Barnsley - Nottingham Forest

[Strawberry Avenger]

Hmm. I was all for resting players to grind out a point at Preston, but this was one for full strength to guarantee our spot and then rest them on Wednesday. No Cash or Lolley? That's a bold decision, but I don't know the status of their injuries in fairness.

Will be interested to hear what Sabri has to say before I jump to conclusions.

He sounded down and depressed.

SA.

Ouch. Haven't seen it but heard him sound dejected. I didn't catch it all cos ifollow was cutting out. Did he say he was picking his strongest side when asked? 

There is not picking some of the players - obviously there were people with knocks, so probably he could have risked one or two but decided not to - and there is the change in formation. I think it was a double whammy.

On the change in formation is he assuming too much of them? Assuming they'll do what they should do, what they were told to do to fit into a plan, but its not what they're used to. Often best to not change too many things, maybe that's a lesson. He's learning too.

We can improve together. I'm not getting the pitchfork out yet.

He seemed lost.

SA.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

My defence of Sabri is, he might of set up to accomodate for a narrow loss, maybe a 1 nil loss is in reality a good result, he has rested a few players as well and we go into the last game with a 5 goal cushion and that is assuming Cardiff and Swansea both win.

I'm not relating today to the transfer window and to be fair, that, under the new style of structure doesn't fall in Sabri's remit.

I am asking myself questions, like, why bother watching games? I feel the refereeing is poor and the main reason for my frustration now, it is so bad, to the point that many managers will consider extreme negative tactics, not so much today but we could of received 2 reds today ... but didn't, which is part of my problem with the game, cheating, time wasting, cynical challenges aren't proportionately punished and often get 'rewarded' and justify ultra negative anti football.

Maybe Sabri is under pressure or puts himself under so much pressure or there is a huge bonus for getting into the play offs that he was happy with the 1 nil loss, and maybe played with this outcome in mind.

[optimistic_red]

Bloody hell this is a hard read. 
Exactly 1 month ago everyone in here delighted that Sabri has signed a new contract.

Form dips and we are talking about new managers!!
Season isn't over and we still have a chance for promotion! 

We lost a game and didn't play great, that is all. 

And if we don't get promoted, I'm still behind Sabri and hope the owners back him in the next window.

[Floridared]

Bloody hell this is a hard read. 
Exactly 1 month ago everyone in here delighted that Sabri has signed a new contract.

Form dips and we are talking about new managers!!
Season isn't over and we still have a chance for promotion! 

We lost a game and didn't play great, that is all. 

And if we don't get promoted, I'm still behind Sabri and hope the owners back him in the next window.

Agreed, I’m behind Sabri. Was it two seasons ago we stayed up on the last day of the season on goal difference? Now we have come such a long way in such a short time. We are not going to get promoted this season but If someone had said last August would you be happy with a play off spot (presuming we get there) but lose, I would have taken it.
Look  at the Managers who have a good second season in the championship, BIELSA,Wagner , Farke, next season Lamouchi?

[stirred]

We are 16th in the form guide for last ten games.

A crap transfer window cost us badly.

That'll be the lasting memory of this season when we look back in 5 years.

I agree with this. Whenever Sabri moves away from our first choice side we struggle, and we can't use the same side for 46 (48? 49?) matches. But when he's tried to change formation it hasn't worked.

If we don't go up let's give him another transfer window and some more quality to work with.

Why didn't we spend in January? I don't think we had FFP headroom to spend in January because we spent so much on Carvalho and ongoing on the large squad's wages primarily as a result of the Karanka buy-and-burn revolution.

[ThePromisedLand]

I think it fair to say that Sabri has almost total support from the fans.
But a good number are mystified / frustrated / disbelieving at some of the players selections & the apparent withdrawal even further into our shell.
Fans - in the main - understand & are supportive of what he has achieved this season & indeed the way he has achieved it ( with the sum of the parts etc ). He is after all within touching distance of the play offs - probably about as high a league placing as most aspired to given the lack of quality / depth of the squad which was only exacerbated by such a disappointing January window.
Frustration / concern about what might happen to the squad should we fail to get promoted is probably coming to the fore and manifesting itself as criticism of Sabri.

I suspect that fans - if our failure to gain promotion bid is confirmed - will ( once they’ve slept on it ) reflect on a reasonably successful season. How long that feeling of content lasts will depend upon our transfer dealings over the Summer months.

Oh - and will the big man ( not known for his patience ) reiterate his support for Sabri.

[Tricky]

In all fairness, for us to be where we are is something of an achievement when you look at the other teams around us.

Leeds have been there or thereabouts for one or two seasons, finishing third last time out.

WBA were also in the play offs last season, whilst Cardiff and Fulham were relegated from the PL.

We finished 9th and Brentford 11th, so we can't really complain too much, although, that performance today was one of the worst I have seen from a Forest side for many years. 

