Nottingham Forest v AFC Bournemouth

billythekid

billythekid

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We Meet Nottingham Forest Who Have A New Manager

After our game against Luton Town was abandoned, the Cherries are away for their last game before Christmas with a visit to the City Ground to play Nottingham Forest. The game is on Saturday at 3 pm. After the last three previous away victories against Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Manchester United, which is the first time our club have achieved this in the Premier League, the Cherries will be looking for their fourth away win, the last time AFCB did this was in the 2020-21 season in the Championship.

Nottingham Forest have parted company with manager Steve Cooper, his side have lost five of their last 6 games, with the other drawn and only one win in their last 13 league games. From reports, Cooper was still very popular with the majority of the fans and also the players. They probably still remember when Cooper took the job in September 2021, Forest were bottom of the Championship after 8 games with 4 points. At the end of the season they finished in 4th place with 80 points, an average of two points a game and were eventually promoted via the play-offs. If he had been in charge from the start of the season and his side had kept an average of two points a game, they would have finished as Champions.

Nuno Espírito Santo the former Wolves and Spurs manager has taken over from Steve Cooper as the new Forest manager. His last job was at Al-Ittihad in the Saudi League, he was sacked last month. He will find Steve Cooper a hard act to follow, the Nottingham Forest fans really liked him and even though with their poor run of results backed him. They have a lot to thank their previous manager for the way he took their club back to the top league after 23 years out of it. They will be expecting results from their new manager sooner rather than later.

Forest have only won two home games this season, Sheffield United 2-1 and Aston Villa 2-0. Since that defeat, Villa have won five of their 6 games, the other was the draw at Dean Court. Nottingham Forest have drawn 1-1 with both Burnley and Brentford and 2-2 with Luton Town. Their three defeats have been against Brighton 2-3, Everton 0-1 and 0-2 in their most recent game against Spurs. Their home home wins, draws and losses are identical to the Cherries, except they have scored two more goals and conceded one less and both sides on 9 points. Away Forest have W 1, D 2, L 6.

Our last visit to the City Ground was in September last year. It was a game that saw a remarkable comeback from the Cherries after being two goals down at half-time with the Forest scorers Cheikhou Kouyate and Brennan Johnson. Three second half goals from Philip Billing, Dominic Solanke and Jaidon Anthony meant AFCB came took all 3 points.

In all our away league games with Nottingham Forest, AFCB have W 2, D 4, L 4.
All competitions, AFCB have W 8, D 6, L 6.

Nottingham Forest Team News
On the injury front they have been missing Serge Aurier, Ibrahim Sangare, Felipe and more long term their striker Taiwo Awoniyi who is still their leading scorer has been a big loss for them.

Nottingham Forest Player To Watch
Morgan Gibbs-White can be a dangerous player with his crosses and passing.

AFCB Team News
With the unexpected return of Alex Scott last week on the bench, no reports of any new injury concerns.

AFCB Player To Watch
In form Dominic Solanke who has scored 8 league goals this season. But the two ‘C’s’ in midfield have made a big difference recently and their friendship off the field must also contribute towards their partnership on it.

The Referee
Robert Jones is in charge of our game, it will be his first game for us this season. He has taken one game of our opponents this season at the City ground, when they played Burnley. AFCB had him last season for our away game against Aston Villa.
 
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I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for N Forest. These were at home to Everton and Spurs and away at Fulham and Wolves. Forest gained 1 point although the XGs were close in three of the games. Forest have scored 1 goal and conceded 9 with xG estimating 3.62 goals with 9.02 conceded.

Goals xG.png
Toffolo was the only goal scorer who was assisted by Williams.

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. However, there is now the large caveat that Forest have sacked Steve Cooper, replacing him with Nuno Espirito Santo. There seems to be no discernible pattern, although this may be due to trying to counter the oppositions strengths. In the last game, against Spurs the team were narrow with two pushed forward, whereas against Fulham the team used the width of the pitch much more but were compact lengthwise.

Av pos.png

The following graph compares summary stats of Foresr and AFCB over the last 4 games. AFCB are in front in all key statistics with considerable better xG and considerably less xGc. Forest have been better at goal attempts conceded but the shots AFCB have faced have been of poorer quality.

Comparison.png

Both teams have had about 40% possession over the last 4 games. Forest have created just under half of their chances from set plays, which is exceptionally high; AFCB has created about a quarter. It appears that Forest’s game plan will therefore be built around winning free kicks and corners. The percentages of chances from open play are similar.

Percentages.png
 
This game will be our hardest for quite a while....they are desperate for points and the crowd will be very hostile...there is very little affection for the Cherries in what is not one of the friendliest of cities ; and a city that contains some very very strange, unstably introverted and insular people ( something to do with distance from sea and lack of sea air).
They often elongate the vowel sounds at the end of a sentence..even Clough picked up the habit during his time there !

..and these Cherries of course are currently the World's most in - form outfit so everyone is out to beat us for the sheer prestige of that !
 
New Old Cherry said:
This game will be our hardest for quite a while....they are desperate for points and the crowd will be very hostile...there is very little affection for the Cherries in what is not one of the friendliest of cities ; and a city that contains some very very strange, unstably introverted and insular people ( something to do with distance from sea and lack of sea air).
They often elongate the vowel sounds at the end of a sentence..even Clough picked up the habit during his time there !

..and these Cherries of course are currently the World's most in - form outfit so everyone is out to beat us for the sheer prestige of that !
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Welcome back, Brian.
 
