Nigel Pearson has acknowledged that a bad run of form will only be tolerated for so long at Bristol City and has emphasised the importance of securing a result against Watford on Saturday.
A 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat at home to Lincoln on Tuesday, which stretched City's poor run of form to two wins in their last 13 matches, has increased pressure on the manager. The Robins have also dropped to 20th in the Championship ahead of the four-week World Cup break, which will naturally lead to time for reflection at Ashton Gate, and every other club not playing until December.
Pearson, 59, admitted his team selection to take on his former club will "speak for itself" following the Lincoln loss, having called on his players to show their fighting qualities to pull off a much-needed result. While the vast majority of fans have shown their support for the manager on the whole, their recent results have raised external questions about his immediate future.
The City manager is experienced enough to know that while he has been hamstrung with a lack of finances over the last 18 months and the challenges of reducing the wage bill and changing the culture in BS3 - ultimately his future comes down to results. Leam Richardson has become the latest Championship manager to lose his job this season after he was sacked at Wigan Athletic, leaving City as one of only three clubs in the bottom half of the division not having made a change in the dugout this term.
Speaking ahead of Saturday's game at Ashton Gate, Pearson said: "Managers don't go forever on a run of bad results. I'm aware that this is going to be an important game because otherwise, people might start wondering about what my position is.
"I've invested too much time and energy in this job to allow players, who I don't really trust that much at the minute, to play and that's how I will be approaching the game. I will be blunt, you didn't ask the question directly but you're right to ask it and very kind not to ask it in a blunt way but the bottom line is we need a result this week. Simple as that.
"But, we have invested too much in the strategy that we're adopting to ignore the work we have put in. It's been a difficult 18 months in terms of trying to reshape it. Unfortunately, we know we need to make adjustments to the squad but we don't know if we can do it at this time and that's the big problem for us."
When asked if he needs a result in regards to his position as manager, Pearson added: "Maybe, I can't answer that but I don't worry about that anyway.
"But no. It's about finishing this part of the season positively. We've dropped down to 20th which is not great but it's ridiculously tight. We continue to throw points away that we shouldn't which means we find ourselves dropping down the table when our aspirations are a lot higher than that. Managers ultimately carry the can but there's a lot more to it than that."
On the return from the initial international break at the beginning of October 1, Pearson set a target for his side to remain in and around the top six after a really positive start to the season. That obviously hasn't transpired with City three points above the relegation zone.
It does, however, remain a ridiculously tight league and they remain eight points adrift of the play-off zone. City have been hampered by injuries to Tomas Kalas and, most notably Kal Naismith, which has exposed the lack of depth in the squad coinciding with a relentless fixture schedule.
"The likes of Kal Naismith who hasn't been available for a while now and Kal with his performances have improved us but I think it's fair to say he had a positive influence on the players he played alongside," Pearson added.
"Cam Pring has come back into the side and done very well and Zak (Vyner) has done better. Our problems remain the same because we haven't been able to strengthen in that area.
"The players that we have there some have shown improvement and some haven't stepped up. We've had unavailability too. That's been the biggest problem for us in that area.
"What we need to do is think short-term and we owe ourselves and our fans a better performance from the other night. Whether looking at the bigger picture is the right thing to do or not, it's not the right thing for me to say in this press conference because that smacks of trying to avoid the issue and that is we haven't performed this week and we need to.
"Selection will speak for itself. We've got one game before this break against a top side who have very good players so we need to be at the top end of our performance. We can't allow what happened on Tuesday to happen again.
"It's really important the players selected to start, show - not just the qualities they have, but the fighting qualities too - and that's really important for us. It's going to be important that the players selected to start delivering individually but more importantly collectively. We need to have a look and feel of a team and not isolate people."
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