Is Our Squad Stronger Or Weaker Than Last Season

[Salvatore Matrecano]

60% of the improvement In results is Lamouchi.
Another 20% was the (very astute) buy of Samba. He has been the figure that has shored up and given confidence to an otherwise leaky defence. As Cloughie would testify once you are solid at the back the results take care of themselves.
The remaining 20% as Zico says is keeping Grabban and others fit. Grabban spent the second half of last season injured, scored only 1 goal and was the reason our form tailed off.

Goalkeeper apart, rest of the squad same same.

[Tricky]

Surely our league position tells us that the squad is stronger. We have been in a play off place almost the whole season and even had a flirt with the top two, we even went top after winning at Stoke but that was very early in the season.

Does the league position make us stronger though Sniff? Better tactics could be a reason too! A Manager that has got the dressing room also will play a significant part. Take Grabs for example, last season he really didn't look that interested most of the time..........was that down to poor tactics and management? Did he get on with the manager(s)? Was he carrying a knock? we don't know, but this season, despite him being off target more often than I would like, he is on the verge of becoming our first 20 goals per season striker for 20 years!

I think Sabri has strengthened our resolve, confidence and belief, especially in defence. Our first team starters are by and large stronger. Dropping Matty Cash to Right Back has been an inspiration in my eyes!, Ben Watson..........wow! what a transformation from last year. There were too many changes being made at the back last season, granted some were unavoidable due to injuries, suspensions etc, but this season we have seen more or less the same back 6 players............Samba, Cash, Figs, Worrall, Ribs, Watson. Their names are now on auto-pick!

Lets have a look at some of those who played for us last season............Osborn - likeable lad, would play anywhere he was asked to and did a job. That though was the problem. He did a job. Not a brilliant, outstanding job, he did a job. Robinson, decent enough Left Back, but why did opposition sides target attacking us down our left so much? Because Robinson was often caught out of position. Pantillimon - Say no more! A goal keeper that stands 8 foot 11 in his stockinged feet should be able to come for crosses. Not Pants! He once got a nose bleed after leaving his line! Poor, poor keeper. Centre backs were a problem too........Benny Loony, Hefele, Dawson, Milo, Figs. Figs and Daws, when not injured were the only ones you could have any faith in, but they were chopped and changed around too much. Milo, in all fairness was pretty decent.

Midfield was a nightmare! Watson couldn't play alongside Colback, who are both excellent players in their own right, but they just couldn't gel! Guedioura was a car crash in comparison to what he was like in previous seasons, while we experimented with the three amigos in Carvalho, Dias and Goncalves. We did have Matty Cash marauding down the right flank though! We even tried to push our luck by playing Pele! Sadly the Pele we played wasn't fit enough to lace up the maestros boots! Osborn, already mentioned once, would cover every blade of grass for the club, but was poor at crossing, was slow and often played the wrong pass and in the end, I think his dad managed to turn his head and after that he wasn't so interested. We also had Lolley of course, but injury played a significant part in his season on and off.

Then up top, we had a seemingly disinterested Grabban, Murphy, who is older than me!!!, Soudani, Bonatini (the less said there the better!), Ansarifard (who i think could've made it here if given more opportunity).

I think we have strengthened, particularly in midfield, with Sammi Ammi, Sow, Silva and Yates all doing well, albeit too inconsistently; and that there lies our problem..................consistency! We have not been consistent enough this season (see seasons before us!). We go and beat the top sides, then get turned over by the likes of Charlton or Wigan or Birmingham!


For what its worth, I do think we are stronger than last season, in our starting 11, but whilst our back up may seem to be stronger, it is not strong enough.

[Paplane]

60% of the improvement In results is Lamouchi.
Another 20% was the (very astute) buy of Samba. He has been the figure that has shored up and given confidence to an otherwise leaky defence. As Cloughie would testify once you are solid at the back the results take care of themselves.
The remaining 20% as Zico says is keeping Grabban and others fit. Grabban spent the second half of last season injured, scored only 1 goal and was the reason our form tailed off.

