• All - as you will understand, the forum is exceptionally busy at this time. The admins and moderators simply don't have time to read every post in every thread. Could you PLEASE use the "Report" option below a post to flag any content that you feel we need to be aware of. We'll review everything reported as a priority and deal with it accordingly. Thank you.

Matchday 35. Nottingham Forest v. Manchester City. Sunday 28th April KO 1630hrs

Nottingham Forest v. Manchester City

  • Total voters
    77
JohnnyCarey

JohnnyCarey

Viv Anderson
The big negative for me today wasn't the result or the overall performance. 0-2 was a decent outcome and kept our goal difference -- one of the few advantages we still have -- intact. The spirit was good and there were long stretches where we looked as good as one of the best club teams in the world.
The negative was Chris Wood. I've been a big defender of his, even last season when he was getting dog's abuse on here. But he was terrible today. He was delivered two sitters on a plate and he didn't just miss them -- his efforts were awful.
This to me is the big worry. Wood has been keeping us afloat but he was very poor against Everton and worse today. In the next three games we need him to get his mojo back. If he does, we'll be fine. But if he doesn't we probably won't survive.
 
Captain Sinister

Captain Sinister

Senior doom Monger
Sunday 28th April 2024: Nottingham Forest v Man City (Premier League; Kick Off 16:30):

We got nothing from a game where bar 2 goals conceded we outplayed the opposition for 70 minutes. The age-old mantra of “if you don’t take your chances you won’t win your matches” was seldom more cruelly illustrated. Forest went for City from the kick-off and created enough chances to have at least 3 goals in the first 45 minutes. City on the other hand had one chance, typically from a set-piece, and scored. Wood, was scoring for fun up to the last kick of the first half at Spurs, when he missed what was virtually an open goal slamming the ball against the post with the goal at his mercy. Spurs went on to win the game, and since that result wood’s confidence in front to goal has deserted him. He has missed chances in every game since fluffing that chance at White Hart Lane, and today he missed with a header from 6-yards out, then miss-kicked when 4 yards out. Murillo was even closer to goal when he skied the ball over the bar.

Man city were well below their best, and yet when they had a corner on 32 minutes it was yet again the undoing of the Reds. De Bruyne put the ball high to the near post and their gigantic centre back ran past Forest’s defenders to glance the ball home from 2 yards.

The second half saw Forest attack the Trent End, with Aina particularly dangerous, but couldn’t find a way to get the equaliser. City then brought on 32-goal striker Haarland who needed 3 touches to beat his man, control the ball and slot it home for a simple 2nd goal that was totally against the run of play.

Hudson-Odoi brought a stunning save from substitute goalie, Ortega, to tip a cross-shot bound for the far top corner over the bar for a corner. Gibbs-White fired wide of the post from 205 yards, and the whistle brought a game where Forest’s performance was very good to a close: another home defeat, but a game that was a decent watch, and where if we had several £100 million-plus strikers we might have converted a couple of our decent chances and sprung an unlikely victory over a Man City side who really did flatter to deceive today. OK, they will probably progress to take a 4th consecutive Premier League title, and Forest look increasingly like serious contenders for relegation, but today the Forest players put in a shift, played some attractive football, but in the end were left to rue what might have been.

Player Ratings:

Sels: 7- pulled off a couple of decent saves, and could do nothing about either goal;

Williams: 7- attacked well, and defended when needed. He was denied a goal by a well-timed block in the first half, and then had to leave the field of play in the 2nd half with what looks at first sight to be a season-ending hamstring injury;

Boly: 7- first game since coming back from AFCON injured, but he defended with class;

Murillo: 7 – like Williams, Murillo could have been on the score sheet, spooning the ball over the bar from 2 yards out, and like Williams had to leave the field of play in the 2nd half with what appeared to be an ankle injury;

Niakhate: 7- solid in defence and played the ball out confidently;

Aina: 8 – my MOTM, with a marauding performance that caused City defenders palpitations every time he advanced; defending he saw off the mercurial talent of Doku, who looked distinctly ordinary;

Danilo: 5 – a real curate’s egg performance with some good stuff, and some distinctly bad, giving the ball away in midfield far too often;

Hudson-Odoi: 7 – lots of excellent trickery, and several times he cut inside and put pressure on the City goal;

Gibbs-White: 7 – up against the likes of Rodri, Bernardo, and De Bruyne, MGW was always ging to look not quite up to their class ;

Elanga: 7 – his pace caused Man City problems but he just couldn’t find the right cross;

Wood: 7 – despite missing a couple of very decent chances Wood worked hard and was heavily involved in the game.

