Nottingham forest(away)predictions

[AucklandRover]

Just finished watching. What a nightmare-game Walton had.
The first goal was park-goalkeeping.
For the second, the Forest player was covered and running diagonally across the area. The challenge was completely unnecessary.
The third wasn't entirely his fault, but he did look like his boots were full of lead.
We actually played well for the last hour, and Downing's goal was brilliant, but Evans demonstrated emphatically why he rarely scores!
Presenting Forest with two goals made the task of coming back impossible.
I also thought we were too "nice" again. Forest committed far more "tactical" fouls than us.
Mowbray's comment about resources being stretched was irrelevant in this game. The fact is, individual errors cost us any chance of winning and at least two of those were made by a man who would have been in the team anyway.

[champs95]

I agree with all of that Auck's. And we do have a Grade 1 academy which just looks an expensive luxury. Especially as he is saying we are stretched. Basically, nobody is coming in. Because in short, we have gone a huge £20m further in debt. And it won't just carry on being swallowed by the Venkys.
I still maintain we have enough points now, to stay up comfortably and we just need to try and maintain midtable. And hopefully hang on to Tosin. If he goes I fear we will struggle at the back like before. And just continue to show patchy form. Like a vast majority of sides around us points wise right now.

[AucklandRover]

I think we seriously need to bring four or five youngsters into the summer pre-season squad with a view to genuinely introducing them to the first team.
The current U-23 squad is the best we've produced so it's now or never for many of them.
Obviously, we already have Nyambe, Travis, Lenihan and Buckley as graduates, but it's not too much of a stretch, surely, to think that Fisher, Magloire, Grayson, Wharton, Rankin-Costello and Butterworth, at least, could make it too.
Starting the 2020-21 season with those players in contention would surely breathe new life into the Academy.

[champs95]

I think we seriously need to bring four or five youngsters into the summer pre-season squad with a view to genuinely introducing them to the first team.
The current U-23 squad is the best we've produced so it's now or never for many of them.
Obviously, we already have Nyambe, Travis, Lenihan and Buckley as graduates, but it's not too much of a stretch, surely, to think that Fisher, Magloire, Grayson, Wharton, Rankin-Costello and Butterworth, at least, could make it too.
Starting the 2020-21 season with those players in contention would surely breathe new life into the Academy.

I'll be accused of being an agent of doom here. But the vast majority of these lads are not quite good enough. Look at Tosin. Plays for City. And plays on loan at West Brom and Rovers. The gap between the Prem and the Champ isn't that big.
It is between Div2 and our level. Its massive . And most of our lads play on loan down there. And aren't standing out.
I question the coaching. I question whether Mark Venus was worth giving a new improved deal and given a new title. Especially with our mounting debt. Who is actually improving? Lowe, what's he doing? What's Johnson doing? What's Mowbray doing?
We would need to sell at least one or two of these kids every so often. Rankin Costello won't get in as Benett plays. Evan's or Johnson will always get in over Davenport. Downing will always play over some kid.
Look at Brereton. We spent money on a young kid. And look at what is left now. Nothing. He doesn't look like a footballer. Hes never played. And he looks like hes rusty, unconfident, clueless as to what to do. Same with Gallagher.
Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis are in the 1st team. And wont ever go any higher than this. Midtable in the Champ at the very best. And they aren't improving. Not with such poor players around them just going through the motions. Such poor confusing coaching going on. Mixed signals. Being taken in and out of the side it must be terribly confusing. Abd such poor older players in front of them not really contributing.
We get Lewis Holtby. Now we are finding out why nobody was interested. And why he was in the wilderness. Hes just a waste of time. We put him in a 2 year contract. And pay him well. To do nothing. Why? Why did he earn a 2 year deal?
There are so many mistakes being made and its really cost us.
This academy is too costly, we have a bad set up coaching wise. Not enough is coming through. It's not generating money. And its probably worth looking ar getting shut. Its just an expensive waste of time. We don't know how to utilise it. The manager doesn't, the coaches don't.
All we are doing is creating Div2 players, or Div1 at best. Look at people like Nuttall. Why did we have him? He wont go on and do anything.
When the first team struggles, he just reverts back to Danny Graham. Which tells its own story.
This bloke wont risk things getting worse by playing lads we have spent millions developing. He will pick Stuart Downing and Graham and Bennett etc. And the more we struggle, the more he will stick with these older players. It's just an expensive flop.
No point having this expensive training complex that is costing us millions to maintain every season, and look like an disorganised rabble most weeks. Its embarrassing. And needs closing. We are just getting further in debt.

