Analysing The Friendly’s

[Username]

For every Harry Kane there is a Federico Macheda.

[ThePromisedLand]

I talked about Ben's progress before and even thought i can find my post i just wanted remind everyone Harry Kane at Ben's age was playing league one with Leyton Orient and only scored 5 goals. Ben played championship football and scored 5 goals.
If Ben was to score 8 goals this season he would again be bettering Harry Kane who is now a top striker. I'm not saying he is better than HK but just showing you that progress for strikers takes time and no-one really know who players will develop.

Kane ‘exploded on to the scene’ only after a further half season with Leicester...

[Strawberry Avenger]

I talked about Ben's progress before and even thought i can find my post i just wanted remind everyone Harry Kane at Ben's age was playing league one with Leyton Orient and only scored 5 goals. Ben played championship football and scored 5 goals.
If Ben was to score 8 goals this season he would again be bettering Harry Kane who is now a top striker. I'm not saying he is better than HK but just showing you that progress for strikers takes time and no-one really know who players will develop.

Good points.

SA.

[Old Timer]

Anyone going to this one?

[ThePromisedLand]

Would like to have been there - if only to expunge the memories of that dire game when we lost 3-0 (?) & the players were looking at each other trying to fathom out the reason for the latest Megson substitution. He was sacked immediately after.

[Old Timer]

Should we not cherish that memory then? :)

[Silenzi]

I went to the match today at Oldham. Karanka  was correct in his post-match interview. The warm-up was dire. Took forever for someone to score in shooting drills. The Oldham mascot did better.

Forest started brightly though & when they scored after a few minutes i thought we’d get a hatful. Unfortunately, we wasted some good positions & Oldham seemed to sort themselves out a bit. Nevertheless we were solid & deserved the lead going into half time. Couldn’t really see the goal as it was down the wrong end. In fact all bar Grabban’s goal were down the wrong end so I didn’t really see them. Undone from set pieces start of 2nd half - same old problem, but we had Lam at Centre half, so... we were then poor until the raft of subs & then we looked bright. If there’d been 5-10 more mins we would have won it. We looked dangerous every time we attacked down the right once the Portuguese lads came on & Yates was solid in the Centre.

Pantilimon - did what was required 1st half. Inspired confidence. Couldn’t see him 2nd half so don’t know if he could’ve done anything with goals - suspect not
Dawson looked assured & it must be him and a.n. Other at centre half. Great on the ball, good in the air. Solid. Great to have him back.
Worrall did ok but stupid short back pass nearly gave a goal away. Otherwise solid
Gabriel - did ok at rb  but don’t think he’s ready for champ. football. Darikwa looked miles better when he came on.
Robinson- did ok. Reasonably solid. Didn’t set the world alight. 7/10 performance.
Bridcutt - well up for it. All action 1st half. Was everywhere, winning the ball & some nice passing. Slightly concerned with his discipline still. Think he would’ve been booked in the league.
Watson - woeful. Slow. Wanted way too much time on the ball. Dispossessed easily. Poor passing. Was hoping he’d be taken off at half time. Hopefully he’s ring rusty, because the alternative is that time’s caught up with him
Lolley- worked hard. Don’t think much came off for him today. His shooting practice in the warm up set the tone for his performance. Didn’t think he did too badly until shown up by his replacement.
Cash - worked hard, won the ball well, busy & scored. Just not 100% sure about his final ball yet, but must be a pain to play against.
Soudani - good skills & movement. Some nice running with the ball.  Could’ve shot a couple of times & opted not to. Not quite on same wavelength with those around him yet, but impressive. Looking forward to seeing him against champ. Defenders. Has a bit of bite about him. Wouldn’t be surprised if he gets sent off or gets others sent off depending how much protection he gets from refs.
Grabban - really impressed with his movement, work rate & finishing. He’ll score goals for us if we feed him - but don’t listen to paul taylor. His free kick was poor really & never troubled the keeper.

