Zach Clough / Nottm Post | Vital Football

Zach Clough / Nottm Post

Galaxy42

Galaxy42

Vital Football Hero
https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/match-reports/zach-clough-blew-chance-show-1919099

There's a piece in the post about his appearance for the under 23's today. I understand he's free to leave the club & has been informed of that, but is there any need to single him out like this?

"Zach Clough blew chance to show what can do"

"Clough played for them in a Professional Development League match against QPR Under-23s at their London training base on Monday. Well, for 45 minutes anyway. And he was pretty anonymous throughout it all"

"It was no surprise when he was substituted at half-time, with the Reds trailing 2-0. None whatsoever, because he had spectacularly failed to make any kind of impact"

"He had one threatening moment. One. That was it"

"Halted, just like his Forest career"

"and after Forest exited for the away dressing room at half-time we never saw Clough again."

"Clough made zero impact"

To me this reads like the journalistic equivalent of an assassination.

I've seen some poor performances from forest players over the years, but can't ever remember a player singled out by the Post with such harsh criticism.
 
That is a disgrace.

He is a young player who has talent. He needs a manager who believes in him to bring it out at this level. His career here was destroyed by Warburton, he has been dismissed by Karanka but he is still a young player making his way in the game.

It's not his fault we paid £3m for him, which was a fair price for the L1 season he was having.

Awful.
 
Must be hard though, getting motivated for an u23's game when you're a senior pro earning probably £12k per week.
 
malc08 said:
Truth cannot hurt anyone
Click to expand...

This isn't truth though, is it.

It's impossible to make "zero impact" It's folly to predict "we never saw him again", Is playing poorly in ONE U23 game really a "spectacular failure"?
 
At the end of the day he isn't going to be good enough for where we want to be in a few months time.

To me he never seemed to give it his best or if he did his best just isn't good enough.

Maybe today he was just so poor that the post singled him out for special mention.

I won't be losing any sleep over a bloke on a few grand a week and doing nowt for it!
 
I read the article and did find it a tad harsh. However, it fairly well articulates his contribution in the first team.
 
Makes you wonder what happens to some players. Star player at Bolton. OK here but nothing more. Goes into a bad patch. Returns to Bolton on loan and they start Tyler Walker ahead of him. Career seems to be in decline. Let's hope he turns it round, otherwise we will be stuck with another unwanted player for three years.
 
Pope John XXIII said:
That is a disgrace.

He is a young player who has talent. He needs a manager who believes in him to bring it out at this level. His career here was destroyed by Warburton, he has been dismissed by Karanka but he is still a young player making his way in the game.

It's not his fault we paid £3m for him, which was a fair price for the L1 season he was having.

Awful.
Click to expand...

No responsibility from the player?
 
It might be a tad harsh but I cannot fault the post in reporting this. He never had a chance with Warburton and karanka has seen all he needs to see. Hopefully a loan/drop down to L1 will see him produce what he can do and get rid in January. Shame though.
 
Pope John XXIII said:
Responsibility for what?
Click to expand...

You frequently slagged off MacKay, for lack of application and yet Clough was exempt from criticism and he showed far less desire and contributed far less when on the pitch.

Last season:

Clough: 13 league appearances (4/9), 0 goals and 0 assists.

Barry MacKay 26 appearances (22/4), 5 goals and has 7 assists.

Oh and they're the same age.

I think there is a player in there somewhere, MW tried to find it but was unsuccessful, AK didn't even bother to look. However he needs to take a long hard look at himself, he was largely anonymous and useless for us when given the chance.
 
I disagree that he showed less desire on the pitch. I'm not sure it's possible to show less desire than McKay did at times, nor less application (as Swansea saw at the weekend).

However, it would be very difficult for us to have a debate about something so completely objective. We both saw things differently and there is no stat you can get from your opta subscribing mate to prove desire nor any whoscored data I can pull to prove application.

Of course there is some personal responsibility from any player who doesn't make it at a club, although circumstances also play a big part. Clough's circumstances were harder than most- bought by a caretaker who was quickly replaced to come from a promotion side to a relegation battling side a level above; unfancied by the new manager who had some money to spend, unwanted by his successor who had the resources and remit to go even bigger. If I were to blame him for anything it would be not making an impression back on loan at Bolton.

But for all my criticism of McKay, if you want to find me a similar highly public published article that is as personally critical of him and singles him out in the same way then I'll happily say that is out of order too.

What I find off though is that Clough and McKay have two very similar overall forest records-

Clough- P 25, 4 goals
McKay- P26, 5 goals

But you have deliberately tried to skew those records by arbitrarily only including last season, even though Clough played only half the games of McKay.

Their total records are far more comparable.
 
It wasn't deliberate skewing, last season was the only full season for both and when you compare something you always try to do like for like.

I'm not a fan of the article, and I was always open to finding a way for Clough to work.as I saw ability but last year he was truly awful.

It just amused me that you were so critical of one and supportive of the other when both objectively and subjectivity MacKay was streets ahead of him last season.
 
Calvin Plummer said:
It wasn't deliberate skewing, last season was the only full season for both and when you compare something you always try to do like for like.

I'm not a fan of the article, and I was always open to finding a way for Clough to work.as I saw ability but last year he was truly awful.

It just amused me that you were so critical of one and supportive of the other when both objectively and subjectivity MacKay was streets ahead of him last season.
Click to expand...

Well, they both did 12 months playing at forest so it's only fair to compare 12 months for each and they are remarkably similar, although I suspect McKay would win easily on assists- hence why he is at Swansea and Clough is struggling for a club.

The contradiction is no different for you- you have supported one player and not another in similar circumstances. As always it comes down to preference. I felt there was something a lot more honest about Clough, you felt differently. Fair enough.

We both agree the article is in poor taste I think
 
He has raw ability and clearly his best game is when confident and playing with freedom. He just needs to find the right team and can make it at this level eventually Id say.
As for the article, it sounded a bit personal didnt it(?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.