Forest v Villa - Match Thread

Moved up to 19th!

I thought we competed well enough against an average Villa side. A lot more cohesive and it stops the rot.

Two big away games vs Wolves and Brighton. You'd hope we can get at least a point or two from those.

By the time we reach the last two Home games before the WC we should be starting to click and will hopefully take at least 4 points off Brentford and Palace.

Ten points after 15 games would be pretty decent, and would give us a solid platform to build on. One win and two draws minimum then!

comment by caniggiaforforest (U6917)
posted 2 hours, 2 minutes ago
Anyone criticising Yates and saying he shouldn’t play really doesn’t understand football. He held the midfield together and to be fair Kouyate was quite effective too
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t really agree. I think he is very good positionally and does get stuck in for sure. So no criticism. I just think he lacks quality in his passing. He gave the ball away at some key moments. The goal that was disallowed would have been due to Yates passing it straight to a Villa player on the edge of the box under no pressure. He also potentially gives a penalty away. I don’t want to see him dropped especially but think Mangala plays in his place when fit.

Overall it’s a huge improvement. If we can improve the composure we can start being dangerous. I guess we need some points and then can have the confidence to be more composed on the ball. The amount of times we give it straight back to the opposition means we are always under pressure and we need to be able to relieve the pressure at times.

comment by reds_are_everywhere (U9547)
posted about 8 hours ago
comment by caniggiaforforest (U6917)
posted 2 hours, 2 minutes ago
Anyone criticising Yates and saying he shouldn’t play really doesn’t understand football. He held the midfield together and to be fair Kouyate was quite effective too
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t really agree. I think he is very good positionally and does get stuck in for sure. So no criticism. I just think he lacks quality in his passing. He gave the ball away at some key moments. The goal that was disallowed would have been due to Yates passing it straight to a Villa player on the edge of the box under no pressure. He also potentially gives a penalty away. I don’t want to see him dropped especially but think Mangala plays in his place when fit.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
He was one of the few who actually played accurate forward balls. He did lose possession a few times but certainly no worse than anyone else, they all gave the ball away constantly.

I'm very much a neutral here but when Yates is on the pitch at least you know he's there, most of the others seem to let the game drift by. I thought McKenna saved you last night, he was very good. Dennis scored but he was absolutely terrible otherwise and on the night you were second best by a distance. At the moment Cooper seems as though he is chucking 23 names into the hat and pulling out a different eleven each match. He's got to decide who his core players are and build the team around them. If he changes the midfield and attack every week there won't be any pattern to the play.

comment by caniggiaforforest (U6917)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by reds_are_everywhere (U9547)
posted about 8 hours ago
comment by caniggiaforforest (U6917)
posted 2 hours, 2 minutes ago
Anyone criticising Yates and saying he shouldn’t play really doesn’t understand football. He held the midfield together and to be fair Kouyate was quite effective too
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I don’t really agree. I think he is very good positionally and does get stuck in for sure. So no criticism. I just think he lacks quality in his passing. He gave the ball away at some key moments. The goal that was disallowed would have been due to Yates passing it straight to a Villa player on the edge of the box under no pressure. He also potentially gives a penalty away. I don’t want to see him dropped especially but think Mangala plays in his place when fit.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
He was one of the few who actually played accurate forward balls. He did lose possession a few times but certainly no worse than anyone else, they all gave the ball away constantly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To single Yates out is a bit unfair, I see similar on other social media with Worrall people still blame him and he has not been on the pitch for the last 8 goals we have conceded!

I really don’t see it as problem with anyone individual, we need to grow together as a team. Hopefully now we have this point it will encourage some more consistent team selections and partnerships will start to form.

Vastly improved performance, though tbh neither team deserved to win. Toffollo i thought was excellent, in fact the whole defensive display was a big improvement, the problem is, we can’t play that formation week in week out, mainly because the best you can really hope for is a draw, its not a winning formula. It was what we needed to do last night, to give us a building block for the future, defeat last night would have been disastrous. Henderson’s distribution was poor , but the remainder of his game was sound. I wouldn’t single anyone out for having a bad game, but thought Toffolo and Yates had very good games. Dennis i thought was decent, but you can see he wants to go out wide, Brennan contributed little but tracked back. MGW has real quality but we certainly aren’t getting the best out of him yet. All in all it was more like a championship game, between two teams who lacked confidence, in fact for the quality in the Villa team, they were very disappointing. Plenty of possession but mainly around the half way line. As stated earlier, its a building block, lets make sure we continue to build for the future, and not capitulate at Wolves as we did at Leicester. One last thing, i felt both sets of fans we’re fairly quiet, i was in the lower BC, and other than the goals, thought both set of supporters were very pretty quiet and nervous, understandably so.
Still dont think SC knows his best eleven yet, but hopefully that will happen soon.

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 1 day, 10 hours ago
I'm very much a neutral here but when Yates is on the pitch at least you know he's there, most of the others seem to let the game drift by. I thought McKenna saved you last night, he was very good. Dennis scored but he was absolutely terrible otherwise and on the night you were second best by a distance. At the moment Cooper seems as though he is chucking 23 names into the hat and pulling out a different eleven each match. He's got to decide who his core players are and build the team around them. If he changes the midfield and attack every week there won't be any pattern to the play.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes that’s mostly fair although not the bit about Cooper. He’s trying to find the right balance but doesn’t have a core of the team he can rely on and pick consistently apart from Henderson, McKenna and Johnson. Ideally he would have Niakhate, Mangala and Awoniyi to that and you’ve got 7 guaranteed starters. But two have been injured and other inconsistent. He definitely doesn’t know the best 11 yet though and he’s going to find it hard next game. Do we go defensive again and play Aurier who was solid but meant Johnson did nothing. Or do we risk it a bit and bring in Williams who creates space for Johnson?

Oops that makes 6 not 7 but you get what I mean

Probably Freuler would start most games but has taken a while to settle