Back From The Game - Nottm Forest

[winchester_royal]

Thought Scott Davies was top class today, easily the best player on the pitch.

As for the game itself, bore fest if you ask me. Very few chances, 0-0 written all over it from the 1st whistle. it took an hour for the 1st match corner FFS! The 1st half was like a friendly.

Patience is the key word this season.

Yup. The plus point is Rodgers started Watford playing similarly and gradually made them more direct and attacking until they hit the right note.

I thought we had the right mix in the last 20 minutes or so. There was some slick passing, patient build up and direct running (Long was fantastic when it came to this) which resulted in a number of chances. It will take a while for the team to become fully fluent, but there were a lot of encouraging signs on that pitch today.

[John Peel]

I feel bad after all the positive comments, but I personally think that today's performance showed us that we definitely won't be chasing automatic... unless we get a replacement for Doyler. I hope I'm wrong but I think that the best we can hope for is the lottery of the play-offs. Yes, we played some good passing football and it was a joy to hold after the hoofing of the past, and we kept the ball well (apart from Liam R). But the final third was below par for me.

Just wait until a contender for automatic comes here like WBA, Ipswich or Cardiff and we may get a nasty shock.

I would gladly eat my words.

[Ian Royal]

I feel bad after all the positive comments, but I personally think that today's performance showed us that we definitely won't be chasing automatic... unless we get a replacement for Doyler. I hope I'm wrong but I think that the best we can hope for is the lottery of the play-offs. Yes, we played some good passing football and it was a joy to hold after the hoofing of the past, and we kept the ball well (apart from Liam R). But the final third was below par for me.

Just wait until a contender for automatic comes here like WBA, Ipswich or Cardiff and we may get a nasty shock.

I would gladly eat my words.

Not on today's showing, but Forest could well be a contender at the top.

[Friday's Child]

Wouldn't the best player for the centre-forward position be Nicky Forster?


................ from about 7 years ago

[CMRoyal]

I feel bad after all the positive comments, but I personally think that today's performance showed us that we definitely won't be chasing automatic...

I don't think positive comments about today's performance = thinking we'll be in the running for auto promotion.

We all pretty much know where the shortcomings are, and actually pushing for a playoff place would be a real bonus.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

With a bit of luck we'll hit a few v Burton like we did v Luton last year, and that'll give the players a bit of confidence to have a crack rather than look for the perfect pass every time.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Wouldn't the best player for the centre-forward position be Nicky Forster?


................ from about 7 years ago

i was thinking that today.

lots of good stuff, dont think i have ever seen such a young team.

But we are way,way short up front

[Deathy]

Not wanting to see any negatives today, but Jimmy Kebe... Jesus. He hasn't improved. I'm not talking about the open goal. That, to be fair, came to him out of nowhere. He just doesn't seem to have control of the ball, he's a chancer. Great pace, not much else.

[Tilehurst Mike]

Bored bored to be honest. Its thats 'pure' football for the technicians then fine, But I judge a game on shots on targets and to be honest neither keeper was really troubled, Every 'attack' seemed the same with lots of clever passing and possession but no end product, On that performance Church is not good enough and a quality striker is desperately needed to replace Doyle. I'll reserve judgement until after a few games, but pretty as the passing was, and it was great to see so many Academy products on view, I just can't see this team scoring many goals. My worry is that the team seemed incapable of trying new tactics in the last few minutes when Forest were down to 10 men, when perhaps a more direct approach was needed and we were still fannying around with cross field passes. Early days, but limited entertainment value today I'm afraid.

[Deathy]

Wouldn't the best player for the centre-forward position be Nicky Forster?


................ from about 7 years ago

No. Take a look at his games to goals ratio here. Not great reading. Great on his day, but a greedy little git that wasn't potent enough in front of goal.

[Billy The Fish]

Fed - 7. Solid. Claimed a corner confidently, made a great block (with his face I thought), good distribution.

Rosy - 5. Was great to see us trying to build from the back, but this style of play needs a higher level of technical ability (accuracy of passing and instant control) and sadly I think Rosy is not quite good enough, which is a shame because I like his general attitude.
Bertrand - 7.5. Looked confident on the ball, good first touch. I thought the partnership with Kebe wasn't quite there yet though. Gets an extra half point for that fantastic run forward in second half.
Pearce - 8. I was surprised to hear him named as club vc, but perhaps justified it today with an assured performance, both defensively and as the starting point for our new passing game.
Cisse - 7. Solid defensive performance. Much prefer him here than in midfield.