New Old Cherry said:
This game will be our hardest for quite a while....they are desperate for points and the crowd will be very hostile...there is very little affection for the Cherries in what is not one of the friendliest of cities ; and a city that contains some very very strange, unstably introverted and insular people ( something to do with distance from sea and lack of sea air).
They often elongate the vowel sounds at the end of a sentence..even Clough picked up the habit during his time there !

..and these Cherries of course are currently the World's most in - form outfit so everyone is out to beat us for the sheer prestige of that !
Click to expand...
Correct. We will also have to be careful in view of the fact that thay have just appointed a new manager. This means that they will raise their game to impress the new boss. We could be walking into a nightmare particularly if we allow them to open the scoring.
 
IF we win convincingly, playing AI's chaos rock 'n' football, will people stop posting it 'will' be a tough game - and start posting it 'might' be a tough game?
 
It’s “their” not “there”.

Last time I looked it up, football was a team game. There’s more to being effective than being motivated, even if the Notts Forest players might want to impress a new boss.
 
This one will be tricky.

In terms of preparing for the game, it’s tough for the manager as there’s a lot of question marks around which players and system we will face with the arrival of Nuno.

Plus a new manager always brings a new energy, which will be amplified in their stadium.
 
Reality and Realism said:
Correct. We will also have to be careful in view of the fact that thay have just appointed a new manager. This means that they will raise their game to impress the new boss. We could be walking into a nightmare particularly if we allow them to open the scoring.
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Agreed. We must also be very wary of them scoring more goals than we do. This will inevitably lead to a loss and the downfall of all we love, not to mention a **************** Christmas.
"Walking into a nightmare", turn it in, love, it's football, not the apocalypse.
Chin up, chap, it'll all be ok, win, lose, draw; it's entertainment, that's all. Be positive, enjoy your football and I bid you a Happy Christmas and an upbeat New Year (and I'm not being flippant, I really do wish you all the best and the happiest of years).
 
Will be an interesting game this one, I expect them to be a tough nut to crack. Nuno is historically a very defensive orientated manager and although Forest have mismanaged their recruitment over a sustained period, one area they are actually pretty strong in is the centre back position. Boly, Niakhate and Murillo are all very solid centre backs. I foresee this being a game in which they allow us to dominate possession up until the final third, they will maintain a very compact shape in a low block and look to hit us on transitions. The result will likely be determined by two factors:

1- do we have enough about us to break down their compact shape/low block.

2- can we remain diligent enough to cope with the threat that they pose on transitions. Elanga and Gibbs-White particularly will be threatening if we give them space to attack.

I for one am very much looking forward to finding out the answer to both questions on Saturday, it will certainly be a different type of test. On this occasion I would like to see Sinistera start over Semenyo as I think that this is a game in which technical prowess will be more important than raw physicality. Wouldn’t be the end of the world if it didn’t happen though. Fortunately they are missing Awoniyi who is their big danger man and main goal threat, akin to us being without Solanke. Will be an interesting watch for sure.
 
Waz afcb said:
Will be an interesting game this one, I expect them to be a tough nut to crack. Nuno is historically a very defensive orientated manager and although Forest have mismanaged their recruitment over a sustained period, one area they are actually pretty strong in is the centre back position. Boly, Niakhate and Murillo are all very solid centre backs. I foresee this being a game in which they allow us to dominate possession up until the final third, they will maintain a very compact shape in a low block and look to hit us on transitions. The result will likely be determined by two factors:

1- do we have enough about us to break down their compact shape/low block.

2- can we remain diligent enough to cope with the threat that they pose on transitions. Elanga and Gibbs-White particularly will be threatening if we give them space to attack.

I for one am very much looking forward to finding out the answer to both questions on Saturday, it will certainly be a different type of test. On this occasion I would like to see Sinistera start over Semenyo as I think that this is a game in which technical prowess will be more important than raw physicality. Wouldn’t be the end of the world if it didn’t happen though. Fortunately they are missing Awoniyi who is their big danger man and main goal threat, akin to us being without Solanke. Will be an interesting watch for sure.
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I must say your preview of this match is much better than our previous encounters.
 
There is no way Nuno will have been able to get anything across in training before Saturday. It will likely be a team picked by the existing staff playing under a semblance of the tactics already trained for under Cooper. The only "x" factor that R&R keeps banging on about is how the players react to the change in manager.
 
USCherry said:
There is no way Nuno will have been able to get anything across in training before Saturday. It will likely be a team picked by the existing staff playing under a semblance of the tactics already trained for under Cooper. The only "x" factor that R&R keeps banging on about is how the players react to the change in manager.
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Gibbs-White. knows Nuno from his Wolves days.
 
Usually I like to be a slightly optimistic realist, would predict a tough 1-1 or hard fought 1-2 victory...but I think we're gonna smash them. In recent games, their offense has been anemic and defense has been scattered. Sure, there's a "new manager bounce", but that's just a little extra effort, it won't have them suddenly drilled into a tight defensive unit with clear attacking patterns, that will take a bit of time to drill into them and Nuno won't have had that time yet. It also won't be as drastic of a difference as when a team that was downing tools suddenly perks up for a new manager, since by all indications the team was still behind Cooper 'til the end. I think they'll be in a position like our early season, where there was good effort but the tactics weren't clicking with everyone not quite being in the right positions at the right time, and that leaves space for us to exploit.

If we can apply ourselves like we did against Newcastle, Sheffield United, and Villa, I think we're looking at a good 0-4 win with Nuno being booed out of the stadium, might even have a chance to equal or surpass Fulham's margin of victory over them.
 
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