Double Departure

As we previously said on 24-7 Khaled al-Rashidi has left the club. We said a few weeks ago, taken from tweets from Kuwait that said as much that seemed to fly under many radars.
It'll be no loss to Forest, al-Rashidi never played a game and never sounded like he was going to break through, and the news he has left is no surprise.

Another none surprise is that Nathanial Chalobah has returned to Chelsea after his loan period with the club. His time with the club was somewhat mixed. He started slowly and poorly. He soon started putting in some better performances, but the damage was kind of done. Chalobah seemed to be somewhat indifferent to performing to a high level, which is a problem with young loanee's.

Chalobah might well reappear on loan in the Championship quickly, and will be looking to make quick moves to cement a holding midfielder, though Guy Moussi has returned. "Nate" did grab a couple of goals. al-Rashidi never achieved anything..

Two 2-2's

I’d like to say the lack of reports for either the last games has been down to me being busy, and although partially true, that isn’t the case. I’ve just largely been lazy.

That said Forest have managed to have back to back draws, both of which 2-2 and both of which saw us falling behind.

Against Middlesbrough, the game was marked more by Phil Dowd than much more else. That’s how it will be largely remembered save for a good come back when we looked dead and buried. Davies took a risk and stuck Reid and Lansbury in a deeper role. The whole structure of the side changed, moving from the more 4-1-3-2 formation we’d used to a 4-2-3-1 formation. It didn’t work.

For a start the midfielders in those 2 deeper roles are not players used to that role. Reid and Lansbury are not defensive players. Further forward it accommodated Majewski in a central role behind the front man, with Mackie going wide right and Abdoun playing on the left. The defence was untouched.

However that defence would need reshuffling not long into the game with the injury of Kelvin Wilson. His role at the back coordinating is vital, always was when he was here before and it’s arguable he bought the best out of Wes Morgan. Halford replaced him and he isn’t as good as marshalling the defence. It soon showed.

The main problem was the lack of the shielding midfielder who knew what he was doing. Moussi had done a mixed job against Barnsley, but due to him giving away the fouls which contributed Barnsley’s gals Davies removed him from that role. And a huge glaring gap opened up between defence and midfield which caused problems you could drive a bus through.

The first goal was simply Halford being turned easily, the ball getting centred and Boro taking the lead. The second was again just rank bad defending, standing off (which is to the point where the defence might do ordinarily) but without that shielding midfielder offering support, inviting Boro on and giving a lot of space. George Friend gladly lashed home the second, and finished well.

We looked dead and buried. I tweeted as much, saying that the change of structure hasn’t worked and we got it wrong. But then Davies redeemed himself. Derbyshire and Henderson both came on, and both scored, with close in finishes from crosses and we could have had more. Of course Reid had missed a penalty in first half and we should have had second half penalty for when Henderson was felled and then booked for diving, wrongly. I wanted t deliver a long vicious diatribe about Phil Dowd on Wednesday morning but bit my tongue.

So this weekend we came up against Doncaster and a lot of fans seemed to be assuming the win had already been decided before we kicked a ball. Donny away is always a tricky little customer of a fixture.
Macheda fresh from Manchester United would be our main tormentor in chief, scoring both the goals. Between these Chris Cohen had lashed in an equaliser, and after Reid scored.

Halford came in for Wilson and Chalobah the new signing made his bow for Forest, wearing Guedioura’s 7 shirt. It will take longer than 2 days for him to get to know us and blend in, but that’s all he had for this game.

To be honest a few people have said that this is a horrible result but that’s taking a game by itself and looking at it based on a resource and league position basis. That’s far too simplistic to judge an opponent, forgetting form, spirit and the basic fact that we struggle at the Keepmoat, which psychologically plays it part. To be fair getting a late equaliser is a good result in my book, we won’t be the only top team to lose points there this season, and so it’s nothing be ashamed of. I just tend to think a lot of our fans get far to built up on the idea of teams we will own and destroy, rather than realise some times you will struggle against perceived weaker opposition.

What it does, and forgetting the League Cup game, is set us up for the Derby game, whereby we aren’t on the best form, and yet here we are scoring a lot of goals. We don’t fail to net, but defensively looking like we are shaky. But that’s going to happen when you lose someone of Wilson’s calibre.

This season isn’t based on 3 games in September. It feels like some think it is. There are both plenty of positives as well as negatives to take from these games. Onward Forest, onward.

The Loan Window Is Open....

And already there’s been a whole host of names chucked out there as potential signings from the ridiculous to the... well frankly less ridiculous.

Starting at the less ridiculous scale is Nathaniel Chalobah, of Chelsea and famously played on loan at Watford last year, often making a starring role. It is said by some on Twitter, and maybe I’m making that horrendous error of blindly believing people on Twitter, that he and Lansbury are good mates, which might help oil the cogs of this move. He would be the man for the now infamous DM role that might soon become the new left back hoodoo slot for Forest.

Also linked in that role is Lee Cattermole, though was by a source so completely unreliable as to instantly ignore it. For one he is injured, and furthermore is not the type of DM player Billy prefers. If he wants that battling busting player, we have Moussi, no the guy he wants needs to be able to play. Cattermole plays football so agricultural that he’d better turning up at Southwell for its annual ploughing contests.

Matty Fryatt is also getting linked again, this is believable, we want that striker and we were believed to be getting close on Deadline day. This is a distinct possibility, despite many fans protestations.

Owen Garvan has had his name chucked into a ring based entirely on the fact he was cut from Crystal Palace 25 man squad, somewhat ironically at the arrival of Guedioura. Whether this is someone merely adding up 2 and 2 and coming up with some random answer, or whether there’s anything to it, I have no idea. For one I’m not even sure what type of player he is, and whether he’d be able to take that deeper role, as the rest of the midfield is already secure.

Steven Dobbie, again like Garvan is out of the 25, and for the simple fact he gets promoted, people want him in, and to be honest, it’s as good a criteria as anything else, the record speaks for itself!!