Disappointing result last night. Pretty good and confident first half performance apart from the schoolboy defending for their goal. Unfortunately it went downhill very quickly in a shocking second half showing which was defined by more basic defensive errors and could have resulted in another 2 goals for the visitors. Am I alone in thinking that, when you are 1-3 down and your striker hasn't had a touch of the ball in the second half and we hadn't made their goalkeeper work, swapping one midfielder for another is a bit like rearranging the deck chairs while the ship is sinking? The Forest defenders are a big bunch and we could have done with someone with presence to try and do something a little different and cause them a few problems. If Edouard isn't going to get minutes on the pitch in that situation then you have to wonder if he'll ever get minutes at all, and, if that is the case, it doesn't make much sense to have him here.
I said the same to my son. Why send crosses into the box for Vardy against their centre halves? There was always going to be one outcome. The lack of creativity was obvious on Friday, Buonanotte tried, but nothing really came off for him, and Mavididi and Fatawu did nothing of note. When Ayew came on down the left wing it was clear the game was up. Our defending was the most concerning aspect on Friday. All three goals were due to bad decisions or poor defending. The last goal was terrible. It’s not as if Wood is someone like Haaland or Ibrahimovic breathing down your neck, surely Faes and Okolicould have dealt with him, and the upward header from Faes combined with Hermansens positioning was schoolboy at best. Forest went up to fifth for a reason, they’re playing well at the moment, which is galling to admit, but we presented the three goals and points gift wrapped on Friday. Ipswich won’t be easy either, we saw last season they’ll keep going till the end and as bad a start as they’ve had they pushed Brentford all the way yesterday. We’ll need to show the same desire as them if we want anything from the game.
Dewsbury-Hall not even on the bench for Chelsea today. If we were confident of beating the FFP charge, due to the PLs mix up of which division we were in when we were charged, why did we sell him?
It would have saved us buying and paying a bunch of midfield players who will hardly ever kick a ball for us.
Skipp is looking like a bad investment. £20m for a CDM when we already have Ndidi, Winks and Choudhary. Then there’s Ayew, he’s not winning me over yet, wonder what they’re combined wages are.
Faes is having a bit of a mare - would actually bring in Vestergaard and maybe go to a back 3 with JJ and Okoli and play Pereira and Kristiansen as wing backs Buenanotte Winks and Ndidi in midfield with Vardy playing off Edouard... then bring on the two wingers later when Ipswich defenders are tiring ... alternatively back 4 but with JJ on right and one of the wingers coming in ...
I can't remember us ever fielding a high energy team that can put in a performance that is likely to tire any opponent, and Ipswich are one of those teams that can bring on players without affecting their relentless style of play for 90 plus minutes. It will be a tough match for us.
I actually thought our attacking play last night against Man Utd was the best we've played this season. Pity our defence is absolutely shocking!! Is it time to go 3 at the back?
Thought Ayew did really well last night. Surprisingly Soumare had some good moments too. JJ had a complete mare with Garnacho having space every time he got the ball. K Mac looked like he had never seen a football before. Was a bit of a hiding but expected with that team. Had a quite masochistic enjoyment from the game.
The general chat threads are a great source of information, support, chat and humour. The football threads are a mine field and I've started to avoid them this season.
Bit of karma yesterday with the result. Ipswich scoring late, deflected equalisers in both games last season, so the boot was in the other foot. No point McKenna moaning about the ref, I recall they avoided a red card and conceding a penalty at their place last season when we were far the better team. Still a long way to go, we’ve got a bit of a tricky run coming up now but I think we can get a result against most teams in the league.
A bit of a tricky run is a kind description I'd say we've hope of points from 3, maybe 4, of our next 9 games. Now, obviously, as someone once said, it's a funny old game and we know anything is possible in football but, I'm not expecting much from Man U, Chelsea, Newcastle, Liverpool Man City! How do we keep getting Liverpool and Man City at Christmas and New Year, nothing like ruining the festive season!
We were worse than I thought we were going to be and, that was a low bar. Cooper's observation "I felt the game was largely even in general play. We had some good phases and spells in the game". I think I was watching a different match to Steve. More post match blurb but no indication he actually has any idea how to resolve the issues. Ricky P out for 4 months with a hamstring issue. Oh and the one day we didn't want Spurs to be Spursy, they #£@# that up.
Edouard gets 2 minutes and doesn't score! Now I know why Steve Cooper doesn't play him. Defensive frailties yet again. Opponents in acres of space whenever we concede possession and no one closes them down quickly enough. Formation is definitely not working. Hermansen looks ready to throw in the towel. Pereira has to be one the unluckiest around with his injury record.
