Forest Boffin

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...

Ask Forest fans what has been missing this season – even ask the manager – and sooner than later the phrase “clinical finishing” will be mentioned. It would be easy to conclude that The Reds’ strike force of Simon Cox and Darius Henderson had been sub-standard; this has not been the case.   Hendo has been one of the best target men at this level for a while now. It is unusual for this type of player to score too many goals, but that isn’t what they are generally there to do. Henderson is most influential when providing an outlet, receiving the ball when Forest attempt to come forward.   Direct play isn’t generally the Billy Davies way; he likes the ball played to feet and to build up possession gradually. The forward’s role in this is often to pull out into space – typically onto the wing - and help establish a foothold in enemy territory (which is why Simon Cox and Jamie Mackie are so admired by Davies).   But our manager is canny enough to realise that hi...

Rather infuriatingly, some people have everything. Youth, money, a job they love, looks (I’m told), a pet goat, a fancy and exotic name – you might think all that were enough but no; now Arsenal want to sign them. That’s right, I’m talking about Jamaal Lascelles. But is he any good? Perhaps the most hyped academy graduate for a decade, it feels like the 20 year old has been on the horizon a long time. Finally given the chance to make the garibaldi shirt his own after injuries to Kelvin Wilson and Danny Collins, Lascelles performance against Yeovil was a rare sparkle during an uncomfortable 3-1 defeat, as he performed well. The youngster has perhaps been a victim of his club’s circumstances – the highly rated defender has been capped by England at all youth levels and could have expected regular first team action before now. However, Forest seem to be constantly fighting for promotion or against relegation – blooding young players has been risky. Lascelles has passed the test with...

“He’s got one hell of an engine”. “A real box-to-box midfielder.” “Energetic and hard working.” “ Mr Versatile .” In football, such praise is often a double-edged sword – these are all fantastic attributes for the modern footballer to have, but once these labels stick, players real skills often get overlooked, and their versatility sometimes leads to them not carving out their own niche in a team. Chris Cohen has been another player to suffer from this. Cohen has spent well over 200 hours in a Forest shirt, in a wide variety of positions – successive managers have always found room for him in their team somewhere, possibly because of the attributes mentioned above. There is more to his game, but effort and dedication are not to be ignored – every time Cohen pulls on the Garibaldi he put in a passionate 100% and has been deployed right across the midfield. It is at left back, however, that he ended last season. This position has been a constant niggle for Forest as a succession o...

I must immediately confess that Andy Reid is probably my second favourite Forest player that I’ve seen in person. Everybody loves a home-grown talent, but Reid’s affection for the club, passion, and his style give him a lot of credit with me personally, and added to that he's a real creative talent. The player's return excited me more than the signing of any other player since I started supporting Forest over 20 years ago. As far as I was concerned, we had just signed what would be the best player in the league, and having missed the first game of the season I bought my ticket to the Notts County Carling Cup game, in part, specifically to watch Reidy. I couldn’t have been more disappointed. I'm a big fan of defensive play, and Reid’s performance highlighted, in 30 foot square neon letters, that it is impossible to function as a team if the midfield aren’t bothered about defending. One innocuous league cup win sent me from enthusiasm and hope for the new season into fe...

Robert Snodgrass steps up confidently and whacks in the penalty - Forest Boffin must have used a months subscription of Forest Player on this clip alone, usually wearing a glib expression. As the Leeds player celebrates, you can see a frustrated Adlene Guedioura in the bottom corner of the shot - possibly cursing in Arabic - he'd just given away the penalty that put his side behind and looks angry. Leeds won't like Guedioura when he's angry... Guedioura's riposte - a thunderbolt that almost vaporised the Leeds net - was the catalyst for one of the most memorable victories in recent memory, a 7-3 victory at Elland Road. Under Steve Cotterill Guedioura proved nothing short of a revelation. One of several loanees used to patch up Forest’s makeshift side, he helped avert what would have been a disastrously timed nose dive into League One (you would argue that any such relegation could be described as disastrous, however for ownerless Forest, staying up was essential)...

Few players at Forest have proven so divisive as our Irish International Simon Cox. A toothless predator, or the trigger for a successful hunt? Cox has been involved at every stage this season, and win or lose, he has been an important figure. Cox's detractors have pointed to a poor goal-scoring return from the Irishman ( see his stats, right. They are enlargeable if clicked ). His arrival, although slightly overshadowed by that of Billy Sharp, was highly anticipated, and five goals does seem low for a player of his reputation - a player who has himself stated his personal dissatisfaction with this. To iterate this further, Cox only scored, on average, one goal every 598.2 minutes he was on the pitch - roughly one every six and a half full games. So if goals aren't what Cox brings to the team (from his own boots at least), what does he do for Forest? His tireless work rate is probably the most touted of his abilities amongst Trickies - something that will naturally gain...