Tabb - 6. At one point when he received the ball I thought, oh yes, Jay Tabb IS playing. Everything seemed to go via Jem.
Jem - 7. Very lively in midfield and seemed to be at the hub of everything, but lacking the range of passing that Marek brings. Tried some extravagant long crossfield balls that didn't come off.
Scott Davies - 8 and MOTM. My Shots-supporting colleague has been praising Davies all last season, he was desperate for them to sign him permanently, I can see why! Not a bad first game at this level stepping up 2 divisions from League 2.
Jimmy - 6. As frustrating as ever. Clearly can beat his man, but when he does, who knows where the ball is going next! Unlucky not to score, the ball came at him at pace and he wasn't sure which left foot to wave at it.
HRK - 6. Beat his man comprehensively a couple of times.

Church - 5. Wasn't convinced after Coppell bizarrely brought him in for the play-off last season, and still to be convinced after today. Long looked so much better in the lone striker role when he came on.
Long - 7. Looked much stronger on the ball than previously. Didn't see what happened with their defender when he got sent off but played the part of the injured innocent very well.

Reading Fans - 5. Not bad in the East stand, but a poor crowd for a sunny opening day with a new man at the helm. Wasn't happy with some around us who were getting frustrated at the passing and clearly wanted us to go back to hoof ball for the last 10 minutes!
Forest Fans - 2. Bunch of knobs. Didn't like the Chelseas taunts (perhaps they're a bit too near the truth).

Back the Boys sub - 1. Embarrassing. And the PA in the East stand wasn't working for the team announcements.
Weather - 9. Although football always seems wrong in the sunshine.
Pitch - 9. I hope we can still play like this when it's a mud-patch in January.
Shirts - 5. Great from the back, horrible from the front. Looks like there's some sort of superman style cape tied at the neck.

Overall satisfaction rating - 9. More passing and posession in 1 game than the whole of the second half of last season! Looking forward to seeing the team grow into this style of play.

[Rax]

Wouldn't the best player for the centre-forward position be Nicky Forster?


................ from about 7 years ago

No. Take a look at his games to goals ratio here. Not great reading. Great on his day, but a greedy little git that wasn't potent enough in front of goal.

Try telling that to a Wigan fan you muppet!

[AthleticoSpizz]

Fed - 7. Solid. Claimed a corner confidently, made a great block (with his face I thought), good distribution.

Rosy - 5. Was great to see us trying to build from the back, but this style of play needs a higher level of technical ability (accuracy of passing and instant control) and sadly I think Rosy is not quite good enough, which is a shame because I like his general attitude.
Bertrand - 7.5. Looked confident on the ball, good first touch. I thought the partnership with Kebe wasn't quite there yet though. Gets an extra half point for that fantastic run forward in second half.
Pearce - 8. I was surprised to hear him named as club vc, but perhaps justified it today with an assured performance, both defensively and as the starting point for our new passing game.
Cisse - 7. Solid defensive performance. Much prefer him here than in midfield.

Tabb - 6. At one point when he received the ball I thought, oh yes, Jay Tabb IS playing. Everything seemed to go via Jem.
Jem - 7. Very lively in midfield and seemed to be at the hub of everything, but lacking the range of passing that Marek brings. Tried some extravagant long crossfield balls that didn't come off.
Scott Davies - 8 and MOTM. My Shots-supporting colleague has been praising Davies all last season, he was desperate for them to sign him permanently, I can see why! Not a bad first game at this level stepping up 2 divisions from League 2.
Jimmy - 6. As frustrating as ever. Clearly can beat his man, but when he does, who knows where the ball is going next! Unlucky not to score, the ball came at him at pace and he wasn't sure which left foot to wave at it.
HRK - 6. Beat his man comprehensively a couple of times.

Church - 5. Wasn't convinced after Coppell bizarrely brought him in for the play-off last season, and still to be convinced after today. Long looked so much better in the lone striker role when he came on.
Long - 7. Looked much stronger on the ball than previously. Didn't see what happened with their defender when he got sent off but played the part of the injured innocent very well.

Reading Fans - 5. Not bad in the East stand, but a poor crowd for a sunny opening day with a new man at the helm. Wasn't happy with some around us who were getting frustrated at the passing and clearly wanted us to go back to hoof ball for the last 10 minutes!
Forest Fans - 2. Bunch of knobs. Didn't like the Chelseas taunts (perhaps they're a bit too near the truth).

