Rabbit in the headlights

[earthworm]

Can't help but think when reading this ... if inexperience and freezing in the spotlight cost us in the play offs, imagine what would have happened if we'd scraped through and we kicked off against Chelski and the like?

ILLY Davies believes adding more experience to his young Nottingham Forest squad could be the vital key to making the step-up into the Premiership. The youthful Reds squad challenged for a top-two finish for much of the season, pushing Newcastle and West Brom hard, before eventually finishing third.
But they suffered a painful defeat in the play-off semi-finals at the hands of eventual Wembley winners Blackpool.
And Davies believes it might have been a different story had they had a little more experience in their ranks.
"At Derby and Preston, when we got to the play-offs, our experience was crucial," he said.


"The experienced heads were the key to getting promotion with Derby, that is for sure.
"We have one of the youngest squads in the Championship, if not the youngest.
"But we had kept clean sheets in our previous eight home games.
"And our goals against column proved that we were not in the habit of conceding goals.
"But what we saw in that second leg was a young side that did not handle the pressure.
"You never saw what happened coming on the horizon.
"Players who had been outstanding for us all season; who had barely put a foot wrong all season, suddenly made mistakes.
"Our two young central defenders, who had been superb all season, suddenly made one or two mistakes.
"But it was the same throughout the side.
"When you look at the goals, they were not goals scored by the opposition, but goals we gave away. It was football suicide at times. That is what can happen with young players."
Skipper Paul McKenna fought back from a knee injury to play his part in the semi-finals.
But Davies is hopeful of bringing more experienced players of his ilk to the club to add their influence as well.
"Look at Inter in the Champions League final. They used every ounce of their experience to win," he said.
"It was their old heads that saw them through.
"Perhaps that is something we need to consider when we look at our young squad."

http://www.thisisnottinghamforest.c...ys-Davies/article-2220575-detail/article.html

Maybe this tells you a little about how likely some of the names we've been linked with are. The experienced ones are probably more likely to be true!

 

[Anti]

Sounds like the start of a team of old thugs who boot it long all the time, what we expected from BD (and thankfully didn't get) when he joined.

 

[Brolin]

Sounds like the start of a team of old thugs who boot it long all the time, what we expected from BD (and thankfully didn't get) when he joined.

In spite of all the evidence of us creating a young, talented, passing team?

Looks like you've made your mind up, I will leave it there.

 

[MansfieldRed]

As I have stated a few times over and over it's great having youngsters, but having some old heads that know when to slow the game down and keep hold of the ball is important too.

 

[andover red]

SO our defeat was nothing to do with playing a RB at LB, a LM at RM and an unfit old man in the engine room?

Billy has got a lot of great qualities as a manager but acknowledging his own mistakes isn't one of them!

 

[earthworm]

SO our defeat was nothing to do with playing a RB at LB, a LM at RM and an unfit old man in the engine room?

Billy has got a lot of great qualities as a manager but acknowledging his own mistakes isn't one of them!

Did he have much choice though?

 

[andover red]

Did he have much choice though?

Not as much choice as we'd all have liked - that I can't deny.

But playing the left footed Cohen on the right wing, occasionally switching with the equally left footed Tyson seemed crazy when you have Anderson on the bench. Even McCleary. Round pegs in round holes as Billy keeps saying

That would also have allowed Cohen into CM and addressed the issue of an unfit McKenna at the same time.

LB not such an easy call, but Perch was hopeless at RB so to then move him to an unfamiliar LB was crazy. For all his faults, Lynch is a LB - who Billy signed at the start of the season.