[AucklandRover]

Again, Champs, that's too much gloom.
We already have Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis and Buckley as First Team regulars.
A reasonable return.
I'm never quite sure what you are expecting.
If we had a Premier League squad, we would be in the Premier League, but if all of our senior players were as bad as you make out, surely we wouldn't be within a mile of the play-off places.
The way I see it, we're on a par with about 15 other teams, and what will eventually happen this season will be dependent on lots of unpredictable factors.
I am always uncomfortable with your willingness to draw long-term conclusions, when every individual match-day throws up surprises!
In addition, you seem to be contradicting yourself by saying our youngsters aren't good enough, but - at the same time - are being kept out of the team by senior players who aren't worth a place.
Honestly, I think it makes far more sense in football to treat every game as a one-off. Otherwise, you end up with incurable headaches, such as why the performance against Wigan was so different from the one against Bristol City.
We try to come up with answers, but they often don't make sense.
Taking the Forest game as an example, the result was nothing to do with Mowbray or tactics or formations. Two individual errors by the same person threw all plans out of the window. We actually played well in the second half...but starting with a very big handicap.
Even the best manager in the world is incapable of preventing human error - and that's only one of the multiple random factors involved. Bad refereeing decisions constitute another area outside a manager's control. And so on.
Of course, if managers don't meet whatever targets the owners have in mind, they are sacked. I'm fine with that, but I will always continue to argue that (with possible, very rare exceptions) there is no such thing as a "good" manager or a "bad' manager - full stop!
Every one of them is only as "good" or "bad" as his last job.
Look at just this year's hiring and firings in the PL as perfect proof!

[champs95]

Again, Champs, that's too much gloom.
We already have Nyambe, Lenihan, Travis and Buckley as First Team regulars.
A reasonable return.
I'm never quite sure what you are expecting.
If we had a Premier League squad, we would be in the Premier League, but if all of our senior players were as bad as you make out, surely we wouldn't be within a mile of the play-off places.
The way I see it, we're on a par with about 15 other teams, and what will eventually happen this season will be dependent on lots of unpredictable factors.
I am always uncomfortable with your willingness to draw long-term conclusions, when every individual match-day throws up surprises!
In addition, you seem to be contradicting yourself by saying our youngsters aren't good enough, but - at the same time - are being kept out of the team by senior players who aren't worth a place.
Honestly, I think it makes far more sense in football to treat every game as a one-off. Otherwise, you end up with incurable headaches, such as why the performance against Wigan was so different from the one against Bristol City.
We try to come up with answers, but they often don't make sense.
Taking the Forest game as an example, the result was nothing to do with Mowbray or tactics or formations. Two individual errors by the same person threw all plans out of the window. We actually played well in the second half...but starting with a very big handicap.
Even the best manager in the world is incapable of preventing human error - and that's only one of the multiple random factors involved. Bad refereeing decisions constitute another area outside a manager's control. And so on.
Of course, if managers don't meet whatever targets the owners have in mind, they are sacked. I'm fine with that, but I will always continue to argue that (with possible, very rare exceptions) there is no such thing as a "good" manager or a "bad' manager - full stop!
Every one of them is only as "good" or "bad" as his last job.
Look at just this year's hiring and firings in the PL as perfect proof!

I expect very little actually. We are a mid-table club. Which could be alot worse.
But we are haemorrhaging money which could ultimately end the club. We are living way beyond our means.
We owe £175m and every year that figure is getting higher by the second.
We are a small club, desperately trying to compete in a market we cant afford.
And the fact we lost £20m in just 12 months shows things aren't right. And all these bad decisions risk our future. We are in a perilous position.
If we are going to run an academy that costs £8m a year then we need to have a vision. Not go out and get Johnson and make him the highest paid player at the club. That's just plain bad business.
We run into problems, so his answer is to play Danny Graham, and Bennett etc. That's short-termism plain and simple. And its costing us a fortune. There seems little point having an academy as so little faith is put in the kids. Not at the cost of £8m a year. We need a return on these lads every so often. They wont go on and develop, as they dont play. And if all we keep doing is reverting back to Danny Graham, the likes of Brereton wont develop.

You say stuff like what do I expect Aucks? If you listen to what I say, I have been very vocal about the likes of Graham playing. I feel its taking us backwards. Brereton has played 2 games this season. That's not enough. Its not fair. And I expect more. I am consistent in what I say. I have had an issue with this all season. Now its catching up with us. And we are going nowhere.

[AucklandRover]

But it's a no-win situation for Mowbray, Champs. If he plays Brereton for six games in a row and he doesn't score, fans will be saying, "Why the hell isn't the manager playing a proven goal-scorer like Graham?!"
I must admit that the debt-sitaution isn't one I give that much thought too. As far as I can see, there's this weird situation where the owners owe a lot of money to themselves! What are they going to do? Call the debt in?
I don't find the situation as depressing as you do.
On the morning of the Wigan game, we seemed to have turned a corner, and everything looked rosy. Here we are, 12 days later, apparently on a bad run again. What will we be thinking at the end of January? That's the point: I don't have a clue, which is why I'm just as reluctant to draw general conclusions from a poor spell as a good one.
Trying to think "big picture" simply does my head in, so I prefer to watch each game as a one-off. (After all, I have barely managed to call a single result correctly, this season, even on a game by game basis!)
Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch the Birmingham match at all because I don't think the Cup games are on iFollow. Occasionally, my friend who is a professor of computing has somehow "magicked up" ways of accessing coverage for me, but he's away at the moment!
Perhaps I'll wake to a "surprise" 4-0 victory!

[AucklandRover]

I think the game is on iFollow after all.
I'm a bit confused as in one place, it says the next coverage is for the Preston game, but in another, it says that game IS part of the package.
I'll soon know!

[seventwo]

I thought BCFC didn't subscribe to ifollow

[champs95]

Today was pathetic. Nothing else can be said.