better results at this level.
“A number of our performances so far have shown that it is at times very difficult to quantify the difference apart from to say that clearly in both boxes, things haven’t gone quite as well as we would have liked.”