Forest Boffin

I'm surprised that Kenny Burns is surprised that Danny Fox is still wanted by Forest . The Scotsman has been derided by many fans - but did he do that badly last season? Beginning the season at centre-back, he looked uncomfortable and made errors. My biggest complaint concerning Fox is that he is generous with the amount of space he allows, in contrast to Eric Lichaj, who will go in aggressively and bully the attacker off the ball; Fox is more stand-offish. This approach is debatable in the full-back position, but untenable for a central defender - but Stuart Pearce did not hesitate to use Fox here, possibly because he thought it may pay off when the player had the ball, but it was a relief when he was moved back out wide, and he looked much steadier defensively. Fox appears to have acquired a reputation in the game as some kind of wizard with the ball at his feet - and at times last season (with much of the midfield hiding from the ball) he was being used almost...

Last season was a strange one defensively - Forest probably have the most quality in this area of the pitch since their promotion to The Championship , yet these players have struggled to consistently measure up to their predecessors. It would be wrong not to mention the circumstances which saw players in this area of the pitch underperform. 2014/15 was another tumultuous season; two managers arrived with contrasting defensive styles, and each were unable to make up their mind what their best starting XI were. Forest used 40 (forty!) distinct defensive line-ups, the most common of which (Fox-Lascelles-Collins-Lichaj) only appeared together on 5 occasions, clocking up just 453 minutes together. This inconsistency hardly seems conducive to a settled, organised defence. Eric Lichaj: 7.5/10 Full-back Lichaj - released by Aston Villa last summer - proved himself a good defender at this level. It was refreshing to see such an aggressive player in the...

Karl Darlow - back on loan after last summer's transfer to Newcastle Untied - held onto the goalie's jersey in 2014/15, despite strong competition from Dorus de Vries. Academy product Darlow attracted criticism at times - probably not helped by his big move - but he was one of Forest's strongest players. It's impossible to say how many points his saves alone earned The Reds , but it was far more than any errors cost us. An outstanding shot stopper, he has also developed a good sense of when to come out of goal, having been required to do so on many occasions this season, due to a defence low on confidence and often looking to their keeper for help. The main criticism of Darlow is that he does not “ command his box ” – personally I only half understand what this even means; it smacks of being a lazy footballing cliché to me, similar to calling a manager “ tactically naïve .” Should a 24 year old kid be “commanding” th...

 Perhaps a leading factor in the disappointment felt by Forest fans this season has not been results alone, but also the feeling that we have the best squad of players in recent times. This got me pondering what the best Forest XI would be, since our promotion to The Championship in 2008 - how many of the current players would be in it? This is, of course, a subjective issue. As football is a results business, I thought it interesting to look at some win ratios*, and have picked a team based purely on that. How does our team of winners compare to the players we have seen week-in week-out in 2014/15? We can see straight away there are some surprises in our team of winners ( see right, click to enlarge ). The defence is almost as expected - I have included Chris Cohen at left-back because I wanted to recreate a balanced team rather than shove the best win ratios onto the pitch haphazardly. I don't think many would argue about the inclusion of Lee Camp, J...

An awful run of results leading to Forest dropping to 12th position in The Championship saw the removal of Stuart Pearce amid frustration at his tactical ability. Psycho's tactics have been lambasted - but for the most part this has been lazy, partisan criticism. There were certainly strategic problems, but I despair when I see slapdash phrases such as  tactically inept , or worse , naïve . It makes me suspect the critic doesn't know what they're talking about, or has not bothered to analyse what they have seen. Saturday's loss against Millwall was far from their worst performance of the season - Forest were unlucky, but Pearce did not help matters by employing, in my opinion, the wrong pressing system. Forest pressed conditionally, allowing  The Lions  to have the ball in safe areas instead of taking the game to them. The pressing game has become important under Pearce - his experience of football outside of The Championship has bee...

This is an open letter to every Forest fan - including Mr Fawaz Al Hasawi - about the importance of stability, at a time when this football club needs it the most. Lets set aside for a moment Stuart Pearce's status, and whether because of his many years of loyalty and love for Nottingham Forest he deserves more time. The question is whether, in the cold light of day, Forest would be better placing emotion and attachment aside and making yet another change. The likelihood of being under the FFP transfer embargo until the summer of 2016 makes promotion this season even more attractive - yet we are 9 points outside the playoff positions. Our season has stalled - but a change now would all but end our promotion chances this season. Managers who come in part way through a season have not had the opportunity to form a truly winning formula, because much of the work towards this is done pre-season. They may be able to patch up some aspects of the team's play...

Stuart Pearce's luck continued to dwindle on Sunday as Forest crashed to a disappointing 3-1 defeat at home to a one-dimensional Birmingham City side, seemingly leaving their promotion hopes hanging by a thread. The team and system looked a little better; Robert Tesche and Henri Lansbury occupied the pivotal central-midfield roles, and while this would give rise to it's own problems, it at least allowed Michael Mancienne to escape back into the back-four, alongside Jamaal Lascelles. Full-backs Danny Fox and Eric Lichaj appeared under orders to get forward as often as possible. Matty Fryatt and Britt Assombalonga played up front for Forest, ahead of wingers Michael Antonio and Jamie Paterson, who should have been ideally placed to attack Birmingham's full-backs due to the system our opponents use. The Blues  utilise a 4-2-3-1 formation that we are familiar with having watched Forest's own versions under Pearce and previous manager Billy Davies. This is a fluid way ...