Goalkeeper apart, rest of the squad same same.

Pretty much agree with most of that Salvatore. I also think that, mostly, successful sides are the ones that have a good solid base of a club behind them, and I think this is a factor that is eventually being felt in our club. All of the club seem to be pulling in the same direction. There's no negative stories in the press anymore, no stories about players misbehaving, no selling of the ground to get around FFP, no players getting pissed and drink driving, no players getting stabbed at 4.00am in Liverpool....

[Username]

60% of the improvement In results is Lamouchi.
Another 20% was the (very astute) buy of Samba. He has been the figure that has shored up and given confidence to an otherwise leaky defence. As Cloughie would testify once you are solid at the back the results take care of themselves.
The remaining 20% as Zico says is keeping Grabban and others fit. Grabban spent the second half of last season injured, scored only 1 goal and was the reason our form tailed off.

Goalkeeper apart, rest of the squad same same.

I agree with that. 

It’s a real shame we didn’t add at least one quality signing in January.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

60% of the improvement In results is Lamouchi.
Another 20% was the (very astute) buy of Samba. He has been the figure that has shored up and given confidence to an otherwise leaky defence. As Cloughie would testify once you are solid at the back the results take care of themselves.
The remaining 20% as Zico says is keeping Grabban and others fit. Grabban spent the second half of last season injured, scored only 1 goal and was the reason our form tailed off.

Goalkeeper apart, rest of the squad same same.

Pretty much agree with most of that Salvatore. I also think that, mostly, successful sides are the ones that have a good solid base of a club behind them, and I think this is a factor that is eventually being felt in our club. All of the club seem to be pulling in the same direction. There's no negative stories in the press anymore, no stories about players misbehaving, no selling of the ground to get around FFP, no players getting pissed and drink driving, no players getting stabbed at 4.00am in Liverpool....

If we can just rid ourselves of Pantilimon, Benalouane, Hefele, Bridcutt and Clough and bring in 4 quality players I reckon we will be alright no matter which league we are in next season.

[wassy04]

Surely our league position tells us that the squad is stronger. We have been in a play off place almost the whole season and even had a flirt with the top two, we even went top after winning at Stoke but that was very early in the season.

Agree with above, and that fact we already have more points than last year with 4 games remaining.

I think the squad is stronger than last year, it also has a better team spirit and has benefited from having the same manager all year.

Last season we lost Grabban for a while through injury and he wasn't 100% when he came back. How would our squad have coped with that this season? Especially before Christmas. Also lost our first choice full backs at various times and in terms of centre backs how many did we get through? Last season injuries hit at various times quite hard. Last year both Norwich and Sheffield United had relatively injury free seasons, where as our squad was tested to the full. We also had unbelievably bad refereeing decisions hit us at the crucial time during the run in costing us the points that may have taken us into top 6. 

The squad depth was tested alot more last season and fell short just. 

This season the squad depth when tested for rotation has fallen short, but thankfully hasn't really been tested for injuries.

We haven't had many games where the ref has completely killed us compared to last year either.

What isn't debatable is the team has achieved better especially away from home. We have definitely made progress as a team-albeit some of the home games have been tough to watch.

Would you feel confident if (fingers crossed) we lost Cash, Worrall, Figs and Grabban through injury for the rest of the season. Replacements Jenkinson, Dawson, Benololoune/Heff and Walker/DaCosta.  

Thankfully our squad has only really been used when Sabri felt like it.

We've lost Sow a number of times this season, Ribeiro was out for a while too, lolley was carrying a knock at the start of the season which clearly hindered him and figs was injured for a while too. So while we've still had awkward injuries to contend with. Maybe not quite as severely as last season or previous years though.

