Feeling a Little Disillusioned

This was a post made forum user Mr Geo Challenge that I have decided to transfer into a article, I do stress this was written last week, so may have been completely negative had it been written today.

Similarly if you ever feel like venting your spleen,come on over to the forum at http://www.soccer24-7.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=80 and post away, we regularly use forum users are guest columnists on here.

Had to come out of forum retirement because this is something increasingly troublesome to me. I will add this will possibly sound more gloomy than I usually feel...

My mind has been parked (poorly) in a paradoxical cul-de-sac of hope and frustration since the new owners arrival. I'm desperate to see Forest actually have some success after seemingly cursing the club with my presence, yet I always thought there was something special about Forest. We were different in my eyes, and not just in a garibaldi-tinted glasses way. Forest always (usually) did things right, we were the good guys, we had a bias for local players, we didn't just chuck stupid money at players that didn't care about the club, when we owed money we didn't just do a Leicester or Portsmouth - we sold our valuables to pay. We tried to develop out own - even under Doughty's failed regime we knew where we were - we had a plan for long term stability with the undeniable good of the club in mind.

This isn't an attack on our new owners because without them we'd be dead as that fish, however I cannot help feeling disillusioned at what I can't help suspect is happening. In sacking the slow and steady O'Driscoll they have blown away all pretence of carefully building - these guys want the Premiership as soon as possible. One point off the playoffs wasn't enough. They needed immediate success. Why?

The cynical demon perched on my shoulder is whispering that they're impatient at best, and at worst they only want our club for their own means - as a showpiece. Are they only interested in Forest in order to bask in the glory of their plaything? And what if their new toy dosen't provide what they wanted? How patient are they willing to be? What has their track record in patience been so far?

I dismiss the above fears - I've no choice, they're unthinkable.

However there's another, almost as equally ugly demon on the other shoulder querying the direction in which Forest are being steered. O'Driscoll was clearly building for the future, he was level headed, transparent with the fans when they disagreed yet steadfast in his decisions, I was frustrated with some of his tactics but he clearly wanted us to play proper football - he was sculpting a vision. He was slowly and steadily moving us forward and building for the future.

Slowly and steadily isn't good enough for our owners though. They wanted better, quicker, and they sacked him, bringing in a new manager not as known for good football, a manager less inclined for transparency (see the "ill" Hutton whose position he didn't think needed wasting on a loan... ah wait... hello Mr Jara), a manager with absolutely no contractual reason to build for the future, in short a manager that will turn us into just another success-hungry (now!!!) football club.

Maybe it's a natural aversion to change, but my fear is turning up to the City Ground in a years time to watch eleven grossly overpaid mercenaries hoofing the ball and cheating their way to mediocrity. I fear us gambling like all the other financially turgid clubs looking for immediate success - it doesn't work and it promotes the erosion of the club's character.

I don't want to watch another Wigan. I want Forest to be something special - I want us to do things different, properly. I want to see us building for the future, playing attractive football, developing out own product and competitive in the Premiership (and inevitably the Championship).

I support our new owners, and even our new manager, however I also fear we're merely chucking 10p in the slot-machine on the off-chance of making a pound.

The 2011/2012 Home Shirt You Have Chosen Is...

Well I thank one and all for taking part in this, whether you designed a kit or merely voted,all the same your help is appreciated.

You voted in your droves on which of our shortlist of kits you would like to see Forest wear from a choice of 8,and only two really stood out from the poll, but your winner was the kit designed by Forum member Mr Geo_Challenge which took 35% of the vote beating the closest rival which only had 25%.

So here it is,the kit you chose. And I can't believe you all did choose this one,but thats democracy



This is the link for the original post with all the kit designs in. As you can see the people have chosen the "joke" option.
http://forest24-7.blogspot.com/2011/05/choose-your-201112-forest-home-shirt.html

The moral victor is as follows

Davies needs to be ruthless: McGugan out, Lynch in.

In his debut article for Forest 24-7, Mr GeoChallenge discusses a somewhat controversial idea

Davies needs to be ruthless: McGugan out, Lynch in.

by MrGeoChallenge

Lewis McGugan is Forest's top scorer with a bombastic 11 goals from midfield. He is the man that lifts the crowd, the man with the key to any Championship defence - he is our biggest threat and he needs to be dropped, and replaced with the much maligned Joel Lynch.

Forest are dropping from the sky faster than a three winged penguin. One win from our last eight games has left us in danger of losing even a play-off position. Teams are meeting our skill with grit, determination and a plan, and we're being dragged into physical, tough fights. We're playing teams at their own game and some of our players don't have it in their locker. Teams are flooding the midfield, creating tactical, positional games. Games in which there is no room for a passenger.

We all like to see a winger attack, but this player has responsibility - he must form a partnership with his full back or the team will face the consequences - I propose that McGugan does not do this. He rarely tracks back, even more rarely harries players when threatening to cross the ball, and often goes missing when the going gets tough. The last home game was a good example of McGugan not being up for a hard-working, physical, positional battle - our midfield could find no space going forward and didn't compete defensively, meaning we had to go direct, playing into Hull's game-plan.

