I accompanied an old friend to the Forest v Bournemouth game yesterday, a few thoughts about the day:
I felt the half-time score of 2-0 to Forest flattered them a little. For a short period before that Bournemouth had begun to pick things up a bit and starting to threaten. A five-minute VAR check and a converted penalty later, Forest had doubled the lead. Very much the proverbial ‘game of two halves’ Forest crumbled in the second half, as suggested by the scoreline. There were few successes for Forest yesterday with Johnson, a confident and skilled young player, being the pick of them in my opinion. The midfield retreated further and further whilst attacks were generally slow, ponderous and predictable. The build-up play tended to be based around knocking balls across the back, getting it out wide and dinking crosses in from deep positions, rather than getting to the bye line. This line of attack was well handled by Bournemouth with the Forest front three as well not being particularly strong in the air.
By comparison, Bournemouth’s approach play was more sophisticated with short quick passes on the ground around the edge of the box trying to work openings.
The home teams’ back three lacked pace and made potentially expensive errors, the type that will be frequently punished at this level, including one that came to fruition with Bournemouth’s third goal after a mistake by McKenna.
The front three had no variety with three similar technically good players but little power of heading ability. A different type of forward in the mix was needed.
The midfield was shouting out for a leader in it’s midst- someone to really pull things together – as there seemed no player of that type in the side.
Without any bias or condemnation intended I felt yesterday was a huge psychological blow for Forest – one that will be difficult to come to terms with. Three defeats in a week completed with this one with who might well prove to be a relegation rival. Three goals dropped in one half of football at home too.There was little to take from the game from the manager, players or the fans. The latter showed some disquiet as proceedngs went on with a few turning on the team and some general booing at the end. I see early signs of panic in Manager Cooper. It appears to be something of a shock too to myriad supporters who have casually predicted a ‘mid-table finish’.
A thought that occurs is that if this huge quantity of signings don’t work out ,for whatever reason, what then? Where is there to manoeuvre? Forest can’t just keep signing more and more players and this crop of signings HAS to work or there is a huge problem. With all that in mind and judging just on this one performance, which is of course difficult, I see a very difficult season ahead for Forest where just surviving will be the focus.
THE TEARS OF A CLOWN 