Substitutions:

Montiel (on for Williams): 5 – just not a player suited to this standard of football;

Omobamidele (on for Murillo): 6 – looks a really good prospect and settled into the back line quickly;

Reyna (on for Elanga): 5 – for such a highly regarded player at his “home” club, he really looks out of his depth here;

Yates (on for Danilo): 6 – steadied the midfield, but to be fair, Rodrigo had already made midfield his domain.

Conclusion: a good performance against the Champions elect, and a result nowhere near as bad as predicted by many on here. However, Man City were below par, looked tired, and lacked energy, but still had enough to beat us. I don’t know if a similar performance against the Blunts will ensure – inconsistency is our middle name – and Blunts had a score to settle after the play-off semi-final 2 years ago. We have to win, but to win we need to create chances, and convert them. I still feel we are the likeliest of the 3 clubs to fail to avoid relegation. But I am known for being a senior doom-monger!

A post-match bottle of red to wash down the lamb Dansak refreshed the spirits this evening.
 
magicwoand

magicwoand

It tizwas it is
A lot of good performances today, great to see Big Willy Boly back, he seems to have picked up some tips from Murillo, got forward and stormed into midfield. Aina was excellent today and MOTM, the bit where he outpaced Kyle Walker was mad, because no one outpaces Kyle Walker. It's so sad because we have the basis of a good team, that careful additions (big if) we could be a decent force in this division. But we just can't win close games despite playing well enough to have won far more games and we so easily could go down and the team ends up getting ripped apart.
 
L

Larry Lansbury

Viv Anderson
It’s frustrating as Wood could have been hero but strikers miss chances and run into poor form. Look at Haarland last season against us-missed some sitters. We also need CHO and Elanga, and across the team to chip in with goals. Awoniyi on bench against Sheff utd but be a delight!
 
R

Red Dog in a Forest

Viv Anderson
Very proud of that performance.

I liked us in the back five, allowed us to get forward well.

Danilo and MGW looked a great pairing. I thought 5 was a harsh score for Danilo (Captain), I would have given everyone 8’s except for:

Williams - 7
Aina - 9
Danilo - 7
Wood - 5

Can we replicate that performance against the bottom 2 and an in-form Chelsea? I think we can.

We held the 2nd best team in the world (this year) to 2-0, and on a better day for Wood, we might have sneaked a draw.

Great to see Boly back. Let’s hope they all recover for the short trip to Sheffield.

Youuuuuu Reeeedddssssss!! ❤️
 
W

wrexhamred

Youth Team
Don't really want to be critical of anything forest today cos they absolutely made me proud despite the result.
However......did anybody catch the Niakhate after match interview on Sky? When he said it's easy for the players to motivate themselves when playing against Man City because they're a big team but it might be much more difficult to motivate themselves for Sheffield United next week. I'm sorry but what? You lose that game & it's very possible you'll be relegated!!! It shouldn't be difficult to motivate yourselves for that FFS!!!

Sorry if this has been discussed already, didn't fancy trawling thru 49 pages to check :)
 
R

Red Dog in a Forest

Viv Anderson
wrexhamred said:
Don't really want to be critical of anything forest today cos they absolutely made me proud despite the result.
However......did anybody catch the Niakhate after match interview on Sky? When he said it's easy for the players to motivate themselves when playing against Man City because they're a big team but it might be much more difficult to motivate themselves for Sheffield United next week. I'm sorry but what? You lose that game & it's very possible you'll be relegated!!! It shouldn't be difficult to motivate yourselves for that FFS!!!

Sorry if this has been discussed already, didn't fancy trawling thru 49 pages to check :)
Click to expand...
I was thinking about this earlier.

Nuno should make a point of addressing this.

“Lads, it’s all very well raising your game against City, but if we don’t get some results we’ll be playing Blackburn, Derby, Hull, Millwall and Stoke next season.

Tripod (Yates)…tell the lads about these places.”

“Shitholes” says Yates.

“Oi Sangare!” says Nuno…”I don’t know what your laughing at…you’ve another 4 seasons of this!”

Sangare starts to cry.

Murillo calls his agent.

Wood bets a £1000 on a hat-trick against the Blunts.

MGW kisses the badge, forgets he doesn’t have his shirt on, ends up kissing his nipple instead.
 
isaacs

isaacs

Viv Anderson
wrexhamred said:
Don't really want to be critical of anything forest today cos they absolutely made me proud despite the result.
However......did anybody catch the Niakhate after match interview on Sky? When he said it's easy for the players to motivate themselves when playing against Man City because they're a big team but it might be much more difficult to motivate themselves for Sheffield United next week. I'm sorry but what? You lose that game & it's very possible you'll be relegated!!! It shouldn't be difficult to motivate yourselves for that FFS!!!

