kirsikka
UTC Legend
----- Woody Subsumed By Forest -----
After Tuesday’s reportedly exciting showing against Burnley I was filled with anticipation for the match today. In his attempt to come up the outside and flank the other contenders for the job Woodgate gave an AFCB league debut to Pearson alongside Lerma with Wilshere in front of them with L Cook the man to miss out. Up front Long was given the nod ahead of Surridge with Solanke set for an extended period on the sidelines.
Meanwhile Forest are starting to resemble a rescue home for former AFCB strikers with three now on their books, Glen Murray the man to start ahead of Grabban and Taylor.
The game was only a few minutes old when S Cook pulled up with an injury and had to be replaced in the heart of the defence by Kelly, making for a partnership with CCV which could be one we see a lot more next season.
On ten minutes Junior played a short corner, received the ball back and tried to curl it in to the far post, flying a smidgeon too far.
Then in the 27th minute Kelly hit an excellent long diagonal ball to Smith on the right wing who fire in a sharp early cross. Long threw himself at it but it was ever so slightly out of his reach. A good moment.
Beyond that, the half was so sterile you could bottle it and use it to help fight the pandemic.
To be honest, Woodgate had called it badly wrong in midfield. Everybody knows how Hughton sets up his teams, you could have watched a match he managed eight years ago to work out what he’d do and create a tactic to try and counter it. His team will create a really solid defensive shape, two lines across the park they’re so rigidly solid it’s like they’ve been drawn with a set square. Then try and pick up something on the break or from set pieces.
What we needed was someone to zig zag through those lines and cause them to crumble. Leave the Forest players unsure where one of our men will be at all times and introduce elements of doubt to their shape.
Instead we had two defensive midfielders who sat and recycled the ball with short and slow passes along with the defenders, occasionally looking up hopefully only to see the four men in front of them mostly static with eight Forest players locked into position and filling up the space.
In recent weeks L Cook has gone off the boil but even then his form has been a touch above that of Lerma. If you were going to bring in Pearson it had to be at the expense of Jeff. I’m not saying Cook would have magically returned to his form of earlier in the season but he’d at least occasionally try to take it past a player and open up some space in the pitch.
I can’t call this a Hughton tactical masterclass as it was a result fed to him on a silver platter. I doubt he will ever have an easier clean sheet.
If we want to scratch around then there were a couple of times Smith got forward but it was a scrappy, dull, eventless poor first half.
I wasn’t expecting a triple change but I thought the break would see Woodgate do something to try and throw his hat into the ring for the job. Show some kind of tactical flexibility and ability to recognise he’d got it wrong. Nothing.
Most of the second half played out in much the same manner. Apart from a determination to give away lots of silly free kicks in areas where Forest could play it into the danger zone not a lot happened.
Brooks came on for the anonymous Wilshere and we had two minutes of purposeful play where we showed what we can do when we put a team like this under pressure before drifting back into playing like they’re shambling suffering side effects from high strength pain killers.
Murray nearly snatched a Forest goal from a corner, his flicked header going in at the near post only to be cleared off the line by Pearson.
Finally, on the 85th minute, the Cherries sparked into life. Presumably we remembered it would be stopped after 90 and wasn’t a battle of attrition to keep going until someone collapsed from boredom.
In this short period we probed and looked like, if we played like that for a whole match, we’d probably break them down. It’s a shame we didn’t try it from the start. As it was one Junior shot deflected over was about all we got for our troubles.
0-0 and 90 minutes we should load up to YouTube where we might make a fortune with millions of hits offering it as a perfect cure for insomnia.
----- Conclusions ----
- This isn’t Woodgate’s problem in that we’ve struggled to break down teams that sit in against us all season and JT never found an answer. However, it was a very poor attempt at doing so and JW has to be held partly responsible for that.
If this is being seen as a trial period then a lucky win last weekend followed by, I’m told, a good performance and great result against a second string Burnley team with this showing on the back of it then I don’t think it’s nearly enough. Today was so telling, the lack of change in approach after the break. Harsh to judge him on such a short period but, for me, this was his interview and he just fluffed the presentation.
