Match Thread, Forest v Millwall, can we do it ? | Page 8 | Vital Football

Match Thread, Forest v Millwall, can we do it ?

I see Warnock is complaining about our pre match huddle:

“Maybe we'll have to break the protocols and have a pre-match scrummage like them today with nothing said to them.”

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/neil-warnock-takes-aim-ahead-4896638

In comparison to defending a Millwall corner, out huddle is model of social distancing
It amuses me that he is moaning about our huddle when as a club we’ve had zero positive cases, they have just had their training ground shut cos they can’t stop licking each other’s faces!
 
Interesting that we renewed Knockaert's loan but didn't bring him on.

CH giving Ameobi and Mighten time to show what they can do, and they repaid his trust.

Lolley rightly benched for now - good to see that players will have to force their way into a winning side.
 
Interesting that we renewed Knockaert's loan but didn't bring him on.

CH giving Ameobi and Mighten time to show what they can do, and they repaid his trust.

Lolley rightly benched for now - good to see that players will have to force their way into a winning side.
Agree Pebble.Furthermore with a midweek game coming up it means we have fresh options ,if needed, to start.A win win chap.
 
Agree Pebble.Furthermore with a midweek game coming up it means we have fresh options ,if needed, to start.A win win chap.
Ameobi against a tall Millwall side is an easy option ( but he'd been poor lately!)

Mighten was a brave selection, and keeping him on after a quiet first half more so.
 
Scoring three at home? Heady days - time to play Workingman's Dead through my new bluetooth headphones.

It shouldn't be such a cause for celebration. Here's to the time when we expect such scorelines.
 
We are beginning to reap the benefits of Hughton's disciplined approach, or insanity, I think it was described as a few weeks ago.

By sticking with a similar line up each week, he has allowed players to play themselves back into form and build a little confidence.

The spine of the side is looking very strong; it has taken a long time and a number of false starts to get there though.

The Worrall, Figueredo pairing was looking decent, the Worrall, McKenna pairing looks a significant improvement on that.

The destructive capabilities of Sow and Yates is giving good protection to the defence; we are no longer a push over in the middle, we just need to tighten up out wide now and stop players putting quality crosses in.

And Grabban is getting back to his best; he looked strong today against a very physical defence, held the ball up well and showed good movement around the box.

If we can maintain that strong spine we can look to improve going forward.

It was good to see Mighten display a bit of trickery today; he is obviously settling into the side and feeling more confident, his defensive play is improving as well.

Hopefully we will start to see better from Knockheart and with Freeman back in the next week or so, we start to look like we have some goals in us.
Agree with most apart from ; Grabban will be back to his best when he score goals, that is why you need strikers. Today our goals came from two shots from outside the box( something that we lack very much) and a corner ( not to mention that Yates used his feet this time as his headers most of the time go out). In regard Knock and Freeman coming back , ironically they play In positions were I think, 1 we have a player developing (Mighten) and we should give him as much game time as possible and not make him feel that he is a back up of someone else and two Freeman . I haven't seen anything from him to tell me that he can do a better job than Cafu. I like Cafu in the number 10 role,good touch good vision works hard, what more can Freeman give?
I player that I am sorry to say is like sizzling away is Lolley. When he plays he is ineffective and offers nothing new.
Gone are the days of the 15 million pound man, I have feeling that he will end up going on a free.
 
Up at the crack of dawn to find that not only had we gained 3 points but had managed to find the net 3 times as well. Made my day, it's nearly 7 in the evening here and I've not stopped smiling all day. And by the sound of it we played a bit of better football particularly in the second half too.
That's 6 on the trot without loss and obviously this run must end somewhere but a bit of luck at the start helps and of course it's not over yet.

I thought that our best signing out of the last lot was McKenna and still hold that view but am glad to see Mighten starting to show his worth. Also hope our Academy achieves grade 1 as I'm convinced that our future as a decent club lies more with our youngsters than what we've been getting.
 
Will not be surprised if Boro playing staff will be hit by a bout of Covid and the game postponed.
If Warnock was complaining with the lack of training before the Birmingham game, with their facilities out of bounds, it's not going to be any better for the game against us.
 
Up at the crack of dawn to find that not only had we gained 3 points but had managed to find the net 3 times as well. Made my day, it's nearly 7 in the evening here and I've not stopped smiling all day. And by the sound of it we played a bit of better football particularly in the second half too.
That's 6 on the trot without loss and obviously this run must end somewhere but a bit of luck at the start helps and of course it's not over yet.

I thought that our best signing out of the last lot was McKenna and still hold that view but am glad to see Mighten starting to show his worth. Also hope our Academy achieves grade 1 as I'm convinced that our future as a decent club lies more with our youngsters than what we've been getting.
Looks like your match thread did the trick again ORF, and you've got the job for the foreseeable future or at least until the next match
 
I think that last point is really important.