Sorry if this has been discussed already, didn't fancy trawling thru 49 pages to check :)
Click to expand...


I think he made a good point, that being theres no point in only being motivated to play against City when our next game against Sheff Utd is bigger. The language barrier might have made him come across a bit misunderstood but his point was that of a captains.
 
Arsebishop Desmond TwoTwo

Arsebishop Desmond TwoTwo

Touching Cloth
Red Dog in a Forest said:
I was thinking about this earlier.

Nuno should make a point of addressing this.

“Lads, it’s all very well raising your game against City, but if we don’t get some results we’ll be playing Blackburn, Derby, Hull, Millwall and Stoke next season.

Tripod (Yates)…tell the lads about these places.”

“Shitholes” says Yates.

“Oi Sangare!” says Nuno…”I don’t know what your laughing at…you’ve another 4 seasons of this!”

Sangare starts to cry.

Murillo calls his agent.

Wood bets a £1000 on a hat-trick against the Blunts.

MGW kisses the badge, forgets he doesn’t have his shirt on, ends up kissing his nipple instead.
Click to expand...

I've just tried to kiss my own nipple. Even using my hands, I can't do it . . . no moobs, see.

There will be some strained necks on here come Monday afternoon.
 
PynchonForest

PynchonForest

John Robertson
Very good performance. Not certain we should have won, but collectively we were very good. Aina gets a ten---that was a truly outstanding performance. Danilo was a bit off it, and Wood is paid to score and he didn't (but should have). I think we should seriously consider using MGW deeper. If he wants to do it, I think it would benefit his overall game. I really like his energy as an eight or even a six. But I think it is something he will want to do. I hope he is up to it, because I think he is a bit too profligate up the pitch. Today was very encouraging and if we can bring these levels to our next three games, we will survive.
 
Col Steve Austin

Col Steve Austin

Viv Anderson
If Aina was that good (I only listened, didn't watch), should we Gareth Bale him and stick him on the wing? Aina & Elanga on either wing could be interesting?
 
T.B.T.

T.B.T.

Forum Princess
LTLF Minion
Berkshire Red said:
Why? Do we get more than three points?

I mean, seriously, cut the negative shit. We need to win. Full stop. A scrappy 1-0 or 2-1 is the same as a 3-0.

So many on here looking for the negatives all the time. Anyone would think we'd been utterly shit and conceded seven today.
Click to expand...
There’s absolutely no need to be rude. Do you realise how your post comes across?

I wasn’t being negative, but yes, we do need a win in whatever shape it takes. The reason why I believe we need a convincing win is that we need the confidence that comes with a great performance and a result worthy of playing in the Premier League next season.

I was disappointed because we could have done better.

I don’t disagree with you but your tone is unnecessary and quite unwelcome.
 
Captain Sinister

Captain Sinister

Senior doom Monger
Thomas said:
I cannot believe how good we looked today.

I hope we continue with a back 3 because Aina was unleashed today and he was RIDICULOUS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Ridiculous?
Check the Oxford English Dictionary.
Aina was not ridiculous.
He was tremendous.
Don’t worry, Thomas.
We shall always try to help with your education on here :)
 
Rubics

Rubics

Bin VAR!
7c0a4b3a-5b15-4139-844d-f6b191ffed74.jpeg
 
B

ben_b

First Team Squad
Good performance yesterday but we do need a plan B if we are losing to Burnley or Sheff Utd in the last few games.

If Wood has lost his scoring mojo, we need to change it up after 65/70 mins, bring on Ribeiro for a bit of pace through the middle. Nuno needs to stop flogging Wood for 90 minutes
 
Alf-engelos Mindminackers

Alf-engelos Mindminackers

The Artiste formally known as "Wanksy"
ben_b said:
Good performance yesterday but we do need a plan B if we are losing to Burnley or Sheff Utd in the last few games.

If Wood has lost his scoring mojo, we need to change it up after 65/70 mins, bring on Ribeiro for a bit of pace through the middle. Nuno needs to stop flogging Wood for 90 minutes
Click to expand...
We really should have given Ribero far more game time.

Persisting with Origi in his place has done nothing for our points tally, yet has meant Ribero hasn't really had chance to get into the swing of things.

Nuno's Origi-love has been very puzzling. He seems to have come around and seen sense now, but...AGAIN...he's been far too slow on the uptake.
 
Last edited:
W

wrexhamred

Youth Team
isaacs said:
I think he made a good point, that being theres no point in only being motivated to play against City when our next game against Sheff Utd is bigger. The language barrier might have made him come across a bit misunderstood but his point was that of a captains.
Click to expand...

Ah ok if I've misunderstood him then fair enough, I hope you're right.
As I said, I don't want to criticize too much after that performance (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom