(17-03-2021, 10:15 PM)Knocker West Wrote: Fair disclaimer, before it comes up elsewhere, I am not in a position to comment, given personal connections & the fact that any comment I made here I'd have to be willing & able to repeat & explain elsewhere, so good or bad it's just easier for me to focus on the team & club rather than Hughton, so if I ever seem non-committal on Chris it's for a reason.

(02-03-2021, 08:12 PM)Sabricadabra Wrote:

(13-02-2021, 04:48 PM)stirred Wrote: When I started supporting Forest they had some principles, on how to play and how to behave. I liked both of them. Neutrals liked us. I was proud to support us.

Watching us now is embarrassing, and it saddens me that the club is gaining a reputation for being dour and negative. For me it is far worse to watch us play like we do now than to approach matches trying to win but (also) with limited success.

I haven’t posted for a while because I don’t want to be accused of being negative. I understand the arguments people make, saying we were in free-fall and of building a foundation, but I don’t buy it and for me there is simply no excuse for playing the way we are playing.

Our squad is comfortably better than the clubs around us, the likes of Derby, Rotherham, Coventry, Wycombe, Wednesday, QPR, Birmingham. They would love to swap their squads for ours.

Yet there is a narrative that we need to play this way to avoid relegation. I do not believe it. We were never going down.

To compound the playing style, in a season where we are neither going up nor down, it should be about building for next season. Yet our two teenage prospects watch from the bench while a 37 year-old loanee now leads our attack. It’s a good job there are no crowds allowed.

It makes me sad and it makes me angry to see us approach the game like we do, to the point where I feel the need to take a break from watching them too. I can only hope that the club employs a manager who understands the modern game and can have us showing ambition and playing entertaining football sooner rather than later.

I disagree with pretty much all of that. 

As for the club’s reputation, it’s only a few years ago that the widely held perception was that nffc was a chaotic joke football club who deliberately tried to cheat ffp but failed miserably and nearly paid the price by being relegated. We are a long way away from that disgraceful circus.

I’m delighted we have such a good manager who not only knows what he’s doing, but has turned us around quite quickly from the demoralised club he inherited. We are lucky to have him. Long may we continue playing the way we are.

(17-03-2021, 10:35 PM)Strawberry Avenger Wrote:

(02-03-2021, 08:12 PM)Sabricadabra Wrote:

(13-02-2021, 04:48 PM)stirred Wrote: When I started supporting Forest they had some principles, on how to play and how to behave. I liked both of them. Neutrals liked us. I was proud to support us.

Watching us now is embarrassing, and it saddens me that the club is gaining a reputation for being dour and negative. For me it is far worse to watch us play like we do now than to approach matches trying to win but (also) with limited success.

I haven’t posted for a while because I don’t want to be accused of being negative. I understand the arguments people make, saying we were in free-fall and of building a foundation, but I don’t buy it and for me there is simply no excuse for playing the way we are playing.

Our squad is comfortably better than the clubs around us, the likes of Derby, Rotherham, Coventry, Wycombe, Wednesday, QPR, Birmingham. They would love to swap their squads for ours.

Yet there is a narrative that we need to play this way to avoid relegation. I do not believe it. We were never going down.

To compound the playing style, in a season where we are neither going up nor down, it should be about building for next season. Yet our two teenage prospects watch from the bench while a 37 year-old loanee now leads our attack. It’s a good job there are no crowds allowed.

It makes me sad and it makes me angry to see us approach the game like we do, to the point where I feel the need to take a break from watching them too. I can only hope that the club employs a manager who understands the modern game and can have us showing ambition and playing entertaining football sooner rather than later.

I disagree with pretty much all of that. 

As for the club’s reputation, it’s only a few years ago that the widely held perception was that nffc was a chaotic joke football club who deliberately tried to cheat ffp but failed miserably and nearly paid the price by being relegated. We are a long way away from that disgraceful circus.

I’m delighted we have such a good manager who not only knows what he’s doing, but has turned us around quite quickly from the demoralised club he inherited. We are lucky to have him. Long may we continue playing the way we are.

Be nice to give Hughton an actual Summer recruitment window of his own and a pre-season before some Forest fans Lynch him.

SA.

(17-03-2021, 10:53 PM)ozzyten10 Wrote: I am finding it hard to find any positives for houghton after that...

(17-03-2021, 10:53 PM)ozzyten10 Wrote: I am finding it hard to find any positives for houghton after that...

(17-03-2021, 11:22 PM)stirred Wrote: I don’t think fans have demanded a sudden or dramatic change. The current manager has had 35 matches and a transfer window and we’re playing worse.

If Klopp or any of those others came in they would instil a change in style and an identity that fans would warm to, even if results were patchy.

(17-03-2021, 11:30 PM)Knocker West Wrote:

(17-03-2021, 11:22 PM)stirred Wrote: I don’t think fans have demanded a sudden or dramatic change. The current manager has had 35 matches and a transfer window and we’re playing worse.

If Klopp or any of those others came in they would instil a change in style and an identity that fans would warm to, even if results were patchy.

They wouldn't be able to, that's the point, we don't have the players or ability to be that team at the moment, that's why no one could make much difference right now.

That team that played tonight contains barely anyone likely to win 40+ starts next season, so there is mothing there to mold.

If you read one of my earlier comments you'll know this isn't a pro or anti Hughton thing, I have to stay noncommittal on that, it's just a point in general, we have spent the last few years spending a vast amount of money on a distinctly average to bad crop of players, & with our star defender out & our hero of yesteryear out, there ain't really much anyone could do until summer.

We are what we are & sadly that is a disparate collection of lost souls, some of them crap, & none of them currently outstanding.

(17-03-2021, 11:56 PM)stirred Wrote:

(17-03-2021, 11:30 PM)Knocker West Wrote:

(17-03-2021, 11:22 PM)stirred Wrote: I don’t think fans have demanded a sudden or dramatic change. The current manager has had 35 matches and a transfer window and we’re playing worse.

If Klopp or any of those others came in they would instil a change in style and an identity that fans would warm to, even if results were patchy.

They wouldn't be able to, that's the point, we don't have the players or ability to be that team at the moment, that's why no one could make much difference right now.

That team that played tonight contains barely anyone likely to win 40+ starts next season, so there is mothing there to mold.

If you read one of my earlier comments you'll know this isn't a pro or anti Hughton thing, I have to stay noncommittal on that, it's just a point in general, we have spent the last few years spending a vast amount of money on a distinctly average to bad crop of players, & with our star defender out & our hero of yesteryear out, there ain't really much anyone could do until summer.

We are what we are & sadly that is a disparate collection of lost souls, some of them crap, & none of them currently outstanding.

My point is that in my opinion there’s no excuse for the way we have played not only tonight, and not only based on tonight’s line-up, but how we have performed over 35 matches with the players available to us over that time. There are clearly managers who are able to instil a style and identity in a group of players, after all he has plenty to choose from, and they’re not that bad. Not compared to those 6 or 7 clubs around us. Anyway, just my two penny worth.