- I know they were up against two walls of men moving around like they were connected on a table football rod but the front four should have done something to try and change it rather than wandering around and wondering why the ball was never reaching them.
- Let’s hope the injury to S Cook is nothing serious. We could really do without it at the moment.
- A shame Kelly lost his place. I understand why but we’re back to square one with the LB position again.
----- Player Ratings -----
Begovic – 6
Nearly spilled one but did his job. Nothing really to save so that’s that.
A Smith – 6
Did get forward a few times and when we looked dangerous it was often with him involved.
Carter-Vickers – 6 and Man of the Match
I can’t find a single seven out there today but CCV looked pretty assured at the back, admittedly against a team that weren’t committing much forward. However, I’ll give it him based on that.
S Cook (off on 5) – n/s
Went off too early.
Rico - 5
When he did get forward he was poor and defensively always looked suspect against Knockaert.
Wilshere (off on 66) – 5
Pretty anonymous. As a senior pro should have done something to try and shake things up.
Pearson (off on 81) – 6
Well, he did what you’d expect. Not a lot more.
Lerma – 6
See Pearson.
Stanislas – 5
Unlucky from short corner but apart from that not really in the game.
Long (off on 81) – 6
Worked hard but that’s about it.
Danjuma – 5
I heard his name so he was on the pitch but I can’t recall anything of note that he did.
--- Sub ---
Kelly (on from 5) – 6
Solid.
Brooks (on from 66) – 6
Looked like he might bring about change but after a brief flurry it wasn’t to be.
Billing (on from 81) and Surridge (on from 81) – 6
We looked marginally better but didn’t really have time to influence the game.
Overall Grade: D
It’s a point when we need three and, unfortunately, we never really threatened taking them all.
Woodgate’s tactics and on field changes looked one dimensional or way too late. He let Hughton completely run the game the way he wanted it to go.
It might be harsh to downgrade the forwards marks when the tactics weren’t their fault but sometimes you need them to step up and show their quality. None of them did.
What did we learn from this? The new manager is needed soon and it shouldn’t be JW.
After Tuesday’s reportedly exciting showing against Burnley I was filled with anticipation for the match today. In his attempt to come up the outside and flank the other contenders for the job Woodgate gave an AFCB league debut to Pearson alongside Lerma with Wilshere in front of them with L Cook the man to miss out. Up front Long was given the nod ahead of Surridge with Solanke set for an extended period on the sidelines.
Meanwhile Forest are starting to resemble a rescue home for former AFCB strikers with three now on their books, Glen Murray the man to start ahead of Grabban and Taylor.
The game was only a few minutes old when S Cook pulled up with an injury and had to be replaced in the heart of the defence by Kelly, making for a partnership with CCV which could be one we see a lot more next season.
On ten minutes Junior played a short corner, received the ball back and tried to curl it in to the far post, flying a smidgeon too far.
Then in the 27th minute Kelly hit an excellent long diagonal ball to Smith on the right wing who fire in a sharp early cross. Long threw himself at it but it was ever so slightly out of his reach. A good moment.
Beyond that, the half was so sterile you could bottle it and use it to help fight the pandemic.
To be honest, Woodgate had called it badly wrong in midfield. Everybody knows how Hughton sets up his teams, you could have watched a match he managed eight years ago to work out what he’d do and create a tactic to try and counter it. His team will create a really solid defensive shape, two lines across the park they’re so rigidly solid it’s like they’ve been drawn with a set square. Then try and pick up something on the break or from set pieces.
What we needed was someone to zig zag through those lines and cause them to crumble. Leave the Forest players unsure where one of our men will be at all times and introduce elements of doubt to their shape.
Instead we had two defensive midfielders who sat and recycled the ball with short and slow passes along with the defenders, occasionally looking up hopefully only to see the four men in front of them mostly static with eight Forest players locked into position and filling up the space.
In recent weeks L Cook has gone off the boil but even then his form has been a touch above that of Lerma. If you were going to bring in Pearson it had to be at the expense of Jeff. I’m not saying Cook would have magically returned to his form of earlier in the season but he’d at least occasionally try to take it past a player and open up some space in the pitch.
