I’ve shamelessly pinched this from a Forest forum - it resonated with me somewhat, and had a spark more optimism about it than I was able to muster earlier… I was going to avoid the message boards tonight through fear of rampant pessimism and over-reaction, but couldn’t resist a sneaky peak and found something slightly more pleasing!
Right then, now I know that alot of us can be accused of being fickle when things go wrong for Forest, me included, hense why we go through many managers no doubt! So I’m all for giving Calderwood the time to build this Forest team. Something that I thought he was doin well. Especially when the first three 3minutes of our season was a disaster with Tyson getting injured and Commons already out for two months.
I mean the guy was working wonders considering we were playing an under strength side and players out of position to fill the gaps. So it was difficult to fault the him! And let’s be honest a new manager is going to be judged by everybody associated with the club, fans and all, during this early part of their reign.
Now obviously the good furtune we were having during the honeymoon period of the Calderwood era is well and truely over. December we were 7points clear of Scunthorpe, yet now we are 7points behind Scunthorpe and continually missing out on the opportunity to close the gap!
One of the key times to judge a managers ability is when after things have been goin so well, is how they respond to everything going so tits up! Ignoring Tyson being suspended he has the strongest possible squad available to him, yet we are performing like a struggling league one outfit! With each week that passes we are getting closer to the teams outside the playoffs and new teams are steaking their claim to the automatic promotion hunt!
Tonight we were a total disgrace! When we had the ball be didn’t know what to do with it, the set pieces and crossing never looked threatening, The strikers got zero support, the Curtis/Prutton attack became more and more predictable and easy to handle, Players like Agogo just looked unfit and lazy, Gary Holt continued to be a waste of space as whenever he plays it’s like playing with 5 at the back! I mean it’s like we were playing a 5-2-1-2 formation with him in which allowed the opposition to dominate the midfield and whenever the ball was hoofed forward (which is most of the time) Blackpool were always winning the ball and had available free men to be there in support to get another move started! Which was generally down the wings as we had no wingers out there to cover and our midfield was so darn flat!
Then there was the Bennett factor. The man, like every one watching, could see that we had nothing on the left going forward so did his best to offer the option which 9 times out of ten was ignored! I mean has he and Brecks fallen out or something as the amount of times I saw Julian screaming for the ball in space on the left only for Breckin to flatly ignore him, was ridiculous!
What is Calderwood playing at therefore! He has got Commons and Clingan on the bench, both fit, both ready and raring to go yet even when the Forest midfield was playing so totally shit, showing no life and no width, Colin chose to ignore them!
The best we have played in the past 5 games has been when Clingan has been playing! Chelsea we were Rubbish. Sammy came on at half time and changed our team and was the only positive we could take from the performance. Bradford we were superb for long patches and Clingan again was on the pitch with Gary Holt on the bench were he should be! So why has Clingan been ignored the last two games???
It’s simple we lack shape and width and pace! The formation is wrong and the personnel too! Calderwood has the best players all fit and available yet he is ballsing it up! Bottling it! He sees this and thinks experience is the way forward to help him out thus continues with Gary Holt and therefore continues to fail!
Against Chesterfield it’s simple. A return to 4-4-2 and the team as follows
Smith
Curtis Morgan Breckin Bennett
Prutton Clingan Perch Commons
Holt Lester
A return to width, more balanced, our two set piece takers are restored and who could argue with that midfield? That has to be one of the strongest in the division! Up front you have Lester in Tyson’s absence, a man who has been scoring again since his return to the starting XI behind the front two and a player who loves this club and always puts his foot in and gives 100%! Already a better option up front than the misfiring Dobie and on tonights performance the lazy Agogo.I put it forward to you, how can you argue with that team sheet? Yet without fail Calderwood will stick with the shite formation and incorrect team selection that has been misfiring the last 4 games! I’m losing respect for the man with each game that goes by! Surely he can see what’s going wrong right?
We will all have to hope so!
It’s nice to see something positive, although Smoulds (I reverted to his real name in the title since I am basically filching someone elses words!) still looked like this after the game, he’s developing a fine line in comedy facial expressions!
21 February, 2007 at 9:53 am
It’s nice to see a well thought out discussion that makes a lot of sense. Just one point; is Sammy definitly match fit?
21 February, 2007 at 9:55 am
Yes I agree with the above proposed team selection.
At the minute I would describe us as a fairly solid team. We lack idea’s and creativity. It was plain for all to see.
The only width we have are the full back’s, now correct me if i’m wrong but the are not wingers!
Also the players seem to be restrained when going forward, hesistant. Alsmost as if there worried about leaving their set position.
This will be a huge test for Calderwood. He has a team that is low on confidence, fans that are starting to doubt him and sliding down the league. I just hope he can turn it around, but as every game goes by I dont see much changing..
21 February, 2007 at 11:25 am
I couldn’t argue with any of the points raised and fully endorse the proposed team.
Last night, the Forest performance was absolutely disgraceful. It was the most negative performance I can remember at home and our inability to keep the football (”treat it as your friend, young man”) was horribly exposed by Blackpool who were everything we are not - lively, inventive, with good movement up front etc etc.
Can anyone please explain our substitutions last night. Dobie’s continued inability to get near the ball (let alone hold it up) meant we played the last 25 minutes with vertually ten men. In addition, moving Jack onto the left and then taking him off removed our most effective midfield player. Bizarre!
Did anyone else notice Breckin swearing at the Trent End as he walked off at the end? Nice guy!
I have increasingly had my doubts about CC. As I have continuously posted, he is too negative in his approach and I feel the only way we have any chance of promotion is to attack teams.
One of the things which I remember from Megson’s time here was that he talked a very good game but what we actually saw on the pitch did not match his comments. I am beginning to wonder whether the same accusation cannot now be lodged against Calderwood. I did not travel to Brighton but listened to Colin’s post match comments in which he claimed we were by far the better side and had created most of the clear cut chances. In Monday’s paper, I then find that actually Brighton had twice the number of shots we had, both on and off target!
On getting back to the car last night, I was expecting Calderwood to admit the performance was poor, that we were fortunate to get a draw or that he’d got his tactics, substitutions, team selection wrong (okay pigs might fly!). Far from it. He praised the team’s effort, bemoaned the penalty etc etc.
Our form is relegation form (12 points from 13 games). A blip is 4 or 5 games maximum. This is more than a blip. At this rate, a play off place is looking unlikely, let alone automatic promotion.
22 February, 2007 at 12:25 pm
But as I’ve said before - one goal (if that) per game does not win games.
We need wins.