Forest Boffin

“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...

The previous two articles in our series looking at defensive issues ( here and here ) underlined a vulnerability down Forest’s flanks, touching upon the defensive weaknesses of our midfield. Unwillingness from our wide men to form an understanding with their full-backs, and a general lack of knowledge and organisation throughout, resulted in extra pressure being imposed upon the centre-backs – how did they fare? Different styles of play under different managers brought various challenges for the centre-backs. Under Sean O’Driscoll Forest sat quite deep which suited Danny Collins as he started the season reasonably well. Partnering either Daniel Ayala or Greg Halford, he enjoyed the possession football thanks to his reasonable (for a centre-back) technical ability - although later, when the going got tougher, he did begin to make costly errors on the ball. Collins appears poorly admired by the fans ( see below ), who claim he does not have the physical attributes for a first choice c...

Since our return to The Championship, Forest have appeared to be particularly vulnerable down their flanks, no matter who is in charge or what formation they employ – it has led to some of our full-backs looking poor. We at Forest Boffin would contend however, that this problem has not been one of personnel – it has been down to a poor relationship between those full-backs and their midfield support. The centre-backs is not the only defensive partnership on the pitch, a 'winger' (or any midfielder responsible for the space down our flank) must form a relationship with his full-back as well –  left to fend for himself the full back will simply become outnumbered ( see an example from the Cardiff game below, in which Jara is left to defend alone. All pictures and diagrams on Forest Boffin can be enlarged if clicked ). Whether because of the unsettled side, tactics or the attacking nature of certain midfielders wearing the Garibaldi , these partnerships have been...

Perhaps the most lamented tactical issue since Forest’s return to The Championship has been the left-back problem. During the last four seasons we have seen an excessive amount of players tackle this position – 12 in fact, with the slot currently occupied by Chris Cohen. Can he hold onto his place here next season? And is the shuffling between left backs clouding over a more serious defensive issue which leaves Forest especially frail down our flanks? The hunt for a permanent left-back has been an ongoing source of frustration for the fans over the past few years, various managers have swapped between various players – some being played out of position – we will adopt Billy Davies terminology and call them square pegs – and some being 'proper' full-backs ( round pegs ). For all his ruminations about " s quare pegs in round holes" , Davies seems to use them more than the average manager – for example, he has played a non-full-back as left back in 53.3% of his ...

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)...

Perhaps the most unheralded reason for The Championship being so fascinating in 2012/13 has been the cunning and guile of the men in charge: the managers. Forest Boffin would like to take this opportunity to throw a little praise their way for the tactical efforts that have enriched this season in particular. Malky MacKay, Steve Bruce and Ian Holloway have taken the spoils and will be plying their trade in The Premiership next season, but the volatile nature of The Championship has ensured there are far more success stories than these three. Forest's own Billy Davies has scored the second most amount of points per game ( see league table, right ), and from watching Forest we all know how good a job other managers have done in tweaking their tactics to make it difficult for supposed 'better teams'. This is why the division has been so unpredictable - managers have done a great job in closing the gap between ability and making up the numbers. Davies racked up 1.73...