Nottingham Forest (Home) 20th August

[Sibdane]

Disappointing corner. 

[Bailey]

Fucking hell... lucky not to be behind again.

[Bailey]

I am amazed we still have 3 centre backs on the pitch.

[dunlopp9987]

That was the chance. Gordon should've done better to get around Henderson

[Sibdane]

1 minute ago, dunlopp9987 said:

That was the chance. Gordon should've done better to get around Henderson

That close you’d think he’d try the nutmeg shot. 

[Btay]

Plenty of chances to win that.

Sign a striker ffs

[Bailey]

Ah Gordon! 

[dunlopp9987]

Whistle blew before the 4 minutes, plus Henderson was stalling for about 30 seconds at the end there...

[Sibdane]

Well it’s going to be a long season. Iwobi MOTM. 

[badaids]

So many chances to win that and too many players not up to it attitudinally or technically to get a shot on the goal. 

[Bailey]

Well that was pretty shite again. 

[dunlopp9987]

Out of the bottom 3!!

[Wall Writer]

For all the chat about getting a striker in - which is warranted - DCL (or said striker) is not gonna be scoring all our goals. Midfield players need to be chipping in, and they really don't look up to it. We scored off an assist by the goalkeeper ffs, let that sink in. That moment near the end where the ball was bouncing round the box and we didn't know what to do with it sums us up perfectly. 

However, we didn't lose, and I'll leave it at that. I'm not gonna let the fact we are so frustrating going forward ruin my evening. 

[Btay]

9 minutes ago, Wall Writer said:

For all the chat about getting a striker in - which is warranted - DCL (or said striker) is not gonna be scoring all our goals. Midfield players need to be chipping in, and they really don't look up to it. We scored off an assist by the goalkeeper ffs, let that sink in. That moment near the end where the ball was bouncing round the box and we didn't know what to do with it sums us up perfectly. 

However, we didn't lose, and I'll leave it at that. I'm not gonna let the fact we are so frustrating going forward ruin my evening. 

He won’t score all our goals but Rondon made a difference today - he should be third choice though. Some who can hold the ball up but has that extra bit of mobility would have made a huge difference today for the players around them. DCL would have been a huge difference today 

[msloan78]

Desperately need a focal point for our attack. Got into some decent positions today, but it felt like we were so hesitant to have a dig.

 

[Shukes]

Feels all soon and gloom because we know we should have beaten them. 
But at least today we created chances.

Rondon does give us a focal point up top, but the ball needs to be played within five years of him. 
If DCL was on the pitch that changes to fifteen yards and gives us angles. 
May not seem a lot, but that makes a huge difference as it stretches them.

If we can get a striker, or Dom fit…. We’ll be a different  team.

[Fosse Captain]

3 minutes ago, Shukes said:

Feels all soon and gloom because we know we should have beaten them. 
But at least today we created chances.

Rondon does give us a focal point up top, but the ball needs to be played within five years of him. 
If DCL was on the pitch that changes to fifteen yards and gives us angles. 
May not seem a lot, but that makes a huge difference as it stretches them.

If we can get a striker, or Dom fit…. We’ll be a different  team.

Agreed. 

We were better for Rondon being in the team as on a couple of occasions we were able to play up to and off of him. 
Stick a mobile striker up there and that changes the dynamic of the team. 

Without the focal point of a proper striker we look utterly abject up there tho.
The other front 3 don’t make enough good choices for me and that means there’s no pressure relieving. 
Their goal came from a poor pass up top, they then camped around our box and scored. 
We seem to go 100 mph, never pile much pressure on and lose the ball quickly. 

At least we came from behind to get a result. 
Not saying a point is good, but not totally bad either. 
 

 

[RuffRob]

Last season we would have got beaten today.

We still know we need a striker or two, so no surprise from last week really. 

Today maybe showed why Lampard tried Gordon up front in the first two games. He had little choice but to give Rondon the nod today, but he was not particlualy effective. Alli appears to be all but gone from the club.

Does look a bit desperate when you look around for might get us a goal.

 

 

 

[dunlopp9987]

11 minutes ago, RuffRob said:

Last season we would have got beaten today.

We still know we need a striker or two, so no surprise from last week really. 

Today maybe showed why Lampard tried Gordon up front in the first two games. He had little choice but to give Rondon the nod today, but he was not particlualy effective. Alli appears to be all but gone from the club.

Does look a bit desperate when you look around for might get us a goal.

 

 

 

Looks like Kudus will be coming in, but I hope that's not our answer for a striker. We need a proper #9

[Bailey]

I actually thought McNeil did more with the ball than Rondon did. 

I certainly didn't notice us being any better with Rondon on the pitch. They are Championship defenders and he was non-existent. 

Sure DCL will help, but he isn't going to be the difference in games. Fans like to say this season after season. Once Doucoure is fit we will be fine, once Dom is fit we will start scoring, when Mina is fit we will keep clean sheets, when Digne comes back we will start attacking down the left again etc etc. It doesn't work like that. Good tactics and management overcome deficiencies in the squad. 

If Rondon was missing chance after chance, I would accept the point a lot more, but he had one chance that he created himself. We have two wingers that try and do everything themselves and a new signing in McNeil that looks like he is struggling a bit at the moment. Our width is coming from wing-backs that barely get forward and then we have a two-man midfield that is expected to cover the length of the pitch because our defenders can't defend a high line and squeeze the game. 

Dom coming back doesn't magically solve all of those problems.

[dunlopp9987]

5 minutes ago, Bailey said:

I actually thought McNeil did more with the ball than Rondon did. 

I certainly didn't notice us being any better with Rondon on the pitch. They are Championship defenders and he was non-existent. 

Sure DCL will help, but he isn't going to be the difference in games. Fans like to say this season after season. Once Doucoure is fit we will be fine, once Dom is fit we will start scoring, when Mina is fit we will keep clean sheets, when Digne comes back we will start attacking down the left again etc etc. It doesn't work like that. Good tactics and management overcome deficiencies in the squad. 

If Rondon was missing chance after chance, I would accept the point a lot more, but he had one chance that he created himself. We have two wingers that try and do everything themselves and a new signing in McNeil that looks like he is struggling a bit at the moment. Our width is coming from wing-backs that barely get forward and then we have a two-man midfield that is expected to cover the length of the pitch because our defenders can't defend a high line and squeeze the game. 

Dom coming back doesn't magically solve all of those problems.

While I agree that Rondon is extremely limited in his capabilities and should be a third choice striker, there were a handful of times he either headed or chested down the ball perfectly for someone to run on to.

So while he did only create the one chance for himself (which was about 2 feet from going in), he created a few for others

[Wiggytop]

I thought we played really well on the first 15-20 mins and should have been 2 up, of we had been more clinical or had an agile CF. We don’t and weren’t able to keep up the pressure, allowing them back into the game. Rondon clearly can only play 45-60 mins max on his ageing legs, but we looked a worse shape once he left the pitch, if we don’t have a new CF by next weekend I’d rather see Keane on as a CF than Gray, Gordon or McNeils attempts to do so. Onana’’s time showed why it’s wrong to expect every new signing to come in and be a star, after his early errors the rest of the team stopped trusting him and didn’t pass to him at all.

Its a relief to get a point, should have been three, but we really need to address the CF position this week, and with one who can come in straight away and hit the ground running.

[badaids]

1 hour ago, dunlopp9987 said:

Looks like Kudus will be coming in, but I hope that's not our answer for a striker. We need a proper #9

Kudus doesn’t look like he’s a striker though, more another attacking midfielder.  It feels like Lampars is going to do a Koeman.

[Romey 1878]

I'm struggling to put into words what I feel after this game, I've been thinking about it since the final whistle went, so just bear with me because this is likely to be all over the place as I feel very frustrated.

I thought we started the game extremely well. We were completely on top and in charge of the first 15-20 minutes - Iwobi, Gray and Gordon were causing mayhem. Iwobi was more of a conductor, with Gray and Gordon just pummelling them by being very direct in their play. If we'd scored in that period I think we'd have gone on to comfortably win the game.

But we didn't and then we completely fell away and I thought from then on we were terrible and second best. That's not to say that Forest were good from then on because they were not impressive at all but they still managed to outplay us. The directness of our play disappeared and we didn't want to try anything, nobody wanted to take responsibility.

We still did manage to have chances but we were so devoid of quality and confidence that they came to nothing. I felt like murdering someone after witnessing three totally under hit passes that would've had a player going at the keeper one v one. They weren't hard passes to make and yet we fucked each of them up.

I'm glad we managed to get out of the game with a point but I feel so angry about it as well.

We need to do a lot of work in the next 10 or so days of the window.

[c1982]

We’d have won today with someone like Che Adams up top!

I can’t get my head round how much we’ve neglected such a key position… look at Palace - they’ve just let Benteke go (wouldn’t want him but probably better than our only fit striker) and still have Eduard and Mateta on the bench behind Zaha, with Plange (young lad from Derby) a decent option too. We have DCL and Rondon - nothing else. We need to sign 1 player who can really challenge DCL for the spot e.g Broja/Watkins (doubt it) and one average but reliable Adams/ Maupay type who will be able to change games from the bench and fill in without having to compensate elsewhere over the course of the season. Che Adams came off the bench today for Southampton and scored 2; meanwhile we threw Dwight McNeil up front as we had no other options.

[Goodison Glory]

Agree with all the points of frustration. 
 

onlymother comments I'd make are 

1. I hope the late goal makes Gray kick on. He's been poor and wasteful this season so far. Hopefully ending the 20+ game goal drought helps him.

2. What I wrote about in the Onana thread nearly came to roost. Rash tackling due to his maturity. Again, hopefully this "near call" helps him to balance things out without losing his "edge"

 

 

 

 

[Romey 1878]

https://www.football365.com/news/opinion-everton-frank-lampard-first-point-relegation-scrap

[OfficialKierxn]

Click this link to see Official Kierxn's honest thoughts on the  disappointing result against Nottingham Forest at Home.

Edited August 21, 2022 by OfficialKierxn
Changed the name of the link

[London Blue]

Well done mate.

Have to disagree with you though, I think considering the injuries and lack of signings we need to play 5 at the back with attacking wingbacks.

Thought we were unlucky, had 19 shots, should have scored at least 3, when we have a striker we will score goals.

We just have to support the team and stay positive, we will be in a better place after the window and we have key players back.

 

[Palfy]

21 hours ago, London Blue said:

Well done mate.

Have to disagree with you though, I think considering the injuries and lack of signings we need to play 5 at the back with attacking wingbacks.

Thought we were unlucky, had 19 shots, should have scored at least 3, when we have a striker we will score goals.

We just have to support the team and stay positive, we will be in a better place after the window and we have key players back.

 

Key players don’t you mean player, I can’t think of more than one who would be a regular starter if fit, we need 2-3 decent signings to save our season.