I remember the year Britt broke his leg our best 8 players were all out for at least a month at the same time! Nothing like that

[zicorice]

60% of the improvement In results is Lamouchi.
Another 20% was the (very astute) buy of Samba. He has been the figure that has shored up and given confidence to an otherwise leaky defence. As Cloughie would testify once you are solid at the back the results take care of themselves.
The remaining 20% as Zico says is keeping Grabban and others fit. Grabban spent the second half of last season injured, scored only 1 goal and was the reason our form tailed off.

Goalkeeper apart, rest of the squad same same.

I love the maths approach to this! Great post. Though I'd go 45%Sabri. 25 %Brice and the 'new'  full backs 30% luck with injuries/suspensions/less crap refs.  :D

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Da Costa now starting to look like a very good signing after being written off by many on here after a handful of minutes against Charlton earlier in the season.

[Username]

Completely agree, some fantastic touches yesterday, he might need to do a bit more defensively but the lad has quality.

Would really like him to get a goal though.

[GaribaldiRED]

I'm not sure our squad is that much stronger this season but as a team I believe Forest are a lot stronger. Sabri has implemented a formation and tactics that every single player is buying into even though it can be perceived as being negative and potentially make the players look like lesser footballers than they actually are. But this is a journey or project as SL likes to put it, that has just started. We are no where near the finished article yet but SL has managed to build the defensive foundation that is so very important. For those of you that are familiar with the Atletico Madrid story under Diego Simeone, I see a lot of similarities and I believe that SL is trying to build something similar (formation and tactics). It will not be easy but Forest are as a team definitely moving in the right direction.

[wassy04]

I'm not sure our squad is that much stronger this season but as a team I believe Forest are a lot stronger. Sabri has implemented a formation and tactics that every single player is buying into even though it can be perceived as being negative and potentially make the players look like lesser footballers than they actually are. But this is a journey or project as SL likes to put it, that has just started. We are no where near the finished article yet but SL has managed to build the defensive foundation that is so very important. For those of you that are familiar with the Atletico Madrid story under Diego Simeone, I see a lot of similarities and I believe that SL is trying to build something similar (formation and tactics). It will not be easy but Forest are as a team definitely moving in the right direction.

I agree with this, think we've improved at keeper and full back but otherwise similar or worse. Lolley has regressed slightly, carvalho has not been involved so and within the current tactics we havent replaced that as an attacking threat. Otherwise the squad is similar to last season.

I think its more about the manager and getting the team to the peak of what it is really capable of within these tactics. Also perhaps benefitting from a slightly lower level of opposition or a more evenly spread league perhaps

[Reds73]

I'm not sure our squad is that much stronger this season but as a team I believe Forest are a lot stronger. Sabri has implemented a formation and tactics that every single player is buying into even though it can be perceived as being negative and potentially make the players look like lesser footballers than they actually are. But this is a journey or project as SL likes to put it, that has just started. We are no where near the finished article yet but SL has managed to build the defensive foundation that is so very important. For those of you that are familiar with the Atletico Madrid story under Diego Simeone, I see a lot of similarities and I believe that SL is trying to build something similar (formation and tactics). It will not be easy but Forest are as a team definitely moving in the right direction.

I agree with this, think we've improved at keeper and full back but otherwise similar or worse. Lolley has regressed slightly, carvalho has not been involved so and within the current tactics we havent replaced that as an attacking threat. Otherwise the squad is similar to last season.

I think its more about the manager and getting the team to the peak of what it is really capable of within these tactics. Also perhaps benefitting from a slightly lower level of opposition or a more evenly spread league perhaps

I think we have improved in 5 positions in the starting 11

we have upgraded at GK, Right back, Left back, Worrall has made the back 4 stronger.
Sow has been an upgrade even though he hasn’t played enough games and Ameobi has strengthened the wide positions.

we are a 2nd striker light.

 Not at all convinced Lolley has regressed. His stats certainly don’t reflect that.

what you can’t underestimate is the organisation of the team, it’s at a different level to last year.