Alex Pearce

[Charlie Darwin]

£6m for James Chester, good god.

[Stuttgart88]

Chestery?

[DeLorean]

Has cemented his place at Derby and is playing some greats stuff by all accounts. Are we a bit too quick to embrace the likes of John Egan and clamour for their involvement at the expense of guys like Pearce? Bringing through youth is all well and good but Martin O'Neill must live in the real world too. Egan was barely playing Championship football for five minutes and there were calls for his inclusion, myself included I think, without even seeing him play I assume it's fair enough to say.

[Stuttgart88]

Judge them on their merits. Egan seemed to be going from strength to strength while Pearse seemed to be going backwards from a relatively weak starting point. Great news that he's playing well. 6 wins in a row I think. I always rated McLaren!

[Charlie Darwin]

Paul McShane riding high in the Championship but nobody will say anything either. Often the less you see of a player the higher your opinion.

[tetsujin1979]

Keogh starting every game this season for Derby as well. He's a machine, last Derby game he didn't start was in January!

[DeLorean]

Judge them on their merits. Egan seemed to be going from strength to strength while Pearse seemed to be going backwards from a relatively weak starting point. Great news that he's playing well. 6 wins in a row I think. I always rated McLaren!

In fairness to Pearce, his starting point was that of a vastly experience, highly rated Championship centre back with obvious leadership qualities. His apparent demise came as a result of what looked like a poor career move where he had to compete with two other highly rated Championship centre backs that were more established at that particular club. This didn't make him any less of a player, just a player in an awkward situation. He's only just turned 28 so I guess I'm just speculating if we're too quick to jump the gun and give out about certain squad selections based on very little. O'Neill has to assume the worst in terms of a centre back injury crisis and ensure his squad has the right balance in terms of youth, experience and leadership. Had Egan really done enough to justify ousting Pearce, with hindsight I would now think definitely not, yet I would have probably agreed it seemed like a lazy squad selection at the time.

[DeLorean]

Paul McShane riding high in the Championship but nobody will say anything either. Often the less you see of a player the higher your opinion.

Definitely, although not as defensively sound as Derby it has to be said and his age profile a bit higher as well. Not to mention the horror show against Slovakia earlier this year.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

It's good to see that Pearce and Keogh have formed a solid pairing.

Derby seem to be a more solid team since Pearce came into the fold.

I never would have guessed it after one of the worst defensive performances I have ever seen from an Irish CB partnership against Portugal in America.

[Charlie Darwin]

Keogh starting every game this season for Derby as well. He's a machine, last Derby game he didn't start was in January!
And under Steve McLaren, who hates him, too.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

And under Steve McLaren, who hates him, too.

I know, right. Just like Stephen Henderson. Another victim of a machiavellian vendetta.

[OwlsFan]

Just noticed that he was in the EFL Team of the week. Good stuff.

[geysir]

Keogh starting every game this season for Derby as well. He's a machine, last Derby game he didn't start was in January!

If he was a machine, which one would he be, the internal combustion engine?

[tetsujin1979]

Perpetual motion engine

[DeLorean]

Pearce has been selected ahead of Richard Keogh in the Derby team since their 4-1 reverse at home to Sunderland. They have stopped (or at least halted) the rot with two clean sheet victories and Pearce even managed to get on the scoresheet against Bolton on Saturday, good header too as he was going away from goal - https://youtu.be/bvZDtvPTIH8?t=54s

[DeLorean]

Pearce named captain at Millwall - https://www.millwallfc.co.uk/news/2019/july/alex-pearce-named-club-captain/