Forest Boffin

Forest’s first two home games have seen two victories; a comfortable but patchy 1-0 against Huddersfield, and a superb and dominant 3-0 dismantling of fellow promotion contenders Bolton. I had a theory that the return of Kelvin Wilson would transform Forest, giving us stability from the base upwards – but my eye was caught by another, a player dramatically influential further up the pitch, one who made the difference between hesitance and decisiveness; Raddy Majewski. Both games were very interesting tactically, the Huddersfield game in particular turning into a battle of wills between the two managers. Billy Davies tweaked his diamond formation slightly, playing a system I afterwards dubbed The Washing Machine (because, I tell myself, of the fluidity of the movement, and how it looked when scrawled on my notes, but I was possibly influenced by the state of my clothes after walking home in the post-match torrential rain). Huddersfield played a variant on the 4-4-2, with their seco...

Finally dry after the post-Huddersfield monsoon, I look forward to a fascinating encounter as Forest welcome a Bolton side unrecognisable to the team we drew with early last season. I’ve enjoyed researching this preview more than any other because it’s given me the opportunity to study the alterations Dougie Freedman has made to The Trotters , in particular when they have the ball. He has clearly been working hard with his midfielders to develop their attacking movement – under Owen Coyle they bombarded Forest with crosses and bullied our defence, but under Freedman they have changed their philosophy and instead focus on creating and exploiting space with a pass-and-move style of play. Defending in The Championship has improved sharply in the last few years as teams have gotten particularly adept at denying space and maintaining defensive shape – Freedman has evolved his tactics to combat this, and even use an opponent’s defensive discipline against them. An initial, simple t...

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for – no, Charlie Austin hasn’t just pulled into The City Ground car park, straight into Darren Pratley's parking space, far more importantly it’s the opening game of the season as Forest gleefully welcome Huddersfield Town back to Nottingham. Expectations are often inflated at this time of year, and with exciting new signings completed and memories of their last visit still fresh, fans of The Garibaldi could be forgiven for looking forward to seeing their team get stuck into The Terriers again. Huddersfield fans for their part seem apprehensive on the whole, but as usual this should not be seen as an automatic three points. Lest any Forest fan look down on our first opponents – unwise in The Championship – we should remember that even considering our flirt with promotion, Forest finished only 9 points above them. Indeed, Huddersfield finished the season strongly under new manager Mark Robins, losing only one of their last six games...