Talk of a new manager is totally mental! 

The saving grace for us is that we will be playing Stoke, whose season has more or less ended already, they can't go up, they can't go down. They have nothing top play for and there is no reason why they don't try out a few of their fringe players. We only need to draw. Swansea need to win by 5 goals, assuming we dont concede, and if we don't then we are in the play offs anyway as we will have at least taken a draw. Will Reading really be turned over so heavily on their last outing this season? 

In all fairness, Barnsley had everything to play for (so did we in reality) and they really went for it. Sabri set up to hold out for the draw, which was his big mistake, as we havent played with 3 centre backs in ages. 

Jordan Smith played well but we were lucky as well as Barnsley hit the woodwork twice before they scored. But he did pull off one or two decent saves and whilst he just punted the ball long every time he had the ball, at least his distribution has come on a bit. Let us not overlook the fact that Barnsley did not let us play our usual game. They pressed us very high up and did not allow us to play out from the back or through midfield. At times it seemed like they had three or four more players on the pitch than we had as they ran and chased down everything. Let us not forget that Barnsley very nearly snatched a win at Elland Road on Friday and if their player had taken his chance late on, then Leeds couldve lost to them also.

Players I felt let us down today with below par performances are Jenkinson, Sow, Da Costa, Figs, Dawson, Watson wasn't at his best, Ribero wasn't at his best, Silva wasn't at his best. Grabban tried his best but was given such poor service. For me the only stand out players were Smith and Worrall, who i felt had a good game. Even when Sammi came on, he wasn't firing on all cylinders.

Was it the formation that let us down today or is fatigue really getting to the side now? We have seen Brentford and West Brom both slip up this weekend, so could it be pressure? I don't believe fatigue would be affecting us to the point we were at today. Jenks for example has only played two or three times. Dawson the odd sub appearance, Sow hasn't played a full game since the restart, Da Costa hasn't either. Is it desire? Barnsley certain showed far more desire than we did today. But our players want to be in the play offs, surely they have the desire to get there, or did they become complacent yet again? This, I think is where we lost the match today. Once again, we were playing a struggling side and just turned up expecting the high flying Nottingham Forest to ease their way past them. 

Cardiff are at home to Hull, who now sit rock bottom. Swansea are away to Reading and we are at home to Stoke. We simply cannot afford to expect other results be in our favour on Wednesday night. We just have to go out there and get a victory and aim for nothing more than a victory, otherwise it will be our turn to be called bottlers by the filth down the A52

[the jock]

More often than not Silva isnt at his supposed best

[the jock]

The last minute goals and the fact most of the bottom teams beat us this year is very frustrating. Lack of consistency is disappointing. We are playing dreadful

[stirred]

We are 16th in the form guide for last ten games.

A crap transfer window cost us badly.

That'll be the lasting memory of this season when we look back in 5 years.

I agree with this. Whenever Sabri moves away from our first choice side we struggle, and we can't use the same side for 46 (48? 49?) matches. But when he's tried to change formation it hasn't worked.

If we don't go up let's give him another transfer window and some more quality to work with.

Why didn't we spend in January? I don't think we had FFP headroom to spend in January because we spent so much on Carvalho and ongoing on the large squad's wages primarily as a result of the Karanka buy-and-burn revolution.

Just had a look at the table.

Brentford - well done. Consistently bought well and knitted them into a fine side. But it took them a while - since finishing 5th in their first season after promotion under Warburton, they've finished 9th, 10th, 9th & 11th before this season.

Other than that we have a massive revenue disadvantage compared to the top sides. Last year available (2019) our revenue was £25.3mio. Leeds' revenue was £48.9mio.

The rest of the top 7 (West Brom, Fulham, Cardiff, Swansea) are receiving parachute money alone of either £34.9mio or £42.6mio.

I suggest our problems are a lack of depth in the squad, and whilst our recruitment could have been better, that shows what a financial handicap we are having to overcome.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Bloody hell this is a hard read. 
Exactly 1 month ago everyone in here delighted that Sabri has signed a new contract.

Form dips and we are talking about new managers!!
Season isn't over and we still have a chance for promotion! 

We lost a game and didn't play great, that is all. 

And if we don't get promoted, I'm still behind Sabri and hope the owners back him in the next window.

:D It's hilarious isn't it.

Nobody was hurting more than me yesterday but some perspective is needed here.

[GaribaldiRED]

Let's not kid ourselves. We have a good enough squad to compete with Barnsley but we just didn't yesterday. I believe the reason was formation and mentality. Without any wide players it became very easy to stop any attacking attempt from Forest but the main reason was that we just did't compete and were more than happy to loft the ball aimlessly long with the result that Barnsley picked the ball up and started their attacks again. Forest had 36,7% possession and 57% pass success rate. Embarrassing.

On that showing Forest have nothing to contribute with in the play offs. It will however be a good learning experience for next season (for the players that stay).