How good are McKenna and Worrall together?

They had four strikers to face; Millwall units as well.

I can't really remember a meaningful save Samba had to make over the game- can anyone else?
Agree with those views, Samba didn't have a "proper" save to make just wish he'd stop flapping about and punching crosses he could catch which actually makes the performances of centre backs even more commendable as his antics must affect them
 
Agree with most apart from ; Grabban will be back to his best when he score goals, that is why you need strikers. Today our goals came from two shots from outside the box( something that we lack very much) and a corner ( not to mention that Yates used his feet this time as his headers most of the time go out). In regard Knock and Freeman coming back , ironically they play In positions were I think, 1 we have a player developing (Mighten) and we should give him as much game time as possible and not make him feel that he is a back up of someone else and two Freeman . I haven't seen anything from him to tell me that he can do a better job than Cafu. I like Cafu in the number 10 role,good touch good vision works hard, what more can Freeman give?
I player that I am sorry to say is like sizzling away is Lolley. When he plays he is ineffective and offers nothing new.
Gone are the days of the 15 million pound man, I have feeling that he will end up going on a free.

No, I'm not having any of that.

Grabban is one of the very few players around who can score goals and hold the ball up; if we do not hold the ball up we cannot move forward as a team - it really is that simple; keep losing possession and you are constantly on the back foot, or give up on possession and turn into a counter attacking side which we were last season.

Yes, two of yesterdays goals came from shots from outside the box, which was nice to see, but the most important thing is we are now getting bodies into the box as well as Grabban.

Last season we relied on shots from outside the box far to often, mainly because with Ameobi and Lolley, you had two players who feel more comfortable shooting from distance than getting ahead of the striker.

That tactic has been rendered useless this season because teams have cottoned on to it and have arranged their defences to deal with it.

Now that Mighten, Cafu and Kockheart are getting into the box and into scoring positions, the defenders are having to react accordingly, this opens things up for a shot from distance.

Getting players into the box will be the key to scoring goals, and we are starting to do that; the next step is to improve on delivery - both full backs, who have improved leaps and bounds defensively over the last month are still pretty hopeless with their crossing; once that changes a whole new opportunity arises.

We are not there yet, not even close; but we are definitely moving in the right direction, and the football is becoming better on the eye.

You can always tell when we are doing alright; the people who are the first to jump on Houghton's back when we lose, start to praise other managers in the league when we win, and long may that continue.
 
No, I'm not having any of that.

Grabban is one of the very few players around who can score goals and hold the ball up; if we do not hold the ball up we cannot move forward as a team - it really is that simple; keep losing possession and you are constantly on the back foot, or give up on possession and turn into a counter attacking side which we were last season.

Yes, two of yesterdays goals came from shots from outside the box, which was nice to see, but the most important thing is we are now getting bodies into the box as well as Grabban.

Last season we relied on shots from outside the box far to often, mainly because with Ameobi and Lolley, you had two players who feel more comfortable shooting from distance than getting ahead of the striker.

That tactic has been rendered useless this season because teams have cottoned on to it and have arranged their defences to deal with it.

Now that Mighten, Cafu and Kockheart are getting into the box and into scoring positions, the defenders are having to react accordingly, this opens things up for a shot from distance.

Getting players into the box will be the key to scoring goals, and we are starting to do that; the next step is to improve on delivery - both full backs, who have improved leaps and bounds defensively over the last month are still pretty hopeless with their crossing; once that changes a whole new opportunity arises.

We are not there yet, not even close; but we are definitely moving in the right direction, and the football is becoming better on the eye.

You can always tell when we are doing alright; the people who are the first to jump on Houghton's back when we lose, start to praise other managers in the league when we win, and long may that continue.
Opinions Mao opinions. I dont see where this Grabban holding the ball and bringing others in play is. Yesterday, again, he had two chances in the box or to finish better or to square to a better placed player, he did neither. I still see Mighten sprinting in the box to provide Grabs with an option in the middle of the penalty area, but the latter thought that it was better to try his luck instead of passing to free Mighten.
But as I said opinions...
 
Opinions Mao opinions. I dont see where this Grabban holding the ball and bringing others in play is. Yesterday, again, he had two chances in the box or to finish better or to square to a better placed player, he did neither. I still see Mighten sprinting in the box to provide Grabs with an option in the middle of the penalty area, but the latter thought that it was better to try his luck instead of passing to free Mighten.
But as I said opinions...

You miss the point!

Yes he missed a couple of chances yesterday when he would have been better off passing the ball; no one would deny that.

But we are now getting players into the box in NUMBERS; that is something we continually failed to do last season.

We are able to do that for two reasons:

1, Grabban is holding the ball up and bringing other players into the game outside the box.

2. Players like Mighten, Kockheart and Cafu are getting into scoring positions inside the box.

It is incredibly difficult for 2 to occur without 1 happening.