I like many others was shocked to see Wordworth not even on the bench for this game after he's played pretty well but imo he has made us looked more balanced and brought the best out of Hyam. Skuse was really dissapointing for me today, you know I'm actually questioning if I rate him, he's clearly got talent but there's no urgency in his play and he rarely gets up to support the attack even if it is just as an option, he starts the move and then just sits back. Under Mick we defend as a team but we don't seem to go by the same mantra when attacking. I thought Skuse slowed the game down when he got the ball today, when we needed to up the tempo he just slowed it down and as I said never really joined in with the attacks. I've no problem with playing the simple pass to keep possession at all, Magilton used to do it all the time but he just doesn't show enough intent or urgency. The fact we had Skuse and Hyam playing in the centre meant that we never won the second ball off of our strikers because Skuse and Hyam were too deep. Anyway so I thought it was going to be an easy win but to give credit to Forest although they didn't look any great shakes they looked far more solid and organised than I thought they would, they certainly didn't look nervy how I thought they would and it was a very good corner which they scored from, although there was some nervy moments at the back when we tried to pass it in areas we really shouldn't have. Forest we on top first half and I thought this was compiled by the change Mick made in taking Anderson off for SEB, this meant we went to a CM 3 and the Forest fullbacks and wingers were having free reign down the wings, I thought it was very poor decision making although he did rectify this in the second half by bringing Nouble on. Second half we were certainly more in it and improved alot, we put constant pressure on Forest and ultimately got our rewards although we did this in a very 1 dimensional manner our tactics were: 1) to run it down the wings and then try to hit it off a Forest player to get a corner 2) try to get free kicks in attacking positions. One thing which really annoyed me about this was we never just put the ball in the box enough when we'd get freekicks in the attacking half. I'm all for playing nice passing football but when it comes to set pieces just pump the ball in the box!!! 3) Give it to Williams and hope that he'd do something out of nothing We deserved to get at least a point out of this and looked very solid, we are certainly very good at doing the basics and have a good team ethic in place and there's the first sign of genuine sustained optimism in the stands that we might actually do something, the atmosphere was the best it'd been in a while but we just don't build on this when we could, apart from set pieces or individual brilliance we don't look like scoring not once really did we carve Forest open, there's certainly a lack of creativity there and this doesn't just come from the type of player we've got on the pitch, it's how the manager has set us up to play. We're certainly not a hoofball team nor a negative one it'd be unfair to call us that but we certainly aren't a passing attacking team either and I really think we could do more from the solid base Mick has built. All in all though Forest weren't as bad as I thought they'd be and a point keeps us ticking over, we're still right in there. Player ratings: Gerkin - 8: Could do nothing about the goal and was always very quick of his line Chambers - 6: He really isn't a RB, was solid enough but positionally fairly poor and doesn't offer much going forwards, will be pleased to see him back at CB with Hewitt coming in!! Berra - 8: He really does look like a great signing, not flashy but sensible, doesn't dive in to challenges stands up to players and ushers them off the ball, was Mr cool yesterday on a number of occassions when we got caught on the break. Smith - 7: Soild enough, couple of hairy moments but other than that very assured Cresswell - 7: Perhaps not his best game but even when he doesn't have a good game, he's still good. I think his defensive side to his game is underrated, despite his size he always stands up against taller more physical players and wins alot in the air Anderson - 6: Works hard and competes but that's about it, as with every other time I've seen him play this season I often forget he's playing as he doesn't really do alot offensively Skuse - 6: Poor game, looked a little off the pace but also for me because he rarely gets involved in our attacking play we had a real lack of balance in our midfield. Doesn't show enough intent and slows the game down too much Hyam - 7: Decent enough, worked hard didn't do alot wrong but to me certainly looks more comfortable when Skuse isn't in the team Hunt - 7: Certainly livelier than Anderson but still didn't get up to much, perhaps harshly taken off at half time, although we did improve when he went off. Williams - 8: Very talented player, tried to take the whole team on by himself most of the time and looked like the only player to do something in open play. Tried to win as many set pieces as he could. Was very surprised Mick took him off Murphy - 8: Whilst I still think he's pretty average he's improved so much as a target man. I thought he used to get played in the position due to his size because he rarely used to win the ball in the air and looked powder puff upfront but now he wins alot in the air and really uses his size and physicality well now. He also attacks the ball in the box much better now, he deserved his goal. SEB - 7: Looked lively, would be interesting to see how he'd play uptop with Murphy, unlucky not to score. Would like to see him get a run of games as he certainly offers something different to what we have upfront and certainly if he finds form could be a big asset to us. Nouble - 8: I'm the first to slate the guy but although I wouldn't say superb him coming onthe field certainly changed the game down the left, perhaps lacks that bit of quality but got plenty of corners and attacked the fullback.
Kinda sums up how it sounded to me, thanks for the report ptc! Just wonder how many extra points we could have gained had MM been a tad more adventurous?
Oh I agree Spanish, he has done an outstanding job and we do the basics very very well but given this platform he's created there's the opportunity to build on that but he just doesn't. Lesser managers I think I might just accept but he's capable of it, IMO he's a wasted talent as a manager. I think we could still be solid because you can just see how good we are defensively but play with a little more freedom and guile going forwards, as I've said it's all a little bit one dimensional and percentage football. I don't think I saw 1 attacking 'move' as it were at the weekend it was all set pieces or Williams (where it was McGoldrick before).
Good review PTC, but I witnessed quite a few attacking moves, in the 2nd half, but agree that the most dangerous and threatening we looked was, as often the case, from set pieces. And Wordy was rested....goodness, would we wished to be rested if we were playing well and on a good run?....Know I wouldn't! Lets see him back Saturday.
Surely you could quite easily argue that if we weren't so disciplined and organised we would have lost a lot of points? Take the Jewell era as an example. We don't actually play that bad football, I get the impression that a lot of football fans think Brighton play entertaining football, but we actually score and concede more than them. I was confused like many that Wordsworth wasn't even in the squad and playing Skuse certainly seems like a defensive move. However, he's had injury and illness problems for over a year and I wouldn't be surprised if 3 games in 8 days was too much for him.
