Nottingham Forest - Middlesbrough

[Duncan Mckenzie]

To be played at the City Ground on Tuesday 10th December.

Kick Off: 19.45.

[Derby My Arse]

No Assombalonga.

Pity. He normally has a stinker when he plays against us.

[Paplane]

No Assombalonga.

Why?

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

No Assombalonga.

Why?

He went off injured yesterday but not sure what the injury was.

[the jock]

Is Yates back for this? If so put him right back in

[ThePromisedLand]

No - Carvalho for me.

[PsychoStanleyStone]

If any game is going to be an easy, and 'easy's' are as rare as rocking horse pooh at the moment, this is it, this is the 'easy'

Statistics:  ''Nottingham Forest are 241% better in terms of form'', yeh, i know, don't ask me how to explain this rather comforting statistic but i think it really relates to our home performance potential based on solid data compared to Boro's away performance .. 1st half, anyway i have posted the link so see what you make of it

The statistics say ''Forest have scored in 87% of home matches''  ''Boro have kept clean sheets in 11% of away matches'', the computer says:  ''There is an Uncertainty whether Boro will score an away goal based on our data''

So, it seems, it is scientifically impossible for us to lose this game

We do need more ''easy's'' so key players can be rested and promising players can be introduced into a positive scenario and give them the best chance to bed in and prosper and shine, anyway, looks like Tuesday we will all be on an ecstatic high, before, during and after, that would be nice.

[zicorice]

If any game is going to be an easy, and 'easy's' are as rare as rocking horse pooh at the moment, this is it, this is the 'easy'

Statistics:  ''Nottingham Forest are 241% better in terms of form'', yeh, i know, don't ask me how to explain this rather comforting statistic but i think it really relates to our home performance potential based on solid data compared to Boro's away performance .. 1st half, anyway i have posted the link so see what you make of it

The statistics say ''Forest have scored in 87% of home matches''  ''Boro have kept clean sheets in 11% of away matches'', the computer says:  ''There is an Uncertainty whether Boro will score an away goal based on our data''

So, it seems, it is scientifically impossible for us to lose this game

We do need more ''easy's'' so key players can be rested and promising players can be introduced into a positive scenario and give them the best chance to bed in and prosper and shine, anyway, looks like Tuesday we will all be on an ecstatic high, before, during and after, that would be nice.

Let's hope so, but hasn't that become our speciality in recent years? Cardiff-no away wins all year....

[PsychoStanleyStone]

The statistics say ''Forest have scored in 87% of home matches''  ''Boro have kept clean sheets in 11% of away matches'', the computer says:  ''There is an Uncertainty whether Boro will score an away goal based on our data''
So, it seems, it is scientifically impossible for us to lose this game

We do need more ''easy's'' so key players can be rested and promising players can be introduced into a positive scenario and give them the best chance to bed in and prosper and shine, anyway, looks like Tuesday we will all be on an ecstatic high, before, during and after, that would be nice.

Let's hope so, but hasn't that become our speciality in recent years? Cardiff-no away wins all year....

well, yes, i know, but this Boro game, as long as i can remember, even going back to Cloughies, last season, when we got relegated, Boro, always seemed to be a bit of a gift, not that this means anything

more relevant, we are in reasonably good shape and form, Boro are in generally poor form, very poor away and with injurys, Brit could be out, there other guy on 3 goals might also have a niggle and that only leaves 1 player who has scored more than once this season

anyway, we can beat anyone on our day and we are always solid and no reason not to be confident about beating Boro, i'll take any win, but for the sake of the seasons utopian ambitions, we need some easy's, if we could get an easy here this would really help our journey through the thick and fast fixtures 

for me this is about 'easy's' which we really need and would turn a good season into an exceptional one

[Duncan Mckenzie]

Is Yates back for this? If so put him right back in

Yes Yates is back. Gerrim straight back in.

Samba.
Cash.
Dawson.
Worrall.
Ribiero.
Watson.
Yates.
Silva.
Lolley.
Grabban.
Ameobi.

[Paplane]

As above.

[Mcforest]

Middlesbrough have found things hard going this year as they look to move away from what was described as negative football from Pulis. The problem with that is you then have to have the players who can play the way you want and with funds being low and pretty, much unavailable this season Woodgate has to use the punt experts brought in under the previous manager. If they had signed an experienced manager then you would have seen this we will try to play style ripped up and they would have continued with playing to their strengths until a time they could afford to bring in some new players to change the system.

Normally I would be able to point out the strengths of a team both when it come to defending and attacking but in this case I just can’t the team has no identity at the moment and I just can see what they are trying to do. What I can say is they like to play in a 4-3-3 formation with normally two holding midfielders.

Middlesbrough attempt a lot of long range efforts and are not afraid to shoot when given any sight of the goal. This is a sure sign of a team low on confidence who don’t have the belief to build pressure to look for the best opening and struggle for ideas with the ball.

In their win against Charlton at the weekend we saw that they were given a lot of the ball without pressure in Charlton’s half which allowed them to cross often and early into the box. However the quality was not great and it became a catching training session for the keeper. Had the Charlton keeper not gifted them a goal at the start with the fumble after fumble to the incoming player’s feet I just could not see how they would score.

Without the ball Middlesbrough do not have any strengths worth noting but I will say because of this they have become (some would say they already were) a very aggressive team and pick up a large volume of cards during games as they dive into tackles out of desperation.

How do you get at them.

First thing I will say is Forest just need to be themselves here don’t go worrying about what they can do. Let them worry about us as we have everything we need to get at them.

Without the ball Forest just need to make sure we are switched on and know that they will shoot or cross early. If you pressure them and put strong challenges in, they will make errors and misplace passes. Middlesbrough do not like being forced to make cross-field passes or take risks. There will be plenty of chances to win the ball back. Staying strong and compact will allow Forest to win the second ball and break.

When Forest do have the ball, which I believe in this game will be often, they should having running at fullback as their number one priority. We have seen time and time again the fullbacks dive into tackles and miss both the man and the ball giving a free run to cut inside and create a chance. Middlesbrough leave the fullbacks open to 1v1’s and even 1v2’s very often as the central players do not like to go wide.

The next biggest cause of goals against for Middlesbrough is free kicks into the box with corners being the biggest error of concern for them. They are weak aerially and struggle to stay with the player they are marking.

Match prediction.

This is going to go two ways we will either win this and rip them a part or its going to be another Wigan match and I would question our ability to finish top 6. Has to be a win for forest, it has to be a win. Going with 3-0.