1 Pickford 7/10
Made some good saves, by a long way the last position on the pitch that needs any attention but when you look at some of his kicking, decisions on when to release the ball and low-level creep of bookings(although this one was a real doozy of ref wankiness - Pickford kicked the ball over to the corner taker for Forest, so he was both getting the game moving and accepting the decision or he would have put it somewhere else. Literally any other reaction would have been more dissentful or liable to slow the game down) do suggest his game is starting to fray a little bit as a result of the constant pressure, never having a quiet or easy game and just weightiness of the whole current vibe. To make the first (of what will be a staggering amount if I stick to doing this at all) comparison to early 90s Evertonia - quite a few Southall in 1992 ish elements to his situation. In a tiny sense maybe I did see something new re him then.
2 Young 5/10
Just a total nonsense that of our last 35 league games, a 39 year old converted winger has started 27 of them at fullback, come on in 4, missed 2 through suspension and only been not used in 2. He was fine here at a push (took the only decent corner of the day which I thought Branthwaite should have scored from) but is old, rigid and tired easily, made fouls and had to be taken off. As everyone could have foretold pre-match.
3 Mykolenko 2/10
I have some time for him and there have been times where it looked as though he was adding things to his game and getting up to the levels required. He tries and he turned up for us a lot more than some over the period he's been here. But this display was an atrocity, at fault for the second goal and his choices going forward almost looked designed to act as crowd-fume bait. A remarkable statement on how weve run things that he has been our unchallenged , 'lock' pick in an important position for us for 3 years now. No assists in that time at all is astonishing given Doucoure and a biggish number 9 will have been there for 90% of those outings. Had a (possibly unfair) post-event fewmmm at him when seeing Hall for Newcastle put a perfectly normal cross for Isak at Utd the next day, good play but something you'd think would be do-able once in 3 years.
5 Tarkowski 7/10
Weirdly thought he was very good here despite us losing, him getting booked and his man (Wood) scoring and assisting. Had a really admirable attitude and used the ball well and more decisively than most.
6 Branthwaite 6/10
Probably about fully fit now and did nothing wrong other than a booking but felt he looked a bit fed up at our plight in the second half, although that didn't stop him trying to go forward and change the situation.
Both good examples of the type of player they are and both low-key good work by Thelwell to bring in for little outlay, both had good games recently in the up against it games - but again anyone with any clue could have told you they would be massively less effective in this game/scenario and unless things went perfectly would need to be changed before the end of the day, which we saw when Gueye got booked and was withdrawn with Doucoure dropping back.
Good grief. Now, this is where I think it fits into the overall situation to give some leeway - he is here as an option because we have had historically tiny amount of money to spend and we've finagled a way to get a viable option in for 2 seasons with no real outlay. He's not really in the first choice XI if everyone's available, but came in due to injury and did his bit in 3 good results. The only real alternative (Lindstrom) is the dictionary definition of underwhelming - plus is also here for the reasons just stated, with less relevant experience. So it was not a 'how has he picked him?!?' situation.
Again just so tiresome. Did a job in other games, no-one banging down the door to take his place, but just not the right man for the day and once more if you'd polled 35,000 people going into it and got a view on how he'd go "no impact, no goal threat, shuffled around later on" would have taken 87% of the vote.
Of course the position that does tradionally have the mildest degree of rotation, puzzlingly really to me, is the centre forward. People seem quite excited about Broja but I don't fancy him personally and him not getting kick for half a season at Fulham with Silva preferring Jimenez and Muniz (neither of who are amazing) worries me if we're going to be pinning too many hopes on him. Was reasonably lively in the middle of the first half but disappeared completely and much as I dislike a striker going off when trailing, it made sense to withdraw him.
His performance against Chelsea was the most impressed I've been with him by a long way, then off the back of a class goal at City felt like it was setting him up for good game in this but he actually seemed to have a bit of a lack of confidence at times and Aina dealt with him quite easily. Got himself into one great position in the first half and should have done better with what was the only 'chance' that will stick in my mind from the game.
Calvert Lewin & Beto both got horrid service, with the possession we had and the positions wide players got the ball, should be inconceivable we didn't give them some clear chances in the air but we didnt. Beto gets a small tick from me for having an effort on target, chasing back to win the ball at one point, and most of all having the wherewithal to look to do a short/quick corner when behind with time running out BECAUSE ALL COMMON SENSE POINTED TO DOING SO but no-one else seemed capable of actually engaging their brain.
Patterson A tiny positive as he looked fit, willing to get forward and not a liability going backwards
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Dyche
By being not actively, constantly, aggressively antagonistic to every aspect of him I have ended up in probably the top 1% of our fans in terms of warmth to him.
Overall, there are still more positives to what he's done than most will admit. Even lately, not many managers would have been able to pick up the pieces after the Utd game and get 4 good results on the bounce. Forest were a decent team and we weren't absolutely hideous here.
But fucking hell, you have to earn your money by doing things and being proactive at times - and as I've hammered the point on already, how this played out was on the cards, totally foreseeable and it was lazy bordering on dereliction of duty if being harsh to just go with it anyway and hope for the best. You are allowed as a manager to get ahead of things and set a tone.
The centre-midfield as I've said you probably did have to go with even knowing it wasn't suited to the game. On balance giving Broja a go up top was the move, even if I was less into it than most. But any of:
- Patterson in at right back
- Young left back
- Keane or O'Brien in and Brathwaite left back
- 3 at the back
- Ndiaye moving to right or behind the striker
- Thinking a step forward and rotating Lindstrom in before Harrison made it un-not-doable
- Beto playing wide
- Using Armstrong
- 2 up front
Could have been thought about and are the type of things managers with a bit of instinct, feel for the crowd, awareness that the opposition knowing exactly what the expect is a big negative, or ability/authority to back a hunch could have considered.
A lot of my frustration and disillusionment with us is actually with the wider game in this current set-up and not sure there are many managers who don't just have one template/plan and go with it - but why not?
I really miss seeing us do something to win the match in front of us in and of itself. If it works you don't have to then double-down on it for the foreseeable, in fact it would probably be a strength to not do so.
A really obscure example,at Norwich in 2004/05, Moyes (not a manager given to off the cuff variations nor one I am prone to eulogising) swapped Cahill to RW and Osman to right in behind Bent from kick off which both worked brilliantly and got us 2-0 up. We then let them back into it at 2-2 and he then actually reacts really quickly took both of them off, put Watson and Ferguson on, switched formation with a slight quirk that Ferguson plays behind Bent like sort of Sheringham~y, gets loads of the ball and then obviously they link up for the winner. Most of that never actually happened again but its surely what your job is and better for everyone to have done that and actively helped force the matter than do the default, toss a coin and hope it goes for us?
To finish on a positive probably at odds with everything above - I was oddly buoyed to see Forest look so decent. They're not doing anything that is beyond our ambitions or limits with a bit of investment. They haven't found mad players that we couldn't dream of getting (I think Elanga, Gibbs White, Anderson, Aina, Ward Prowse and Wood have all been linked/identified) and the style isn't full-on Philosophy Merchant stuff. If we were on their run I'd be really enjoying it, and maybe it isn't as unreachable or impossible to work towards as it feels when Lindstrom is hitting the first man or Doucoure is dragging their defender down for no reason a split second after you've shouted "don't foul!".
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