Minority Report V Nottingham Forest

Anyone wishing to increase their knowledge of tactics in football I would recommend the following three books :- "inverting the Pyramid" by Jonathan Wilson - about the development of tactics and formations from the beginning of the professional game. "The Nowhere Men" by Michael Calvin - about player recruitment. "Zonal Marking" by Michael Cox - which oddly enough is not about zonal marking, but about the change in European national styles of playing and their influence on club football. Starting with Holland in 1992 via Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany to England in 2020. The only problem that I find with this abundance of knowledge on formations and tactics is it tends to detract from watching the game as pure entertainment.

 

As most professionals will tell you, systems don’t win matches, players do.

 

Yep. His in depth tactical stuff is too deep for a (Saturday night drunken) thicko like me.

But it's brave to rightly point out that Styles wasn't as worthy of sanctity as everyone else seems to think.

And it would be nice if these people piling in at him could actually challenge the tactical and personnel things that he's posted, rather than picking upon the whiff of superiority that we're all used to by now (and which I'm sure he genuinely doesn't mean).

Ball not man, as Nudge keeps saying.

 

I am more then happy to concede possession if it’s because we are trying to play aggressive, forward passes, create a few chances and win, rather then keep possession through sideways passing and creating nothing. There is a balance like with many things in life, at the minute the balance is getting us wins, and that’s what counts. If you have, on paper, inferior players, which we do if you match us to most championship sides, and try to play Brazilian football, you are likely to get your @rse handed to you in this league.

 

Same!

 

Inverting the Pyramid is a fantastic book.

 

I totally agree, the nadir of this football came when Spain played without a striker - and it’s quiet boring.

 

yeah it’s good to have someone who looks at things differently it keeps the forum fresh. As you say debate the post rather than attack the person. I Would but started getting pissed when Callum hit that shot and in no state to now.

 

I’ll give those a miss

 

I think it was the Saint Delia who once said “Life’s too short to stuff a mushroom “.

That’s pretty much how I feel about tactical analysis.

 

it was Shirley Conran.

 

Again RR, you're looking at the possession of the football as a negative. What is becoming apparent is that the teams tactics and system is geared towards getting the ball forward and into attacking positions as soon as possible. This will result in passes going astray quicker as the team looks to play the best possible forward pass at every opportunity. Styles is a classic example. Yes some of his passes go astray, but he is looking for the killer pass continually. Sooner that than playing it sideways or backwards. In some ways I prefer this style to having 3 minutes possession with teams playing the ball side to side to side to side. This will result in us having less than 50% of the possession in games, but if I'm honest it doesn't seem like that watching the game.

At the end of the day it's what you do with the ball when you get it that counts and so far the signs are very encouraging for this team and this style. There will be ups and downs obviously but things seem to be going in the right direction, in my opinion.

 

As an alternative cure for insomnia I'd put up the Perpetuities and Accumulations Act 1964. Now much amended, it still represents the high watermark of obscurist English legal draftsmanship. A truly magnificent construction!

 

Two of us watched the game, we couldn't believe the praise heaped on Styles by the commentators. I've thought the same when reading this BBS after a number of matches. That a Forest goal didn't come from him losing possession up field is everything to do with their poor finishing. Astonishing goal he scored, he's got bags of skill, but let's not let those points cloud our judgement. He struggles as a wing back, despite his his talent.

 

Just shows what I know about cookery shows then! Apart from Rick Stein and Keith Floyd I was never bothered.

 

I thought the first half was enjoyable with good football. All us for 25 minutes, then all them. Second half was scrappy, illuminated by a beautiful goal by Styles. From that point forward we would have scored at least one goal every ten minutes for as long as we were allowed to play.

Had we scored the first goal at any point we would have beaten them. They're a weak team with no confidence. They go behind and they give up. Had they scored one of the three or four chances they should have scored, I think our chances of winning would have actually increased. They would have tried to defend their lead, we would have been relentless, that's what we're like, we would have scored the equaliser and they would have collapsed. We weren't going to lose today. It could easily have been a draw, but we weren't going to lose to a team that fragile.

We're never going to see a different system from this manager. There's no point complaining about it, it's all we're ever going to see. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it will spectacularly fail. But we're more comfortable in The Championship than we have been for years.

We have a few problems with our squad fitting into the system we're playing and are going to continue playing. Brittain is a fantastic Right Wing Back. Real quality. Jordan Williams is a great deputy. We don't have a good left wing back, and we're exposed in that position every game. Our best option is Jordan Williams playing on the wrong side.

Andersen is a better defender than Sollbauer. But Sollbauer is far more comfortable coming out to the right back position covering Brittain when he's gone forward than Andersen is coming out to the left. It's just not his thing. I'd play Sollbauer, Andersen in the middle and Williams, sacrificing Helik, as Williams can cover the left back position. But then we've no decent left wing back.

In central midfield we're fine, we've bags of talent.

Woodrow looks like a Championship forward again. Struber did a great job keeping us up last year, but he completely failed in getting the best out of our best player. Woodrow looked a shadow of his usual self whilst playing under him.

I think both Miller and Adeboyejo can offer us something different from the bench. I don't think Schmidt will ever be a player at this level in this country who can offer more than 10 minute cameos when we're desperate for a goal. Simoes is miles off the required standard. Which means two of the three forward roles go to Chaplin and Frieser. They're both energetic, both triers. Frieser is more consistent, but the level he keeps his consistency at is average. Chaplin is hot and cold, there are a few excellent flashes of skill, but far more passages of play where he loses possession.

We're not a great unit, there are clear weaknesses, but we're not crap, we're not getting relegated, we won't even flirt with it, even though we will take a few hammerings because of the inflexibility of the manager to change his system to match the occasion. But his system does work very well quite regularly.

 

If we had seen the match together, you would have heard me moaning about a 35 yard cross field pass by Styles that was never going to reach is intended recipient, the quick pass to the vacant left back area vacated by Styles, the missed tackle by Andersen, who was covering for Styles, and the cross that was fortunately intercepted by Helik. There were other examples. I am not saying that Styles is a bad player, he is direct, has a low centre of gravity, a good engine and as we saw today, he can hit a ball, but I do not think that left wing back is his best position.

Similarly, you have interpreted my regret about our poor possession statistics as a request to try and play possession football like Barcelona. That is not what I am saying at all. Football is about creating temporary overloads all around the pitch. Those overloads allow you to pass your way through the opposition. The first goal was an overload on the left that was exploited by Adeboyejo, whose pass from the by-line allowed Woodrow the space and time to set up Styles. The thing is that we are usually outnumbered in mid-field in the 3-4-3 system, and that fact means that the opposition can potentially create chances from distance because of that overload.

I appreciate your comment and look forward to future contributions.

 

I did not see the game, and I usually do not comment when I have not seen the game, but I have a theory. The theory states that 3-4-3 means that the team who score the first goal win the game to zero. I would be interested in your comments.

 

Did you not see the part where I said that Minority Report is not for you if you do not like analysis?

 

Styles today