Nottingham Forest (A) - Sat 27th Dec, 12:30 | PL | Pre-Match Thread

[AliBobbyJ]

Anyone know if the team are in a Nottingham hotel overnight or on the coach early morning? It's only 2 hours.
Or (Lord, no) flying down?

 

[johnny crossan]

Anyone know if the team are in a Nottingham hotel overnight or on the coach early morning? It's only 2 hours.
Or (Lord, no) flying down?

they won't be travelling tomorrow - only 80 miles but a nightmare 4 hour road trip

 

[jimharri]

they won't be travelling tomorrow - only 80 miles but a nightmare 4 hour road trip

I went there once; early 80s (Tommy Caton winner IIRC). It did seem a very "round the houses" trip.

 

[Bonnie Blues Cat.]

I went there once; early 80s (Tommy Caton winner IIRC). It did seem a very "round the houses" trip.

Through the Peak District to Chesterfield,then M1 south straight to Notts.

Very straight forward.

 

[jamesha]

I think for this type of game we should be looking at starting one or two more fringe players rather than our strongest 11. I would maybe start Lewis instead of Bernado and maybe Ake instead of Gvardiol or O'Reilly.

Making a couple of changes is far better than starting a whole second team in early cup rounds and would help rest players as the season gets more intense.

 

[pavelsrnicek]

These are the type of games we eat up in title winning seasons. We regularly turned up, killed the crowd by dominating possession and controlled the game giving the home supporters nothing to cheer about. Should be a good test for us tomorrow as to whether we’re back. Some results this time of year can be a little odd but at our best we used to cruise through these fixtures.

We have a decent record against Dyche, though Forest have gone- win loss win loss win loss in their last 6 games so they will think they’re due a win tomorrow. Our recent record away to them is mixed- draw win loss so not sure what to expect.

We’ve had a slight rest so no excuses for fatigue tomorrow. If we’re on it and at our best we should win well. We’re in good form but need to perform tomorrow to see that continue.

 

[JGL07]

Bit odd City website saying NOT on UK TV, just checked it is on TNT, as others on here have said.

The 12:30 kick-off is a bit of a giveaway here.

 

[Eaststander1]

Anyone know if the team are in a Nottingham hotel overnight or on the coach early morning? It's only 2 hours.
Or (Lord, no) flying down?

City will already be there ..... in one hotel or another, probably the Belfry.

With it being an early kick off tomorrow they wouldn't risk travelling from Manchester on the day of the game, when anything could go wrong.

 

[VOOMER]

Two more games to go then .... he'll surely get booked in one of them .... I can see both Forest and Sunderland, both backed by noisy crowds, being more than prepared to 'mix it' with us.

By "mix it", do you mean kick us to bits, while aided by a one eyed referee?

 

[Eaststander1]

By "mix it", do you mean kick us to bits, while aided by a one eyed referee?

Lol, I just mean that both those sides at home will probably try to show us an aggressive approach to the games, and arrempt to 'get in our faces' from the word go ...... and especially with the vociferous support that both clubs appear to have .... they will know that if they 'stand off us', and let us play, we could dominate the game, and nullify their passionate support ... and neither Forest nor Sunderland will want that.

And of course , in that type of volatile atmosphere, it's gonna take strong and fair refereeing, as the visiting team often sees more players booked or sent off than the home side .... and you can never be sure what surprises VAR is gonna spring.

Forest have some good players, and we shouldn't make the mistake of taking them for granted just because of their lowly league position, Sean Dyche will want them to fight ....... and Sunderland have a collective and impressive team spirit that we didn't really see at the Etihad, but it HAS been there in home matches, as Newcastle found out the other week!

 

[ballon-]

Same starting 11 as last time.
3-1 to City.
Hopefully no injuries

 

[Gray]

I think for this type of game we should be looking at starting one or two more fringe players rather than our strongest 11. I would maybe start Lewis instead of Bernado and maybe Ake instead of Gvardiol or O'Reilly.

Making a couple of changes is far better than starting a whole second team in early cup rounds and would help rest players as the season gets more intense.

It's a league match!

 

[jamesha]

It's a league match!

I know it's a league match but we should not need to play our best 11 against bottom half teams. Rotating a couple of players allows the fringe players to get minutes in a strong team and allows those replaced to get some rest. If we stay in the cups we will have a lot of games to play and we cannot play the strongest 11 in each match.

 

[citytill1die84]

I know it's a league match but we should not need to play our best 11 against bottom half teams. Rotating a couple of players allows the fringe players to get minutes in a strong team and allows those replaced to get some rest. If we stay in the cups we will have a lot of games to play and we cannot play the strongest 11 in each match.

Strongest team possible, always. Get the game won then think about rotation. Its the Premier League there's no easy games as we well know.

Forest have also had some decent results of late and 12:30 KOs are horrible.

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

Anyone else on here remember going to the FA Cup game in 1978ish at the City ground.

It was postponed with fog, after we'd arrived after making that horrible journey back then.

So as we were on the official supporters coach, the driver asked us what to do next and then took us all to a pub for a few hours, and then back to Maine Road.

I'm sure I haven't dreamt that trip:-)

Anyroads tomorrow the kick off is horrible, but the same for them.

Hopefully we are up for it, we've had a few days off to prepare. C'mon you blue boys.

 

[Digsy's Dinner]

Strongest team possible, always. Get the game won then think about rotation. Its the Premier League there's no easy games as we well know.

Forest have also had some decent results of late and 12:30 KOs are horrible.

Agree. We've seen it before going into a game against a struggling side, underestimating it and getting beat. No easy games definitely shown with the likes of Arsenal struggling against Wolves, for example. Go out there, if we're 3/4 goals up (unlikely) maybe put some young guns out there, saying that we all know what happened at Fulham.

 

[AliBobbyJ]

City will already be there ..... in one hotel or another, probably the Belfry.

With it being an early kick off tomorrow they wouldn't risk travelling from Manchester on the day of the game, when anything could go wrong.

Reminds me of a game from long ago. I've posted about it before but am permanently fascinated by it. On Christmas Day in 1946 City with Frank Swift in the side played Plymouth Argyle at Maine Road then both teams traveled together down to Devon for the return match on Boxing Day. Every piece of it is full of history: two teams full of Englishmen (British, anyway), steam trains on Christmas night that would keep to timetable in a Britain just recovering from the war, a Socialist Labour Government doing its work, India about to awake to life and freedom as Nehru said.

 

[Stelea]

Strongest team. They have had a week off

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

I’m going for a resounding 3-0 win
to the Blueboys

 

[youngbob]

Hard to call. Dyche's record vs Pep is horrendous (P18 W0 D2 L16) but their league position is a bit false and they have players like Gibbs-White and Anderson who can hurt us.

Since Dyche came in their league record is P9 W4 D1 L4, which is a bit all over the place really. In recent games they've hammered Spurs and Liverpool but were comfortably dispatched by Everton.

If we turn up, we win. But turning up for 90 mins away from home hasn't come easy to us this season.