Pope John XXIII
Vital Football Legend
Here it goes....
Got to be honest, it didn't actually occur to me that I would be doing another thread after the last one. Not that I didn't have some confidence, but the concept of being in a Wembley playoff final is so alien to us all that my mind never actually wandered to the possibility.
It's awesome. What a night. I doubt many of us can remember a night that was so special when we had played that badly and lost the game on the night. We were as poor as we have seen us under Cooper at home; the nerves got to us, our defence failed at some of the basics and Blades stepped it up. When they got their first we all had that sinking feeling. When they got their second I didn't think for one minute we would get through. I never, ever for a moment believed we could win a high stakes penalty shootout.
Considering how shit we were, what a night.
The absolute legend and hero
Joy not seen at the City Ground since 2007. Not joy as in arrogance that we have already made it- no one would presume the result at Wembley- but that we had actually got to Wembley for the first time in 30 years
This team, which has entertained us so much- to a degree not seen in years. Surely the best Forest team if the 21st century
They are exhausted. I believe that, with this being our 55th competitive match of the season, we have probably played more games than any other club in our division (Huddersfield will be playing their 54th) and due to the games in hand, more of these have been bunched up than for Huddersfield.
They are knackered and this is their first decent rest in weeks. They need it. Thankfully, we have tended to come back from international breaks much stronger.
Huddersfield Style
Huddersfield are a team that, statistically, are very similar to us in some ways. Bare in mind that the characteristics above are very much based on the last two games (ours have changed dramatically after Tuesday and they now make us look like a shit team). But the essentials are there.
They, like us, tend towards hitting on the counter. As we found out at the CG, once in the lead they are very hard to dislodge.
The most essential stats are that we score more and concede less over the season. Over 48 games they have 66 goals compared to our 76, and in the same period they have conceded 49 to our 43- not bad considering they had a 7 game headstart.
Looking at where their goals come from, you can see how prevalent set pieces are- pretty much 1/3 of their goals are from set pieces (our record is decent at 1/5) with only 53% of their goals coming from open play (compared to 63% for us) while counter attacking is also highly effective for them.
One of their stand out features is their effectiveness at set pieces; they have the highest number of goals from set pieces in the division (21) and a ridiculous amount of these are made by Sorba Thomas, their wing back who has 12 assists this season. They scored in the FA Cup from a set piece- their posh corner- and we could see the unbelievable delivery from Thomas for their goal in the second leg. We have generally been great at defending set pieces but the defence as a whole has crumbled a bit recently and this has to be one of our biggest fears about them.
They are a clean team, with the second lowest number of cards in the league. However, don't be fooled by that at all- Luton's disciplinary record looks clean as well. Huddersfield are canny at the darker arts (as are we) and they will have watched that second leg carefully to see exactly how to stop us in the middle.
You can see they have a similar spread of goals to us, scoring slightly more of their goals at close range. However, it's important to note that we have scored more goals overall, so this is just proportions. Slightly more of our goals come from the 18 yard box, basically exactly like we scored against Sheffield.
Huddersfield spend a bit more time in midfield than we do, meaning that is where they tend to pass it around. In contrast, the "have a breather" passing we tend to do is in defence, followed by a quick turnover and getting the ball forward quickly to the offensive area. We therefore tend to spend a bit more time in the opposition third than they do- in fact. They spend the least amount of time in the opposition third of anyone in the championship.
In terms of passing etc, they are very similar to us. They play slightly fewer long balls per game (62 to our 65) and about 20 more short passes per match. We can expect them to put a couple more crosses in per match on average.
Possession is virtually identical between the teams, with us having fractionally more because over the season we aren't just a counter attacking side. Our passing accuracy is the same, and so is the aerial stats.
Got to be honest, it didn't actually occur to me that I would be doing another thread after the last one. Not that I didn't have some confidence, but the concept of being in a Wembley playoff final is so alien to us all that my mind never actually wandered to the possibility.
It's awesome. What a night. I doubt many of us can remember a night that was so special when we had played that badly and lost the game on the night. We were as poor as we have seen us under Cooper at home; the nerves got to us, our defence failed at some of the basics and Blades stepped it up. When they got their first we all had that sinking feeling. When they got their second I didn't think for one minute we would get through. I never, ever for a moment believed we could win a high stakes penalty shootout.
Considering how shit we were, what a night.
The absolute legend and hero
Joy not seen at the City Ground since 2007. Not joy as in arrogance that we have already made it- no one would presume the result at Wembley- but that we had actually got to Wembley for the first time in 30 years
This team, which has entertained us so much- to a degree not seen in years. Surely the best Forest team if the 21st century
They are exhausted. I believe that, with this being our 55th competitive match of the season, we have probably played more games than any other club in our division (Huddersfield will be playing their 54th) and due to the games in hand, more of these have been bunched up than for Huddersfield.
They are knackered and this is their first decent rest in weeks. They need it. Thankfully, we have tended to come back from international breaks much stronger.
Huddersfield Style
Huddersfield are a team that, statistically, are very similar to us in some ways. Bare in mind that the characteristics above are very much based on the last two games (ours have changed dramatically after Tuesday and they now make us look like a shit team). But the essentials are there.
They, like us, tend towards hitting on the counter. As we found out at the CG, once in the lead they are very hard to dislodge.
The most essential stats are that we score more and concede less over the season. Over 48 games they have 66 goals compared to our 76, and in the same period they have conceded 49 to our 43- not bad considering they had a 7 game headstart.
Looking at where their goals come from, you can see how prevalent set pieces are- pretty much 1/3 of their goals are from set pieces (our record is decent at 1/5) with only 53% of their goals coming from open play (compared to 63% for us) while counter attacking is also highly effective for them.
One of their stand out features is their effectiveness at set pieces; they have the highest number of goals from set pieces in the division (21) and a ridiculous amount of these are made by Sorba Thomas, their wing back who has 12 assists this season. They scored in the FA Cup from a set piece- their posh corner- and we could see the unbelievable delivery from Thomas for their goal in the second leg. We have generally been great at defending set pieces but the defence as a whole has crumbled a bit recently and this has to be one of our biggest fears about them.
They are a clean team, with the second lowest number of cards in the league. However, don't be fooled by that at all- Luton's disciplinary record looks clean as well. Huddersfield are canny at the darker arts (as are we) and they will have watched that second leg carefully to see exactly how to stop us in the middle.
You can see they have a similar spread of goals to us, scoring slightly more of their goals at close range. However, it's important to note that we have scored more goals overall, so this is just proportions. Slightly more of our goals come from the 18 yard box, basically exactly like we scored against Sheffield.
Huddersfield spend a bit more time in midfield than we do, meaning that is where they tend to pass it around. In contrast, the "have a breather" passing we tend to do is in defence, followed by a quick turnover and getting the ball forward quickly to the offensive area. We therefore tend to spend a bit more time in the opposition third than they do- in fact. They spend the least amount of time in the opposition third of anyone in the championship.
In terms of passing etc, they are very similar to us. They play slightly fewer long balls per game (62 to our 65) and about 20 more short passes per match. We can expect them to put a couple more crosses in per match on average.
Possession is virtually identical between the teams, with us having fractionally more because over the season we aren't just a counter attacking side. Our passing accuracy is the same, and so is the aerial stats.