I can’t call this a Hughton tactical masterclass as it was a result fed to him on a silver platter. I doubt he will ever have an easier clean sheet.
If we want to scratch around then there were a couple of times Smith got forward but it was a scrappy, dull, eventless poor first half.
I wasn’t expecting a triple change but I thought the break would see Woodgate do something to try and throw his hat into the ring for the job. Show some kind of tactical flexibility and ability to recognise he’d got it wrong. Nothing.
Most of the second half played out in much the same manner. Apart from a determination to give away lots of silly free kicks in areas where Forest could play it into the danger zone not a lot happened.
Brooks came on for the anonymous Wilshere and we had two minutes of purposeful play where we showed what we can do when we put a team like this under pressure before drifting back into playing like they’re shambling suffering side effects from high strength pain killers.
Murray nearly snatched a Forest goal from a corner, his flicked header going in at the near post only to be cleared off the line by Pearson.
Finally, on the 85th minute, the Cherries sparked into life. Presumably we remembered it would be stopped after 90 and wasn’t a battle of attrition to keep going until someone collapsed from boredom.
In this short period we probed and looked like, if we played like that for a whole match, we’d probably break them down. It’s a shame we didn’t try it from the start. As it was one Junior shot deflected over was about all we got for our troubles.
0-0 and 90 minutes we should load up to YouTube where we might make a fortune with millions of hits offering it as a perfect cure for insomnia.
----- Conclusions ----
- This isn’t Woodgate’s problem in that we’ve struggled to break down teams that sit in against us all season and JT never found an answer. However, it was a very poor attempt at doing so and JW has to be held partly responsible for that.
If this is being seen as a trial period then a lucky win last weekend followed by, I’m told, a good performance and great result against a second string Burnley team with this showing on the back of it then I don’t think it’s nearly enough. Today was so telling, the lack of change in approach after the break. Harsh to judge him on such a short period but, for me, this was his interview and he just fluffed the presentation.
- I know they were up against two walls of men moving around like they were connected on a table football rod but the front four should have done something to try and change it rather than wandering around and wondering why the ball was never reaching them.
- Let’s hope the injury to S Cook is nothing serious. We could really do without it at the moment.
- A shame Kelly lost his place. I understand why but we’re back to square one with the LB position again.
----- Player Ratings -----
Begovic – 6
Nearly spilled one but did his job. Nothing really to save so that’s that.
A Smith – 6
Did get forward a few times and when we looked dangerous it was often with him involved.
Carter-Vickers – 6 and Man of the Match
I can’t find a single seven out there today but CCV looked pretty assured at the back, admittedly against a team that weren’t committing much forward. However, I’ll give it him based on that.
S Cook (off on 5) – n/s
Went off too early.
Rico - 5
When he did get forward he was poor and defensively always looked suspect against Knockaert.
Wilshere (off on 66) – 5
Pretty anonymous. As a senior pro should have done something to try and shake things up.
Pearson (off on 81) – 6
Well, he did what you’d expect. Not a lot more.
Lerma – 6
See Pearson.
Stanislas – 5
Unlucky from short corner but apart from that not really in the game.
Long (off on 81) – 6
Worked hard but that’s about it.
Danjuma – 5
I heard his name so he was on the pitch but I can’t recall anything of note that he did.
--- Sub ---
Kelly (on from 5) – 6
Solid.
Brooks (on from 66) – 6
Looked like he might bring about change but after a brief flurry it wasn’t to be.
Billing (on from 81) and Surridge (on from 81) – 6
We looked marginally better but didn’t really have time to influence the game.
Overall Grade: D
It’s a point when we need three and, unfortunately, we never really threatened taking them all.
Woodgate’s tactics and on field changes looked one dimensional or way too late. He let Hughton completely run the game the way he wanted it to go.
It might be harsh to downgrade the forwards marks when the tactics weren’t their fault but sometimes you need them to step up and show their quality. None of them did.
What did we learn from this? The new manager is needed soon and it shouldn’t be JW.