Holmes_and_Watson

The romance is more for the Milk Tray man pullover he wore, than anything football related. 🙂

I'd think had we got something from the game, nearly everyone would be giving credit where it was due. I was about to make the point Sue raised. The closer to the end it got, there was a little unease creeping in. The crowd, used to being/ thinking they should be further ahead were a little quieter. Pep, more aware of dropping 2 points late on. We didn't offer much for the rest of the game, but City won't be that uneasy against too many, having got a bigger lead against them. Martin will look to that late period as one of the pluses. We conceded early, but the planning helped to keep them out for the rest of the game. Sure, City were ahead, didn't need the second. Had Archer scored, they might have stepped it up. Or maybe we'd have kept them out. But, as we found with Ipswich again, late goals happen. It's frustrating to see us turn up hoping for scraps while we keep a score down. But the team will have positives to take from the game.

Judge

Selles lost games narrowly being compact and hoping to spring Alcaraz on the counter. Martin's side like to pass it about a bit, close to our 'keeper before losing their games. Both pretty grim spells in the PL

Martin will look at the result, our periods of possession and us being in with a shout late on for a point. He set us up to try and take one of what would be only a few chances. Archer hit the bar. However, if those were to be added, City would have had a few more too. At 1 up early, we didn't see them having to go up too many gears. We kept it to 1, but one chance aside, never laid a glove on them. TP did okay coming on. I'd have kept Archer on with him. AA showed some good running too. Some solid performances throughout. But again, with our opponents already in the lead. A game where Martin will take lots of professional points from. But it's still another defeat, in a game where we offered little.

Martin will be fairly pleased with that, overall. Play to his possession style, restrict them as much as possible, keep it flat as a result, and look to pounce on any gilt edged opportunity. The result is we're one down and with our only real attack, hit the bar. It's frustrating as a supporter watching your side be so cautious, invite plenty of attacks without laying a glove on the opposition until the closing moments. We'll have to come forward later on, to see if we can get a point. Both might continue as was until then. City likely to get a second before that happens though.

Pick a team, the Martin way. Pashun = Places

Martin has identified that we only conceded 3 to Leicester due to lack of shoutiness. Not in any knee jerk way whatsoever, we have both our shouty ones on the park, under the guise of leadership.

No surprise at all. If Taylor isn't going to put the work into his stubble grooming and being shouty at training, this is what happens. 🙂

Nice to see Darren Anderton again.

I've been reading the previous posts too. But for the one above, it's an interesting take. On one hand giving that, short term, managers could keep us up, with the financial advantages that would bring. But, on the other, to instead go with RM. That with the plan of maximising SR's approach. That might mean a longer curve of going down and up a couple of times. The reward being, not only hanging in there, but thriving to the point of breaking into that top tier. In the interests of thread balance, Cortese was pushing for us to get into the CL positions. He knew we had to keep our momentum. Partly for the finances, but also to keep the team together and build on it. That seemed lunacy, considering our position and where we'd come from at the time. When RalphBall was clicking, we were looking a very good side, punching well above our weight, at the top end of the league. That was under resource restrictions too. Martin's results are nowhere close to the likes of Ralph or Poch. That's both points and the feeling that we're improving, competing and seeing the fruits of the work. I guess one of your points is that this really will have to be a multi season project, if needed. I think others would rather stay in the league, and build on that to thrive. Managerial tenures and the projects they come in with last a just over a couple of seasons. There are managers before Martin who go having "over achieved" to get into the PL as part of a plan. Based on what happens not only elsewhere, but here with Ralph, Nathan and Ruben, I'd be surprised if SR stuck with Martin if results continue. Even if the data they use suggests he's close and he points to being 1 up against Arsenal, and conceded from winning positions against Ipswich and Leicester.

Excellent post. It highlights Forest's adaptability, our lack of it, and how our opponents take advantage of it. RM's outcomes are self fulfilling. We don't play with a physical forward. So we can't stretch play, put their defence under immediate pressure, have someone better suited to Ramsdale's clearances, and hold it to bring others into play. That impacts our press, the tempo we can get it forward, and our shape. The club wanted shot of TP in the summer so, unless they thought Stewart would come good and jump up 2 divisions, we would have no one capable of any of that at the club. We like tucking our full backs in, allowing teams to exploit the flanks. Teams are Forest didn't allow that while top players are finding different ways to punish us. We do things differently at set pieces. Forest stopped Leicester exploiting any of those. We lose points as teams plan for our set up. RM looks for possession, moving sides and quick exploits and high tempo bursts then reset and control. Except we look like a team desperate to pick up scraps and no idea of what to do when sides don't play exactly how we need them to. There's not much of that lightning transition and momentum we see from the likes of City. Sadly, when games are a bit more open, we can't manage the game. A lot of that is because we're wedded to that one approach. So, we're not great at chasing games or switching it up to defend more. Martin's approach would struggle with better players in the same way it does with us. We had a number of chances where it was our individual talent, making the most of where they were, rather than the system last season. Martin would be relying on that with better players too. That's not to slate RM entirely. There were games last season, where we took teams apart. But it didn't all click too often, and we're miles off that at present.

Anders Svensson used to pass into spaces where he was expecting movement from the rest of the team. I think he had to hold the way he was reading the game in check a bit, so the others could catch up.

Considering the run up we had to not move them in the last window, there's every chance you're right there.

Stephens is available, and will be first on RM's list for that left back/3rd centre back position. 🙂

That Baz, Cap'n Shoehorn, Will, Sule spine of the team, just doesn't get the respect it deserves. What a different season it would be, had they all been fit.

He said that he could have stayed at home and married a girl from La Castellane. Instead he relishes the challenge of following in the footsteps of some of the best pound for pound managers in Europe.

Hard to know what impact he would have had. Will's played DM last season, and it didn't work then. RM trusts Will to do a number of roles, sometimes outside his skillset. Against PL opposition, it was a bigger ask. But if tasked with shutting down a certain player, the injury could have played a part. I guess we won't know if Les or Lallana were the obvious subs, since we didn't see Will do much. Possibly, RM could have shuffled it up again to make it more compact and take Will put of that role. Sometimes, it's worse than a man down having someone there, but unable to stop anything. I hope he's back fit soon.

Another go at the U formation, for a laugh. Pep will be happy putting Pep-lite to the sword.

A bad time for me to have asked what a socialist working class woman was.

I know. Radio, TV and press are going to breathlessly drone on about how City threw it away, and what a sudden crisis for the title it all is, while we get none of the credit.

An article on US discussions on slavery reparations containing some differing viewpoints :- https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/15/us/slavery-reparations-explanation-trnd/index.html

Rules

The control that Martin wants from each sequence in the game has the result that we're not a side who takes advantage of a shift in momentum. Where others sense something to take advantage of, with the crowd behind them, Martin is concerned about the risk of overcommitting. We get more of a reset than going in for the kill. Last season, we got sides where that worked nicely. But it does lack spirit, with the team's effort and determination being focused differently. If we struggle, it looks very flat.

We've got a large squad. We'll be looking to move on a number of those. Who they are depends on if it's Martin in charge. If it's not, SR may balance some of the outgoings with a reinforcement or two for the new person. That will also depend if there's still a chance of staying up. But it will be mostly outbound traffic whatever happens.