Subs
Lam - thought there was a player in there & he deserved another chance. This game should be that chance & he should now be let go. Not a coincidence they scored twice after he came on. Can’t honestly say goals were his fault as I couldn’t see them, but I’m going to blame him for them anyway. at least one came from where he was defending. he looked nervous & ill at ease. Didn’t look like he handled the physical battle well & he was nervous on the ball. Plus his hair is now too stupid & girly for a Centre half. Not good enough for where we want to be.
Yates - brilliant! Did simple things well, plus noticeable how he was talking all the time & telling experienced pro’s where to stand. He seems like a leader. Added some steel in midfield. Would rather him than Watson on this evidence. Plus he was obviously having time of his life - joking with ref during game & massive grin at the end, like he’d won a cup. My new favourite player.
Darikwa - confirmed that Gabriel wasn’t ready with a positive, attacking performance at rb. Deserves a chance this season either as 1st choice or 1st back-up.
3 Portugueses- sorry but I could not tell which was which. There was no team sheet with numbers so it was a case of recognising people & I didn’t have a clue with them. They all played well though. Would be tempted to play them all in same team
Smith - didn’t put a foot wrong. Some great quick throws to set up counter attacks. Must have given Karanka food for thought. Too good to sit on bench. Think he should go out on loan for the season if he’s not going to be 1st choice.

If we get them in the fa cup 3rd round don’t bother going to Oldham though. It’ll Be -10. The  ground is cold even in summer & we’ll probably lose. Looking forward to seeing how we get on in the league now.

[BadDog]

Hey people I'm just home...


Tbh that performance has dampened my optimism a little.

First Half -

Started brightly with Oldham having a trialist in goal and parrying Cash's effort in from a good cross from Robinson.

From this point onwards it just goes downhill tbh, I thought Bridcutt & Watson where terrible.

Watsons reactions to everything where just so slow and Oldham completely dominated our midfield in the first half.

There no22 in particular having a good game. Worrall got his first 45 minutes in and did ok & Dawson was solid as a rock, all our attacking flair seemed to come from Soudani who was our best player until he got substituted.

Soudani broke away a couple times clean through and seemed to choose the wrong option with his shot but used skill and cleverness a lot to beat his man and win free kicks, he looks a good player.

I hope Colback can be the difference because Bridcutt to me looks not good enough, he gave every pass away and was just generally sloppy just was Watson.

2nd Half.

Up until the subs came on around 72mins we did nothing in the second half in fact our play was worse, we conceeded 2 goals once Lam came on and he again showed he isn't good enough so I feel that will be the end of him.

Gabriel did ok, but again doesn't look ready yet a lot of balls out touch and just a lot of general sloppy play from everyone.

72 mins - subs come on... we start to look much better.

Dias gets the ball and just want's to beat everyone with skill power & pace... he's clearly full of confidence and did well once he came on.

Carvalho had an instant chance to equalise but blazed it over and his first few touches where all off then all he goes and creates a sublime chip over 2 defenders to leave Grabban with just the keeper to beat which he does placing it in the bottom right corner.

There where flashes of what can be when the Portugese lads came on we looked 10x better, Lolley was poor in general and not really in the game also.

Scunthorpe on Wednesday and there needs to be a huge improvement, I think the Portuguese contingent will start and we will be much better for it.

Central midfield now is a worry for me, but Guediora came on and looked much better than Watson who was just a yard off for me.

Onto Scunthorpe.

[McDurban]

Do we keep Yates at the club or send on loan?
From what I've seen on my laptop I'm keen to keep and play him.
At worst send him out on loan in Jan if not getting enough game time.

[Silenzi]

Funny how people see things differently. I agree with most of what you say BadDog, but I maintain Bridcutt did well. Really eye-catching performance.
I know what you mean. I don’t think it’ll be instant success. Attacking players need time to gel. But I’m reasonably confident we have a decent keeper, decent back 4, decent central midfield (2 from Colback, Yates & Bridcutt) & good attacking options. Need to sort out set pieces (attacking & defending).
Good enough for promotion? Don’t think we’ll know until a good few months into the season.but we have a chance.

---

Based on today I’d keep Yates here. Thought he played better than Watson. Would be quite happy to try him in champ.

[Old Timer]

Great reports...thankyou guys

[Tricky]

Great reports...thankyou guys

I'd like to second Old Timers comments.

Really good and interesting reports guys!

It's refreshing to see fans opinions on a match without all the vile and biased venom directed at certain players because fans don't happen to like them.

As I won't be able to get to too many matches again this season, I look forward to reading your guys match reports throughout the season  :)