Assume this was because of the booking he picked up in the Derby match, one of the worst bookings you will see. Went to shoot and the Derby player took it away from him when he was half way through his shot, couldn't have done anything about it. No wonder refs don't get the respect sometimes!
All five yellows were dodgy on Saturday, maybe McKenna's was warranted, but the others were soft, Mclean's wasn't a yellow in a million years.
Shows the strength of the team performance when they could have been 4 or 5 MOTM. Mine was Hobbs, thought he was excellent at the back. I thought NP's departure would affect Hobbs and Fryatt the most but both had one of their best games in a City shirt. Really felt like we was a force going forward and Derby were limited to half chances. Can't remember them having a real clear-cut chance. Only criticism would be that we gave the ball away too easy on occasionâs but overall a very satisfying performance. Be interesting to see how we play on Sat when the onus is on us to perform as the home team and against Burnley who we never seem to beat! More of the same please, both performance and support!
McKenna's was warranted. It was professional foul. They were on the counter attack and he did what needed to be done and stopped them at all costs.
if somebody slides in for a tackle, just misses and clips there ankle its usually a booking, and nobody complains.. somebody swipes towards the ball, completely misses it and almost boots somebody over the stands, and people are in uproar, i cant work it out, its one of the clearest bookings ive ever seen..
McKenna has, IMHO, since coming on at Forest been our most consistent performer. I really can't see why he gets criticised like he does? OK McLean isn't Wayne Rooney (almost as ugly though) but he's 110% effort and I bet opposition defenders hate playing against him. His defending back is also under appreciated. I wouldn't start with Brady, I'd go with Dele for the first half then reassess!
i appreciate what your saying about his work and effort jobbo, trouble is can you afford to have a striker with such poor finishing, law of averages says a large share of chances are going to fall his way, on saturday he blasted wide when 1 on 1, but it didnt matter, games like southampton away, we could be on the back foot for long periods an may only create 1 or 2 chances in the whole match,and we have to make sure there taken...
I'd stick with Hobbs. He wouldn't really be my choice of captain if we didn't have one, but he hasn't done anything wrong as captain to deserve being stripped of it. If you take it away from him now it's not saying someone else is better, it's saying he's been failing to perform the duties. It's not worth the effect on Hobbs' morale while he's still showing he wants to play for us and is in the team by default. If he turns round and says he wants to leave then you'd strip him of it. If we bring a defender or two in during January and he's not in the team you'd still leave him as captain (isn't he vice captain after Dawson anyway?) for the rest of the season and just have another team captain without any official change. I don't know if you'd be reassessing your decision as much as the chairman would be reassessing the one to appoint you as manager though. I'd go same team as and set up as at Derby, McLean needs replacing so we need a wider player with pace and workrate who can also attack. Brady comes in, whether you do it as a straight swap or switch Stewart over and have him play the more forward and central role with Brady hugging the touchline is a different issue.