Back the Boys sub - 1. Embarrassing. And the PA in the East stand wasn't working for the team announcements.
Weather - 9. Although football always seems wrong in the sunshine.
Pitch - 9. I hope we can still play like this when it's a mud-patch in January.
Shirts - 5. Great from the back, horrible from the front. Looks like there's some sort of superman style cape tied at the neck.

Overall satisfaction rating - 9. More passing and posession in 1 game than the whole of the second half of last season! Looking forward to seeing the team grow into this style of play.

Says it all for me (would've given Churchy a 6 tho'

His efforts (laying off the high balls that were pumped into him into the NE corner) in the last half hour were pretty sublime.


ps .....and the PA wasn'nt working in the E stand for the Murty testimonial either (it destroyed a great occasion) get a grip Reading PA

[Jobbo no.11]

some cracking reports and good to hear some good sounds coming from the opening fixtures.
I never cna make the first two weeks due to my county cricket comitments so am just wondering what the atmosphere was like today in comparission to last year. Mainly around the y26/25 area.
Thanks alot

[leon]

some cracking reports and good to hear some good sounds coming from the opening fixtures.
I never cna make the first two weeks due to my county cricket comitments so am just wondering what the atmosphere was like today in comparission to last year. Mainly around the y26/25 area.
Thanks alot

it was terrible apart from Forest fans - who were quite tiresome.

dont like the formation - not really sure with HRK and Kebe, and Long/Church as front man how we are giong to score goals??? kebe I'm afraid is sh*t. Church has potential.

[leon]

Harper in the Karacan role, Matejovsky in the Tabb role and Davies or Karacan in the Davies role.

Harper has quick feet, strength and a good turn on him. He'll increase the pace at which we bring it out from the back and distribute it so we can do damage rather than walk it around inside our third. He is also very aware and able to slot into the back four to release one of the defenders forward easily and effectively. Perfect role for him.

Karacan can get stuck in and has a shot on him. Same with Davies. Matejovsky can use the ball and create the openings up the pitch.

sorry, which harper is this?

[Ark Royal]

I thought Karacan was outstanding and ran the game from midfield. Kebe. What to say about him. I want him to do so well and he does the hard stuff but then, as in the first half it is as oif his brain freezes and he really has no idea what to do next. Rosenior got better the longer the game went.

All in all, a god start and enjoyed watching us dictate the pace of a game for once. Florist's frustrations were evident as they couldn't get the ball from us.

A bit more bite and decisivness up front please.

And I take back what I said about Cisse. He put in a very assured performance at CB.

Overall, 8 out of 10

Nice one TB. Wish I could have been there. Followed it nervously via the web.

Concensus at this end is that we desperately need some fire power. No other positions concern me at all. Nugent?

[Royalee]

Harper in the Karacan role, Matejovsky in the Tabb role and Davies or Karacan in the Davies role.

Harper has quick feet, strength and a good turn on him. He'll increase the pace at which we bring it out from the back and distribute it so we can do damage rather than walk it around inside our third. He is also very aware and able to slot into the back four to release one of the defenders forward easily and effectively. Perfect role for him.

Karacan can get stuck in and has a shot on him. Same with Davies. Matejovsky can use the ball and create the openings up the pitch.

Harper can't tackle and is weak as piss so can't break up play and defend like Karacan did today. Matejovsky is not a box to box midfielder and thus won't do the work Tabb got through today and Karacan hasn't got Davies' passing or shooting ability so it'd be utterly stupid to put him there. I think I'll trust Brendan's choices if it's all the same.

[winchester_royal]

I think Davies could do the Tabb role, with Marek coming into the AM position.

[Ian Royal]

It's slightly different roles. The box to box player (Davies in the Forest game IMO) would need to be the one putting his foot in and winning tackles with Harper distributing, but that can work perfectly well.

I didn't see Tabb doing much box to boxing. I thought he spent much of his time just sitting in the middle. Something Marek is quite capable of doing.

Karacan did well. But we need to move the ball quicker from the back and we need someone who can play the simple passes quickly and effectively, but who also has a good long range pass as well taking it off the back 4. That is Harper IMO.

We certainly can't afford to be pedestrian like we were most of today, for the whole season. Draws aren't enough to keep a team up.