Your Thoughts On The Current Nottingham Forest Manager

[Knocker West]

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.

[ThePromisedLand]

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.

I’ll take that to mean you agree with Green Man.

No need to clarify - I understand.

[Strawberry Avenger]

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.

[Knocker West]

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.

It would be nice, & this is in general & not relating to any specific manager, but it would be nice if the right manager were given time to build an actual team, rather than just a collection of disparate players.

We haven't had a proper, functioning, & capable team for the bet part of a decade.

[ozzyten10]

I am finding it hard to find any positives for houghton after that...

[wassy04]

I am finding it hard to find any positives for houghton after that...

*Hughton

[Knocker West]

I am finding it hard to find any positives for houghton after that...

The difficulty is that you, or most fans, would find it hard to find any positives for any manager at the moment, other things need to change first so what we have is that kind of grey, crappy, nothingness that you can't do much about until the summer.

If Klopp, Bielsa, or Guardiola were here it would still be a kind of grey, crappy, nothingness that you can't do much about until the summer, probably a different kind of grey, crappy, nothingness that you can't do much about until the summer, but a kind of grey, crappy, nothingness that you can't do much about until the summer none the less, so all we can really do is sit & suffer until the summer when whoever is the manager, or whoever you want to be the manager, is in a position to change things.

There is no magic joker that anyone could pull out to change things dramatically.

[stirred]

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. But we’ve got neither results or style from Hughtonball.

[Knocker West]

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.

[stirred]

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.

[Knocker West]

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.

That is the problem, we are at this level precisely because we have spent a vast amount of money on players that are just as average as the ones around us & that's why there is no magic want to wave.

We only have a couple of established players who are fit, in form & are worth anything (I don't mean in a money sense, I mean as a player)

We have been so bad, for so many years, people have got used to it & conditioned themselves to mediocrity, but we've had mainly crap for a few years now, this team isn't very good.

Sure, if Lolley didn't have his issues & we could have peak Lolley every week, & if Freeman could ever get back to what he was a couple of years ago, & if Jenkinson had never had his injuries, if Sow could stay fit, if Murray was 42 years younger, & Mighten 2 years older, then sure, we'd have a couple of better ballers, but as it is we have very little.

[Madforit]

After tonight's abysmal performance by both the team and the manager I really don't think that CH is the best man for the job I really cannot see how he is going to turn this around, I think it's best that the club look for a replacement manager as I really don't know if he has it about him to take us forward.

It's pretty obvious to the supporters of this club that he cannot motivate this group of players nor does he look as if he can inspire them, and my biggest concern is that I really am not looking forward to the summer transfer window with him in charge of picking "his" players.

Can anyone explain to me what his game plan is, so far all I have seen since he was appointed as the manager is for the team to park the bus, he seems to worry about the opposition in every game, also he has a reluctance to attack the opposition, when we play at home you always expect your own team to attack the opposing team and go for the win and not to park the bus, his decision making when it comes to making substitutions is more than questionable, his tactics or lack off, also his decision to stick with certain players that continually let him down is also questionable, so far from what I've seen of Chris Hughton is that he hasn't improved us, in fact if anything he has taken us backwards and not forwards as we hoped he would.

The game of football is all about results and so far he has been found wanting, I just hope the owner makes the right choice come the end of this season, we all know that certain players at this club are not good enough and need showing the door but I can't see him attracting the players that we need to improve us, we need a manager who is forward thinking and not a defensive dinosaur.