Forest Boffin

As Forest have hit a bit of a rough patch, much has been made of manager Billy Davies’ tinkering with the side in their latest game, against Blackpool – where his tactical alterations did not work. I’ve been critical of Forest’s tactics myself over the past few weeks, but the manager’s tinkering has illustrated one thing which should give Forest fans hope; that he has isolated, and is tackling, the team’s biggest weakness – the defensive midfield situation. What has been the problem? Simply stated; the sale of Adlene Guedioura. In the five games Guedioura played this season, Forest unveiled a new, more fluid midfield which gave each player licence to move around the pitch as they deemed fit. The midfield system against Huddersfield was so interchangeable I dubbed it the washing machine , as Reid, Lansbury and Guedioura cycled through each other’s positions. Guedioura is good at driving forward, but is also prone to abandoning the area in front of the defence to go out wide to pre...

Forest made it three disappointing results in a row as visiting Blackpool snatched three points from a game where Billy Davies' tactical recalculations failed to pay off. The Garibaldi are having serious problems adjusting their midfield since losing the key figure of Adlene Guedioura - once more that played it's role in their misfortune as Davies abandoned his workable diamond formation in an attempt to plug the gap in front of the defence. I'd like to point out, with sincerity, that I am Billy Davies' number one fan. Without him, Forest have been nothing short of mediocre, under the Scot we are a force in this league, entertaining and (when in full flow) genuine promotion candidates - yet in my, albeit amateur, opinion King Billy has gotten things wrong in recent weeks. Davies welcomed The Tangerines by changing Forest's system. The diamond formation has been relatively successful since Billy's return, and had incurred problems, but over the summer it wa...

Another look at how Forest are scoring their goals, always useful when we're arguing about team selection. Over the season I'll try to build a picture of not only who is contributing, but how they are, and ultimately how the team tend to create. This is subjective stuff an thus my opinion. All diagrams can be enlarged when clicked. 8. Barnsley (1-0) Simon Cox This is the kind of goal Forest specialise in and, in my opinion, makes us something special in this division, because we do this kind of flowing move so consistently. Barnsley are defending in their own half, presenting The Reds with a packed and organised defence willing to press the ball, but Forest simply pass their way through it. The reason they're able to do this is not only the control and passing, but it's the subtle movement of the players in not only finding the space, but creating it. I want to highlight the awkward movement of Simon Cox in creating this opening - as Forest come over the half-wa...

After a draw against “minnows” Bournemouth, Forest travel down to Somerset to face bottom of the table Yeovil this weekend. Our opponents are struggling badly, and are a much smaller team with far inferior resources, so this should be an easy day out? Or is it that simple? This is The Championship , and thus there are no easy games of course – as proven recently (but we’ll get to that later). However, the merest peek at Yeovil’s record this season should give Forest confidence; our opponents have not won at home this season – indeed they have only scored one goal. Overall, they have gone 11 league games without winning, and their manager is already chopping and changing the team, dropping fans favourites and publicly stating his players are not good enough to stay in the division. On paper, I have never seen such an easy place for Forest to go and collect three points. It is interesting to draw a comparison between the goal-scoring exploits of Forest, and Yeovil, who are yet to s...

With Forest stringing together 6 unbeaten games in the league, there have been questions of whether the international break has come at the wrong time. I began this article with a perception that international breaks tend to hinder The Reds , and that we have to almost start again afterwards. Is this the case? It has long been an opinion of mine that our opposition see Forest as one of the teams to beat, and so scout us closely and adjust their tactics to nullify ours - therefore we 'get found out' more than most teams, because we are seen as dangerous opponents and face a high level of scrutiny. This ties into my thoughts on the international break because our subsequent opponents have all had an extra two weeks to study and plot against us. Our approaching opponents, Bournemouth, Yeovil & Blackpool will all have spent many hours watching videos of The Garibaldi searching for ways to stop us. This is exactly what happened to Forest towards the end of last season; Bil...

My second look at how Forest are conceding their goals. This edition neatly takes stock of Forest without Guedioura - the loss of whom, in my opinion, has caused defensive confusion in front of our back four as Billy was forced back to the drawing board. Before Gueddy's departure we conceded 0.6 goals per game on average, since, we have conceded 1.3 GPG. Will the manner of those goals shed any light on why Forest have conceded more? These posts are, it must be pointed out, my opinion unless otherwise stated - if I've missed something, or got something wrong, or you just disagree or have something to add, feel free to let me know - it will help build a better picture. 4. Barnsley 1-1 (Chris O'Grady) (penalty). I'll stick to the short version because there's so much going on in the build up to this goal - which is basically caused by Barnsley's positivity and endeavour exploiting confusion in the Forest midfield. At the game I thought it a clumsy piece of ...