We don't do coaching in the attacking part of the game. Funny how what Steve Harper said gets cast aside and forgotten so easily, just because it shed some light on how poor a manager Bruce is.
I think Bruce summed it up well. We hit the post when we should have scored and defended too deep which allowed that wonder goal. Virtually the only shot they had at goal all game. Elmo offered little down his side, never took his man once and for me he was the only one who disappointed tonight. Plenty of endeavour by City, loads of nervous tension around the ground and cries of 'Forward' every time we tried to build from the back even though NF had every player behind the ball defending deep. There was nothing to pass too, no space to put the ball into, and expect more of those tactics from the opposition in the remaining games. Disappointing crowd and questions should be asked as why this is.
You can tell how few passing comment on this thread actually went. We dominated. Bruces tactics were good. Some will be very pleased to know. We started off well. Again some will be pleased to know. So thats changed. We played well. They scored a wonder goal. Yes with Clucas and Hudd in the middle we didnt press them or get enough tackles or blocks in. But us fans on here know Meyler and Jake are out and Hayden was ****ing shocking on Saturday. The disgusting booing at half time, i was watching Andy Robertson and he was shocked. His head went down and was visibly upset. The crowd were flat and like a theatre crowd waiting for something to happen. The crowd has lost its bottle. Pathetic. Snodgrass was easily MOTM but should have been subbed as he was blowing the last ten but i can see why he was kept on. Robbo's head went down and he lost it a bit so the right move to bring him off. Well done fans. Hernandez works on closing down but isnt doing anything when we get the ball. Really poor tonight. Mo's an enigma, brilliant skill then makes the wrong choice. Time after time. Curtis' left foot is like a shovel at times so was his right. Not enough vocal encouragement/bollocking from Dawson for me. Aluko was ****ing **** and lost the ball most times he had it but scored a goal. I would definitely have stuck Maguire on up front for the last ten minutes. We had some good crosses go in, especially first half but whats the point without a Lambert to attack them. They shoot from 35 yards we have Elmo passing backwards from 15 yards out as they dont want to take a shot on. Hugely frustrating night. Onwards and upwards.
Forgot to mention Akpom. Just **** off Akpom. Spent his warm up chatting to his mate from forest not a care in the world. Came on and did **** all. Didnt show for the ball, didnt go in for the ball with any commitment. Dont bother Brucey he thinks he's doing us a favour playing for us. WTF was Greegsys punch?? Terrible goalkeeping. His kicking wasnt good either. Thought Dave was good couldnt understand taking him off.
You could stick Maguire in midfield as I said before, Hayden hasn't had many chances considering the number that some others like Diame get. And blaming the supporters for a crap performance is funny. As is ignoring that Bruce keeps bringing on Akpom despite his attitude, and keeping on Diame despite him constantly giving it away.
Bruce won't gamble this late in the season, but you have to wonder why he trialled Maguire in midfield in pre-season if he was never going to try it during the season. Maguire has a great pass on him, and won us two penalties in two games with darting runs into the box, so would be well worth a start as a holding mid in the place of Hudd - who, to be fair, by all reports had a great game tonight.
To be fair, most of your post is absolute garbage 1. Bruces tactics were **** - they always are then he blames the players 2. Snodgrass was pretty poor - kept losing the ball and giving up - although to be fair the whole team were **** 3. Aluko was the only player on the pitch who showed any endeavour 4. Meyler should never be in the team - he cant pass, ever unless it's backwards then he still can't pass 5. both Davies and Daws were poor tonight - they're usually rock solid 6 - I think you got this bit right, Elmo looked like he couldn't give two ****s something is seriously wrong - when Robbo and Odubajo got subbed the whole team looked bemused because he immediately replaced them with Clucas and Elmo and switched Snodgrass to the right, Aluko on the left - Brucie has totally lost the team - the crowd pay over the odds because they love to support the team - they don't expect the players to play like they couldn't care less - they don't expect players to bottle it going into a tackle and they don't expect players run half heartedly after they lose the ball - not frustrating but a truly awful performance symptomatic of a team that is at odds with the manager - the sooner he's gone the better - there's a good team in there, unfortunately Bruce is dragging them down
Clough has the runs on the board though. Took Nottingham Forest to the Second Division Championship in 1977 then to Ist Division Champions in 1978 followed by consecutive European Cups in 1979 and 1980. A volatile and charismatic player and Manager he certainly left his impression on the game.
There was plenty of space to be found, our players simply decided to show slightly less movement than the Wilberforce Statue. Space is always available if you are prepared to put in the yards to find it. We simply weren't.
He's on a season long loan, you can't just send someone back, he's ours for the season. We should find him something else to do, maybe washing the other players cars, or working on the concourse?
I thought you could terminate a loan at any time? Surely if we say to arsenal we're sticking him in the u21s they'd want him back.
Agree with most other than the booing affecting players. How do they cope when they return to previous clubs and fans give them a hard time? Players have thicker skins than you have given them credit for. If they are going to be that sensitive, then professional sport isn't for them. The game largely passed the City players by, I didn't see any improvement on the game v MK Dons. Players work rate isn't high enough (see Forest). Nobody wants to really take responsibility for taking a shot when presented with the opportunity in a really decent position. Fans and the general public could see this problem, they have seen the main issue for at least two to three seasons now. Bruce has had multiple windows to address the issue - Strikers. We don't have alternatives to Hernandez to freshen it up. You cannot rely on one striker to stay on song all season, the other options are simply not good enough. We need to rummage around for a loan from somewhere for someone to come in and freshen up our front line - or continue with our ineffective non scoring forwards.
Another frustratingly pedestrian performance. Bruce couldn't change a game if his life depended on it, his only tactic seems to bung all our strikers on together at the end, which isn't actually a tactic, it's just desperation.
