A Week is a Long Time in Football

So, apparently, the cliches are true. After a week, or actually two, away from the internet and seemingly complete isolation from Forest having moved into a new house in Durham, I feel completely out of touch with everything that has been going on. Forest have taken three trialists from Premiership stars Arsenal, lost to Crystal Palace, Sheffield Wednesday and The Republic of Ireland and are languishing at the foot of the Championship.

So, what are we to do? Well, there are various areas that people see fit to blame in such a situation, and my need is to address these and discuss their relative merits; These ideas are , the changing of formation, or team selection, the problem of injuries, the removal of staff, most notably manager and assistant, or a little bit of luck.

Perhaps the most obvious change to make comes in the area of team selection and formation, and this is where I feel that many of our prolems are coming. Firstly, we do not have the players of the necessary quality in all areas of the squad to succeed. We have such players in many areas of the side, but not everywhere, perhaps most notably in defence. As we have all discussed before, we have two full backs who aren’t really good enough, and centre backs who on their day can take apart any strike force, but unfortunately don’t seem to have their day together all that often. The much maligned 4-3-3 formation also must take the brunt of much criticism I feel, given that it just does not seem to play to the strengths of the side. We have some talented players going forward, and a 4-4-2 formation would accommodate them whilst also offering some protection to the back 4, particularly down the flanks.

Also an issue for this Forest side at the moment, has been the injury situation, however there seems to be brighter news on the horizon. With the imminent return of Anderson and Garner, things are looking up, although problems with Moussi, Mcgugan etc seem to ensure that Forest will never be injury free. However, whilst I identified problems with the team, it is unrealistic to suggest that this squad should not be capable of more than they are showing, and even with the injuries that are currently inflicted upon us we should be doing better.

Unfortunately, in the world of football today and in the situation that Forest find themselves in, the most common solution, it seems, is to call for the managers head, something which I completely disagree with in most circumstances. It would be wrong of me to say that I’m not getting worried as things are now, but I still have a certain degree of faith in the things that this manager has done here, and more generally I don’t believe in being reactionary. Let’s keep our patience and give him time.

The final issue that seems to be effecting us is that of luck. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to suggest that we’ve had our fair share of bad luck in recent weeks! However, one thing that would be unrealistic, would be to base a whole critique on something as wavering and murky as luck. In which case, I shall not do so.

It seems that a mixture of these problems has left us while we are, but one thing I ask, nay, implore of you is to be patient and give the manager some time. Come December if things haven’t changed, maybe I’ll be on your side.