Thoughts On The Next Nottingham Forest Manager

[Strawberry Avenger]

A few stats to consider.

A am waiting for somebody to tell me how we can let this fester any longer.

Hughton has played 25 homes games and won 6 - PATHETIC
Only 2 clubs in the entire 72 football league clubs scored less goals than us last season
Only 1 out of the 72 have made a worse start this season.
Zero improvement in team performances in his tenure.
Zero improvement in individual players in his tenure.
We don’t have an identity, we aren’t a possession based side, not a counter-attacking side, we don’t press high. We just rely on individual ability to score goals.

Other than he has won promotion before, can anybody please explain why the board have not removed him at the start of the last international  break.

Well, let's not keep you waiting.  Had Forest not been slovenly in recruitment in appointing an heir apparent to Grabban then maybe some of the passive 'stats' (used to pad the poor win ratio) could have been turned from draws to wins. (Many of those results were very competitive and close, for example. As were the 1st four games of this season.). Maybe that counts for nothing in some eyes. But for me, Forest are how many years later trying to buy a decent striker and they can't even do it with a new CEO and a 'Plan B' born of a well resourced and staffed recruitment 'team.'

The key stat.

Hughton has not played any games with a squad of his own due to the glacial nature of this Summer's transfer work.  As a result, Forest had to field a side without fullbacks of note, a hum drum midfield short of progressive options, and the killing blow of no new striker.  Tight games or not.  Brighty, sunny football gave way to the sucker punch for a squad that was weaker than the one that stayed up.  Any fan could have seen what was coming let alone any rookie CEO. The manager's hands were tied. (But that doesn't matter. Upper management will always hide behind 'under performance' and especially their own short comings which was put Forest exactly where they deserve to be. Bottom. It was the same stunt they pulled on MoN. 'Pass the parcel.' Here's our 'crap in a brown paper bag, set alight for good measure'....'now stamp on it to put out the 'fire/mess.'). Hughton just get left holding the pass the parcel. Could he have played his hand better? (What with? The players he did bring in last January saved Forest from relegation. We didn't start this season with those players or Worrall and some how, Hughton is supposed to beat a parachute team. What with? Magic?)

Play the youth, they say.  So he did.  Play Car'.  So he did.  (The same vacant commitment from Car', lacking the physicality and mentality to compete in the Championship. A gleaming poster child of how and why recruitment have got it so-so wrong for the last four years.). Change the formation (which he did vs Derby) and by the grace of Worrall, we got a draw.  Bit hard to get the 1st four games under your belt when what's left of you decimated squad is an injured Worrall, zero permanent outfield signings and pinning our hopes on the ageing legs of Lewis Grabban who is how old now?

Forest ship 12 points (amidst keeping calamities) as recruitment wraps its head around Plan B.

Of the 'ten players' that were brought in.  9 were out field players.  Of those, 8 were fit.  Of those we have Oj who might not be with us for a while, and with international commitments, very little at all?  Of the remaining 7 we've seen Zinc Man play in the 1st four games.  We saw Garner's timely arrival (and Worrall's...) in the vs Derby game.  What a difference having two quality players along your spine can make, eh?

The game vs Cardiff will be the 1st time Hughton actually has most of 'his' own players available to him.  But we'll be waiting on Oj....(and that much needed striker even longer...). This will be the 1st time Hughton has options to mix things up.  We'll see if he does.  But at least he has options and choices to him.

I think it's fair to judge any manager when they've brought in their 'own' players.  Had he had all ten available to him (plus Worrall) at the start of the season, Forest would have probably picked up more points.

For me, he gets ten games with his own players to claw some points together and aim for the mid-table.  If come Christmas, Forest are adrift and rock bottom then that would maybe change my opinion.  But I'd still feel Hughton was given a poisoned chalice born of ill-timing and glacial (and so-so) recruitment.

I'd like nothing more than Chris to stuff Cardiff and beat Warnock.  (Tough asks even when you're recruitment is at the top of their game and you bring in an 'a' list striker.)

Stability.  Time to get the players to gel.

But I'm not Marinakis.  Or Dane.  Or Mr. V.  They may scapegoat their short comings. They 'own it.'

They've played their part in why Forest are bottom on 1 point.

SA.