Nottingham Forest - Everton

[Salvatore Matrecano]

I remember we played 2 or 3 games without a recognised Striker. For example against Leicester we had a front 3 or a front 1-2 or 2-1 whatever you want to call it anyway you know what I mean. The 3 furthest forward lets say were Scarpa - Johnson- MGW and I thought it worked really well. Then we signed Wood which is fair enough because he has nothing to prove in the PL but Cooper seems determined to accommodate him in our starting eleven and it does appear to be having an effect on the way we are playing in a negative way.

It's awful mate.. I hate it.. how wood is playing over creative midfielders I'll never know. A slow old striker on the left. It's madness.. the sooner taiwo is fit the better. Same niakhate

Who are you picking instead though? Dennis? I think he's the only comparable option to Taiwo that's available.

I dont think Ayew is the answer by any means but thought he looked far more effective than either Wood or Dennis yesterday.

For whatever reason Cooper doesnt seem to fancy Surridge. He may well be correct on that one, I like Sam I think we all do but hand on heart not sure he is PL standard.

[ozzyten10]

Is it just me or did Wood play alright yesterday. I thought he held the ball up and won some decent headers. Really nice lay off For MGW in the first goal. He did not great service into the box. To score he needs that. We started really poorly yesterday but were the better side in the second half. Our midfield three looked slow and for me Colback was the best of them. The balance wasn’t right in those positions but I am not sure Cooper has too many options at the minute. O’Brien not being in the 25 is a big mistake. Danilo doesn’t look ready.

I thought wood put in a real shift yesterday. Easy to criticise him but involved in the goal and generally competed well.

[HebdenRed]

Wood had a decent game. First goal doesn’t happen without his quick 1-2 and he also went close with the header that deflected off tarkowski.

We are still learning how to play with Him.

And others have said we took the backward step with the midfield line up.

[DR Forest]

So for all the ‘how the hell is wood playing instead of ….’ And ‘how the hell is ayew playing ahead of….’ type comments, when it comes down to it, they didn’t actually play badly.

Said it before, wood hasn’t blown me away but he still needs to be afforded time to settle in like any other player.
Brennan needed it
We forget MGW was generally pish for the first dozen games or so.
I was massively critical of Taiwo for the first few months too but he’s now showing some ability.

With Those players back soon, we can see the three weaknesses in the team being addressed very soon- they are
1. The midfield blend (Yates a shoe-in, kouyate to challenge)
2. Mobility up front (Taiwo to come in and wood to improve)
3. Mobility/dominance at CB (niakhate hopefully, plus McKenna).

We will be a much tougher unit to beat after the international break, no doubt.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

To be fair to Wood he's scored one and had a hand in another goal in our last two home games.