Forest Boffin

This week ex-Swansea boss Steve Cooper became Forest’s 21 st full time manager/head coach since their relegation from The Premier League – how might he change things tactically and what might it mean for the current squad? Initially at Swansea, Cooper favoured a 4-2-3-1, switching at times to a 4-3-3 system. A feature of these sides was patient play out from the back and a focus on attacking down the flanks. He changed to a 3-4-1-2 for the 2020/21 season, but retained this patient, wing-based approach. The 3-4-1-2 system is interesting because of the way it’s developed in The Championship, and this is worth bearing in mind when thinking about the way Cooper’s teams play – where at elite level you would not call it a defensive system, Championship teams have taken to it in larger numbers because of the efficiency with which it’s shape covers the pitch defensively. So at this level the 3-4-1-2, or other 3-4-3 derivatives, have quite a defensive ethos, and considering how Forest lined...

Forest had a nightmare first month of the season, finding themselves bottom of The Championship after earning just one point from their first five league games. It has been well documented that Forest’s preparations for the season have been poor, for both avoidable and unavoidable reasons. Cancelled friendlies and interrupted training due to Covid-19 appear to have directly effected the first loss of the season, against Coventry City – you can read my match report here. The Reds faded badly from a good start, fatigue helping The Sky Blues to immediately crank up the pressure on Hughton by coming from behind to win 2-1. During this game we also noticed the first signs of the inadequacy of the Forest squad in key areas undermining the manager’s tactics, and his failure to discover a solution – this has been the dominant feature of the first month of the season. 11 players left the City Ground during the summer, either released or returning to their parent clubs – these players made ...

 As we exit the international break I've been looking at which players escaped the nightmare month of August with any credit. This is my shortlist for, and finally my player of the month. =5. Riley Harbottle & Tyrese Fornah Were it not for the cup exploits of some of the younger players, I would be struggling to point to half a dozen who have done reasonably well this season. None of the under 23’s let themselves down against Bradford and Wolves but Riley Harbottle and Tyrese Fornah in particular stood out. Fornah had an outstanding game against The Bantams, wowing The City Ground in a midfield general role. Available and confident on the ball, he looks a crowd pleasing type of defensive midfielder. However he will also have pleased the purists like myself for his defending – he made a defensive contribution every 9.55 minutes over the two games. The amount of attacking our opponents did in those games lent itself to favourable statistics like this, but he was defending well...