Minority Report 2017/18 - Nottingham Forest

The first thing to say is that tonight, we beat a very good side. The next thing to say is that we were very, very fortunate. Forest had 26 shots with just 7 of them on target. In all honesty, some of their shooting was embarrassing, especially as compared to their build up play, which was very impressive.


Let’s get the tactical stuff out of the way first. Forest had 3 at the back and just 1 up front, the system used by Fulham to such devastating effect last season. Two of the other 6 dropped into the full back positions as required and were wide midfield players as required, two tried to get up into the hole behind Daryl Murphy and two formed the central midfield defensive pairing. Barnsley played 4-5-1 with the central midfield trio arranged in a triangle with Williams at its defensive point. In the first half, Barnsley worked exceptionally hard and were able to dominate because of that. Nevertheless, Forest were always dangerous on the break, and Williams struggled to cope on his own at times as Moncur and Potts were often caught by the pace of the Forest breakaways. We deserved to lead at half time, but Jackson was caught under the ball having lost his man, and Murphy does not miss those.


In the second half, Hedges scored gloriously, the only thing he did all game, and after that we changed to a 9-0-1 system that eventually became 9-1-0 as our defending became even more desperate. That we held on was more about Forest’s poor finishing and Davies’s excellent shot shopping, than is was about the excellence of our defending. There were some very tired bodies in red and white by the end, but the prize for effort beyond the call of duty goes to Williams, who is the first player that I have witnessed throwing up on a football field during a first team game. Also a mention in dispatches for Adam Hammill, who worked his socks off, and for Tom Bradshaw who has learned the art of playing up front on his own, something I said would never happen.


It was great to see the team win, and a very good game for 50 minutes, but we have to be able to win games differently. If we rely just on effort, we are going to lose more than we win because we will not be able to sustain the same levels of workload, game after game. As it is, some of those players will have to be rested on Saturday if we are to compete physically. That is possibly why Hecky needs a much bigger squad, because he is expecting that level of commitment, but we have to be able to control games better, because Forest took over that second half. Of course, that will only come when the team gels. Until then, we will have to scrap for everything.


Finally, because so many have complain about our defending from set pieces, I watched what was happening. For years, we have allocated our tallest to man mark and have left the others to mark space. This is the system that I prefer. The main targets for the cross are marked, but there is always someone to pick up anyone who escapes. We seemed to have abandoned that system, or at least, we did so tonight, and we man marked everyone, except one player cover the area in front of the near post and another was on the line at the far post. I noted on two occasions that Forest got players clear by blocking off the marker with a second player. It graphically illustrated the problems with that system.

 

Did red rain just admit he was wrong!

Agree with most of that tho. Just how i saw it but i dint see williams throw up...

 

Good report RR, though I feel it a bit harsh to say Hedges' goal was the only thing he did in the whole game. Some of his touches and runs, in the first 20 mins particularly, were excellent.

 

Forest outnumbered us in midfield, with only Williams in position at times defensively. They were running through us and on to our back four. Forest had just one up, but when that one is supplemented by players running from midfield is means that we are outnumbered centrally. In that case, there is no option. Our full backs have to play closer to the two centre backs in order to reduce the space to play in. It means that there is lots of space out wide, and our wide players have to get back to cover that space. Hammill did that really well, but on the other side, Pearson looked exposed not so much because he had a poor game, he looked exposed because Hedges did not do the amount of work that Hammill did defensively and Pearson had to make up the ground to the man outside him after he had received the ball, giving the impression that he had left the Forest player too much room to cross the ball. For me Hedges is not the complete player yet, and that is why I singled him out for criticism. He needs to be better defensively and he needs to work as hard as Hammill worked.

 

I can't quite remember if this was directly after their goal or not but I saw Hecky having a word with Hedges and I assumed it was about the same thing. Don't think he took it fully on board though.

 

No one worked as hard as Hammill. Hedges looks OK to me and there's certainly an end product.

 

I tend to agree re Hedges and his positioning but I seem to remember him being signed as a 9 who can play wide as opposed to a wide man who can play as a 9.

If PH et al are able to improve his positional awareness and the defensive side of his game then we've got a serious player on our hands.

 

Didn't Paddy McCourt do that after scoring his wonder goal against Middlesbrough? Then went off straight away

 

Am i right in thinking that both Ipswich and Forrest changed from their initial formation to 4-4-2 to stifle our game?

 

Don't think Forest did

 

BBC report says they did.

 

Good report, excellent length too sir *ahem*

 

I agree with Hemsie, appeared to me that they did a like for like switch at left wing back as lad who was on was being ripped apart and was on a yellow.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but from the West Stand it certainly looked as though Mancienne came off at HT and was replaced by Traore who went to left back which also saw Darikwa moved to right back as opposed to right wing back.

 

Think that's a very fair summary.

 

I noticed that their manager had said that they changed systems. I must confess that I did not see it. Having said that, after we scored our second, systems went out the window. They spent the second half camped in our half as both teams played attack v defence.

 

BBC match report states them changing to 442 during the game, manager quoted as "changing their system".

 

Some good shot blocking helped by the looks!

Forest
Shots: 26
On Target: 7
Blocked: 7

 

Fair enough, it's them rose tinted specs I wear every Saturday.

 

Agree, RR is being harsh on Ryan Hedges with that statement. It was Hedges who took a pass from Moncur and then laid it into the path of Bradshaw, setting him up for a fierce shot.