Forest Boffin

Forest continued their role as The Championship ’s pace-makers on Saturday as they earned a hard-fought victory against an enthusiastic Sheffield Wednesday side – who will think themselves unlucky. Wednesday operate a physical, high-octane 4-4-2 system. I expected them to focus on hoofing the ball forwards to their target-man,  Atdhe Nuhui; while the Austrian does receive a fair amount of direct play, our opponents did not base their game-plan around this and the amount of long balls they make is actually around average for the division. Indeed, they cut Forest open twice in the opening passages of play, as The Garibaldi were perhaps taken surprise by the enthusiasm of the home side, backed by a partisan crowd. The Owls  could easily have been ahead were it not for a fantastic tackle by Michael Mancienne, and some wasteful finishing. The Reds looked to have learnt their lesson from the Bournemouth game, fielding a five man midfield in what I deem a 4-2-3-1 s...

Forest strolled to an easy victory against Reading on Saturday, holding onto their early lead at the top of The Championship . It was another game where Stuart Pearce tinkered with his tactics at half-time; again this brought a favourable result. Forest began with a 4-4-2 and continued with a settled side. The front men and wingers were instructed to press the ball high up the pitch, but on the whole the team did this slightly more conservatively than they did against Bournemouth, and got the balance about right. Chris Cohen and Andy Reid were doing the donkey work in the middle, as The Reds looked to build here, and then pass the ball into wide areas, where the wingers and full-backs would find space to cross the ball; this has been the focus of Forest's attacking play so far this season, a fact ignored by Reading. Reading's system was a little more difficult to define; I've heard it described as a 4-4-2, Pearce himself called it a 4-1-4-1; personally it looked like...

As I began last season (ultimately time constraints scuppered this), I'll be keeping a closer eye on how Forest score their goals, and how they are conceded. I intend to examine every goal, and hopefully we'll be able to build up a picture of why and how Forest succeed or fail. Forest 1 -0 Blackpool: Michail Antonio. Blackpool had been doing a surprisingly good job in clogging up the dangerous areas of the pitch with tangerine shirts, restricting The Reds to balls over the top and crosses. This tactic fell apart when the Forest strikers, in particular Matty Fryatt, began drifting deeper to get involved in midfield play. This not only gave Forest an extra man in this area, but confused the two Blackpool holding midfileders. Fryatt proved the catalyst for this goal, coming deep and effectively swapping positions with Andy Reid. This fluid movement baffled the comparatively inexperienced Blackpool defensive midfielders, and they left a gap in front of the defence just long...

Stuart Pearce faced his first major tactical headache of the season against an aggressive, skilful Bournemouth side this week, but Forest came away with the points in a display which confirmed not only the endurance of the players, but also the flexibility of their manager. The Cherries were rampant in the first half, and were taking advantage of Forest's high-pressing game.  We thought before a ball had been kicked this season that Pearce would prefer this style of pressing, and this has proven the case, but we (well, I to be more precise) did not reckon on his use of the 4-4-2 formation. The 4-4-2 (especially away from home) is arguably best suited to a conditional pressing game, with the wider midfield bank of players staying deep and forming a barrier across the pitch, which the opposition needs to play through ( see left. All diagrams on Forest Boffin are enlargeable when clicked ). When used in conjunction with a high-pressing game, as happened agains...

Stuart Pearce’s new signing Chris Burke has been one of the top wingers in The Championship for several years – his arrival at The City Ground represents a significant sharpening of Forest’s attacking weaponry. Burke is what I call a speculative player – when he gets the ball is inclined to risk losing possession rather than passing to maintain pressure – the opposite to, for example, the recently departed Raddy Majewski, a player so influential in Forest’s possession football over the past few years.   Burke is particularly determined to make an impact himself rather than passing the responsibility to others, and bases much of his game on carrying the ball into an area where he has the space to do so – this is where he has his success. He has a good grasp of where space is (or will appear) and the skill to reach it. In practice this means dribbling the ball – something only one player did successfully on more occasions last season in The Championship . What make...

Clinical finishing – two words that haunted Nottingham Forest last season. Two words that, we were told, were all that was missing. Have The Garibaldi finally addressed this deficiency by signing Matty Fryatt? Forest have certainly signed a striker . For large periods recently The Reds have played without this type of player; the goal-scoring pedigree of the forwards at The City Ground has been much debated, but I would argue that the only true strikers the club have employed lately have been Matt Derbyshire and Billy Sharp – two players starved of time on the pitch because they did not fit into the team’s tactics.   A look at Fryatt's movement when advanced of the ball illustrates what he does differently to the forwards we have observed last season at Forest. It is his movement off the ball that makes him a striker rather than a forward.   Forest have tended to play their way forward patiently through maintaining possession. For the forwards this ...

Stuart Pearce claims he is undecided on tactics and systems, but in the recent past he has been a steadfast advocate of the 4-2-3-1 formation. Influenced by Fabio Capello and Rafa Benitez, Pearce used this modern system with both the Under-21’s and Olympic team. Forest’s acquisitions this summer tend to suggest they want to use this formation. The three defenders purchased have one common feature: their ability to use the ball. The 4-2-3-1 is not geared towards direct play; it requires that the defenders pass the ball out patiently, often to a deep lying play-maker masquerading as a defensive midfielder. The new strikers are also well suited to playing this system. We’ve all seen Billy Davies’ version of the 4-2-3-1, with the forward drifting deep or wide effectively acting as a support player – Pearce has used a more aggressive variant of this system and likes the front man to be a striker, not a forward. Matty Fryatt and Lars Veldwijk are well suited to this role. Recent tact...