03 Aug 2025 00:16:15
One thing that is guaranteed every pre-season is a meltdown about results. Another is that ages before the window closes people panic about what we need.
A point I'd make is that the idea that, "players are playing for their place in the team so should be firing", well not necessarily.
The ones who know they are almost nailed on to start hapen to be ones I've seen comments about not being interested. Murillo, MGW and Hudson-Odoi havea ll looked disinterested or casual. Funnily enough they are not playing for their place as they will be starting against Bretford.
What about the ones who aren't sure to start? They have a tendency to try to hard to impress and don't look settled.
Then you get new players who have barely even got over jetlag then been thrown into a new system, new boss, new team-mates.
We couldn't play Aina and Williams as Aina has a minor knock. The boss just played whoever he though could fiill in and gave them some minutes. The recruitment team know we need 2 full backs and are most likely going to do what they did last season and bring players in.
I'm not worried yet. I still have my doubts about the coach being able to get the team playing a different way, but for me the squad is taking shape nicely.
03 Aug 2025 08:31:05
We seem to have an aversion to left backs at our club haven’t had a good one since Pyshco imo.
03 Aug 2025 10:31:12
Red cyclist, I don’t think it’s a meltdown over results, more the lack of cohesion and pattern of play,
03 Aug 2025 14:54:44
Good left backs (left-footed ones) are much rarer than RBs. Only 20% of players are left-footed. I think they are trying but if better right-footed LBs are the only ones we can get then it's just the law of sod at work.
Stevie, teams had clearly sussed out how to play against us using the system thaqt got us to the top 2 by the end of last season. If we want to start playing more than one way then we have to ge the players to learn a new system and it takes time. I'd prefer us to do that pre-season and have some difficult to watch games than for Nuno to commit manegerial suicide and start during the season proper.
The bg question is do we have the right boss to play other ways. Hope so.
03 Aug 2025 16:11:59
I like Nuno, and last season he was a calming presons amongst the media madness around our position in the table. He knows football is fickle and if results aren't right come end of November?, Edu's brief will be to look for another coach, if he doesn't match Mr Marinakis on where Forest should be, he will be gone.
03 Aug 2025 16:33:44
We need a plan b in case we concede the first goal.
Absolutely no need to move away from the style of play that got us to our highest league finish in many a long year.
That's as much to do with the players as it is the boss. Keep the ball better, use it better, get more men in the box during attacks.
We had more possesion than Chelsea in the last game of the season yet didn't have the players to take advantage.
We could also do with putting MGW back on corner duties even though we'll lose his threat from heading them in. Some of the deliveries during pre-season have been woeful like a lot were toward the end of the season.
03 Aug 2025 20:28:08
Missing the running of aina and Williams atm Fred
Think it will all cone good, but the nonsense of the transfer window not closing till September, two weeks after the start of the season doesn't help clubs or players
The top six have spent heavily and pushed prices up as well.
Could be a lot of last minute signings for the rest of the premier clubs.
03 Aug 2025 21:36:41
Fred I think we had more possession than Chelsea because they only needed a draw we had to win.
03 Aug 2025 22:29:45
And possession doesn't suit us under nuno with his tactics.
03 Aug 2025 22:32:13
Chelsea know you can't counter attack with pace if you aren't attacked. Teams started letting us have the ball and we weren't doing enough with it. This is why we need another way to play.
If you are going to have the ball more, every pass can't be a forward one or you only have the ball for about 10 seconds before it goes out of play. I'm pretty sure we've had a similar conversation on this site before. Good possession based teams almost always have a DM whose job it is to keep the ball and pass it to more creative players. Forest fans seem to hate these players, as I've also pointed out on here before.
The two main approaches to football (simplifying things massively) are to chuck the ball forward as soon as you get it (and lose posession all the time unless you score) or to try to keep the ball more and find a way to open up the other team. What's wrong with Forest is that we only seem to be any good at one of these.