Bristol City - Nottingham Forest

[Duncan Mckenzie]

To be played at Ashton Gate.

On Saturday 23rd  November.

kick off is at 3pm.

[Simon]

sold out too....

[the jock]

obviously there are a large number of factors in why we are doing well this season, but i have to say i really think the media team at forest are playing a great role. some of the videos they are producing are excellent.

will be interesting to see what the team will be like at bristol. even the bench considering the players due to come back.

[Paplane]

Sabri's got a hard decision on whether to drop Figs and bring Dawson back after 2 wins and a clean sheet.

Same for dropping Yates for Sow.

[Kylos247]

Never change a winning team is what I say. Those guys have earned their place.

[Jasper Scarrott]

Sabri's got a hard decision on whether to drop Figs and bring Dawson back after 2 wins and a clean sheet.

Same for dropping Yates for Sow.

Never change a winning team is what I say. Those guys have earned their place.

I am going to disagree, we should play our best and strongest team whenever possible.

For me that means bringing back Dawson and Sow. Figs and Yates will both play their part again at some stage.

[Mcforest]

Strangely I don’t have any bad things to say about Bristol City in this write up when it come to the club, manager or fans, although others may have different experience, I have always found them very respectful and well managed club, who has a good manager, who plays good football. You can’t help but be impressed that this once small club has grown and developed into a continuously threat to teams with promotion on their minds.

Bristol are a team who can set up in a variety of formations and styles on a game by game bases from 4-5-1 to 4-3-3 and even 4-4-2. However we have seen that the last couple of games, the 3-5-2 formation has moved into the most used starting formation for them.

Bristol set up with the opposition in mind when picking a first 11 and this has resulted in the first 11 rotating often. Despite this rotation, the players are well gelled now and the changes do not have effect on their performances and keeps all the players fresh. This freshness will benefit them when the games come thick and fast but with the international break it doesn’t have too much of effect in this game.

As Bristol play a different way each week depending on who they are up against it has been hard to identify how they will play, but you do feel if they have been scouting Forest they will play similar to Hull.

Bristol are strong attacking down the wings, which is why I can see a similar set up that Hull used, and will look to use what has been their biggest strength this year, which has been using the wide area to create goal scoring chances and player overloads in the middle of the pitch. They have been very successful so far this season in creating and scoring chances using through balls from wide to central areas. Josh Brownhill and Eliasson have been particularly instrumental when it comes to goal scoring chances made when receiving the balls from wide areas to playing that quick ball beyond the back line to turn defenders.

Bristol have shown themselves to be happiest when they have the ball at the back before playing longer direct balls into space for players to get in behind the back line when compared to playing short passes and gain small steps into the opposition defensive zones.

Without the ball Bristol are non-aggressive in tackles but will look to steal the ball from the opposition and delay rather than dive into challenges to win the ball back.

How to get at them.

When Forest do not have the ball I would suggest zonal marking rather than man to man due to Bristol’s use of the direct % passes (what I mean with that is they pass the ball into spaces like between 18 yard box and by-line even if no one in that space at the time of the pass, because they know if they have a runner going into that area there is a 60% chance they will get something be it a corner, cross or a throw in). It is going to be important the central defenders do not go wondering out of the central areas and allow 2v1 situations and that both fullbacks are not both high up the pitch at the same time.

A strong and energetic central midfield will be required to put high pressure on those with the ball as Bristol are prone to making individual errors in this section of the pitch. We have also seen Bristol players after a few strong challenges begin to shy away from the 50/50 balls.

Forest should be well suited to play against Bristol when we have the ball, as so far this year Bristol have struggled to deal with counter-attacking football. Leaving big areas of space for players to run into and allowing long range efforts by over committing has cost Bristol the points over 90 mins when if they had managed the game correctly the result would have been much different.

Bristol are a team who do not like pressure to build against them and under pressure make mistakes often resulting in goal scoring chances. If Forest can build pressure through the use of set plays then we have seen that Bristol get weaker at defending aerial duels over sustained periods.

Match Prediction: Bristol are a good team if you let them get into a game and have been good at coming back into matches once confidence has returned. That said they are a nervous team if they are taken out of their stride. They panic and make mistakes often and we have seen Forest are good at setting traps and playing the waiting game after a few hard challenges to upset the rhythm. Ooh man I’m thinking we are going to win this but it’s so tight. 1-2 Forest. There I’ve said it now.

[wassy04]

Sabri's got a hard decision on whether to drop Figs and bring Dawson back after 2 wins and a clean sheet.

Same for dropping Yates for Sow.

Never change a winning team is what I say. Those guys have earned  their place.

I am going to disagree, we should play our best and strongest team whenever possible.

For me that means bringing back Dawson and Sow. Figs and Yates will both play their part again at some stage.

3 games in 7 days so I guess we can rotate. On that basis I’d bring them both back if fit and then rest them midweek. Sow also has a ban on the horizon so may as well get that out of the way!

Based on how long he’s been out I reckon they’ll ease Sow back in anyway so wouldn’t be surprised if he was on bench for next few games.

[Dog and Bear]

Sabri's got a hard decision on whether to drop Figs and bring Dawson back after 2 wins and a clean sheet.

Same for dropping Yates for Sow.

Never change a winning team is what I say. Those guys have earned  their place.

I am going to disagree, we should play our best and strongest team whenever possible.

For me that means bringing back Dawson and Sow. Figs and Yates will both play their part again at some stage.

Yes, we should play our strongest team whenever we can. Look what happened at Wigan for example.

[Mad Squad]

I think Sabri learnt a lesson at Wigan.

The strongest team should be on the pitch whenever possible.

At Bristol I would go with the following.

Samba.
Cash.
Dawson.
Worrall.
Riberio.
Watson.
Sow.
Silva.
Lolley.
Grabban.
Ameobi.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

^ Agree with that if they are all available.

[Strawberry Avenger]

The Coach's call.

A win to apply pressure to the top two.

We're at the stage of the season where the 'top two' will break away at some point. If we can get into the top two, then the momentum may take us....rather than WBA/Preston (who are being very consistent at the moment.)

SA.