However, from match one I have been left cringing at the galaxial space that appears in front of our left back, thisis most obvious when the opposition have the ball on their left wing. Our defence shuffles over like good little boys, except there is suddenly enough room on our left side to park the QE2. The opposition sometimes spot this and a good run/pass has left us with problems. This very rarely happens on our right hand side.

McGugan has been playing as Forest's left winger, and should be learning his defensive role like Paul Anderson is. 'Ando' has been much criticised this year because the goals and mazy dribbles of his Swansea days have not materialised, but to me it's clear he has taken on alot of extra knowledge/duties and is struggling to do them whilst attacking as he used to. He is doubling up and underlapping much better than he used to, and dropping onto the defence when it stuffles over to the left very well and has saved our skin on more than one occasion by doing so. He is generally supporting Chris Gunter very well and his work-rate has improved - the Forest coaches have clearly been working on Anderson's defensive side, if we had a left sided player doing this we would look so much stronger.

The above is only observational, so in the interest of fairness I looked at our goals conceeded (only since the Leicester game due to laziness, and Eggheads is coming on in a bit). We have played 18 league games since & including the 1-0 defeat at Leicester, conceeding 16 goals. Of the 13 goals from open play, 8 goals have arisen from threats coming from our left hand side (Middlesborough, Preston (2), Scunthorpe, QPR, Coventry, Barnsley and Leicester). We've been beaten straight down the middle 4 times, and only once from our right.*
* (I must point out these statistics are from my own viewing only, and for one or two goals this is slightly subjective, especially Leciester & Coventry - but stand by my assertion that they came from problems on the left of our defence).

This is 61% ofour goals conceeded from open play coming from problems developing on our left side, a disproportionate amount.

Watching over the videos the lack of a defensive partnership between our left winger and left back can be seen in numerous examples. The Tommy Smith goal for QPR is a perfect example of a very good player spotting our frailty and mercilessly exploiting it. Drifting alone into the wide gap between full-back and winger, he recieved the ball under no pressure whatsoever. Faced with two QPR players, one of which made an intelligent run behind him, Konchesky could only follow his man. Chambers seemingly took an age to close Smith down, but if he'd of ran out of the defence Smith could have slipped Chambers' man in behind, so Chambers was stuck, and actually did the right thing in forcing Smith to shoot rather than pass earlier. Smith rifled in an excellent goal - but Forest were left in a vey tight spot by their left winger daydreaming and not supporting the defence. Lack of defensive cover from the left winger heavily contributed to the recent Middlesborough goal in exactly the above manner. We also suffer deadly crosses from this area against Barnsley, Preston and Scunthorpe, crosses too easily made.



This defensive frailty is hurting the shape of our entire team, and needs rectifying - now. The fans have been crying out for a left back, and having experience there does help, but he still needs support that McGugan is unable to give. This is no lambasting of our top scorer - he's no winger, but the manager needs to address this and stop playing him there, either by moving him next to McKenna/Moussi or dropping him completely, because it's no coincidence that many of our problems come from the left wing, where McGugan can usually be found. He has the ability to disappear - so much so I've sometimes wondered if he was employing some sort of cloaking device. There are difficult games approaching where every player must make a contribution, if Lewis can't force himself into a game Forest are better off playing someone else. Two goals in these last 18 league games suggests his contribution has dipped.

The solution may already be at the club - Joel Lynch. Having played very well at times this season, I propose bringing Lynch in at left back with the attacking wing back Konchesky slotting into midfield. Konchesky is a defender but I don't think he's that much of a square peg - with his experience he'll be able to play the position and this will enfuse a little more grit into our midfield, a midfield which with the exception of McKenna, allows the game to pass them by too often. Konchesky would at least make his prescence felt.

I think I've demonstrated that the left hand side of our defence is considerably weaker, and also that McGugan has not been contributing as much from this position. Forest need a player to sit on our left wing and, as well as providing an outlet, get stuck in defensively. Konchesky may be the answer - he surely would defensively - but if not Davies needs to bring in a proper winger who knows how to defend. And maybe he does need to be ruthless with McGugan too. It may be just the motivation Lewis needs.

Nigel on Brink?..

Wouldn't blame you if that's what you are trying Nigel. Mind you it must be fun master-minding their demise. Perfect inside job. Kudos Nigel, kudos.


Once again thanks to Mr Geo_Challenge for the winning entry in the caption contest for this week.New one up soon. Winning entry always gets posted up.

Revealed!! Billy's Role in Sheridan Romps

If you'd like to enter the next caption contest then please click the forum link on the side, the next one will be coming soon. All winning entries get published on the blogsite




Thanks to Mr Geo_Challenge off the forum for this winning entry.





All seriously in jest and not in any way shape true or factual