Nottingham Forest (H) | PL | Post Match Thread

This morning, I watched the MOTD highlights of the games except ours, and Arsenal. There was some great football. Villa and Chelsea gave everything and Chelsea were hugely impressive with Pedro and Palmer playing some great football. Newcastle won with 10 men for 45 mins. And there's City trying to eke out a win and play it around Forest. City do tend to manage games but Forest are not a great side. It's the title run-in. This is the time to go full bore. Keeping 50% back, presumably for battles to come, was a mistake. We have a big squad now so we can go 100% and rotate. That was on Pep. We thought Arsenal might bottle it, but once again Pep tried to be too clever.

I don't think we'll come back from this in the league. Arsenal can now play with freedom. It's theirs to lose now.

I would take it more gracefully had we lost putting everything on the line but this was a game when Pep was not focused on the 3 points but on keeping something back for Newcastle and Real Madrid.
 
That result has been coming for a while in all honesty. We've not been playing well and sneaking through.

We are so slow, boring and predictable at the moment. Is it any wonder the atmosphere is non existant?
Haaland is getting stick, but the amount of times I see him making the runs, only to have to put the brakes on because we go for a sideways or backwards pass rather than playing him through is ridiculous. Semenyo a couple of times also last night was totally ignored.

The second half drop offs are crazy. Just read on BBC if matches finished at HT we'd be 13pts clear, yet find ourselves 7 behind! I think I worked out we hadn't scored a home 2nd half goal in the league since before Christmas until last night.

Never thought we would challenge this season if I'm honest, but to get where we have and throw it away is annoying.

Big changes again in the summer. Stones, Ake, Kova, Bernardo I think we know are almost certainly going. Wouldn't be surprised at a couple from Rodri, Foden, Marmoush either. Midfield is going to need a massive overhaul.
 
ysmsa said:
I love this, absolutely spot on.
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Damanino said:
title is gone but try to finish as close as we can.

we cannot control games, if opponent shit enough to miss their chances we win otherwise we dont.
we couldnt hold onto first half leads vs Chelsea, Brighton, Spurs, Forest and that just since January. 4 points instead of 12. Arse won all of these specific fixtures of course with 11-3 GD with 4 wins. we had 5-5 GD with 4 draws.

how you react to a bad result is crucial.
we had a kind of acceptable Sunderland 0-0 result (unbeaten at home and kind of surprise side by that point), we reacted with a draw vs Chelsea letting them back in 93rd min. to that we reacted with a home draw vs Brighton. and then we reacted to that with that derby loss that could have been like 5-0 loss due to tiny offsides, hitting the post twice and some Donnarumma huge saves kept it 2-0 only vs a side was on track to finish 9th at that point Carrick just jumping in and washing the floor with Pep, how the fuck...

Arsenal now had a kind of OK draw away to Brentford who picked up great form, and then the real shit Wolves draw result, perfect fixtures after that for them to fucking bottle it.
Spurs away
Chelsea home
Brighton away

how they reacted? 9 points. if Arteta looks back on the season this set of 9 points is what made them coupled with our awful Forest result which was a must win.

their hardest fixtures are now out of the picture. one more left at Etihad. if they get a draw which is not rocket science this season for sides as we seen it, then they win it by 8-9 points rather 6-7. wont matter too much.
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The reality is we are not good enough to win it unless it be handed to us gift wrapped. That performanve against the rags was truely awful and for that shit performance alone we don't deserve it. Hopefully we can at least win the final coming up and take something from the season to build upon.
 
Why aren’t we playing with width? Semenyo down one wing someone on the other, get Ait Nouri overlapping and swinging those balls in, but no fucking go back inside again and again, or vary it and put the ball over the top for Haaland to run onto. Something needs to change because it’s shite and it’s a good job the rest of the league are shit.
 
Blue Maverick said:
Why aren’t we playing with width? Semenyo down one wing someone on the other, get Ait Nouri overlapping and swinging those balls in, but no fucking go back inside again and again, or vary it and put the ball over the top for Haaland to run onto. Something needs to change because it’s shite and it’s a good job the rest of the league are shit.
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Turgid and boring , impossible to get emotionally invested when we amble about . Majority of them need a rocket up the arse .
 
Greenandblue said:
Our own fault. Dicked around with sideways passes for 25 minutes when ahead, as opposed to going for the third. We did the same at Spurs. Our own fault.
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This. It’s absolutely appalling game management from Pep. It wasn’t really the best tactic at the start of the season but it’s borderline negligent to persist with it so late into a season where it’s never worked.

I knew we were in trouble when Pep made a comment about the amount of passes we played at Leeds and still won.

We used to kill teams, 4/5/6/7 goals. Now we get 1 or 2 and try and see a game out. It’s boring, it’s shit and it doesn’t work because we don’t have enough of those type of ball retaining players anymore.
 
skillman said:
What annoys me about the penalty is that those are usually just given. Players have bought contact for years on them and there’s not been a change in stance/ruling on whether that makes it a pen or not.

If there’s contact, it’s a penalty. And there was.

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I've not watched any of it back, but it looked a pen from where I am in East L3. However, the fact Haaland (or anybody else) wasn't going absolutely mad about it and just got up and got on with it made me doubt it was.
 
Doc_Testosterone said:
Haaland one is 100% penalty. Sels takes out his right foot regardless of the level of contact. This will be given 99/100 times in the PL. Today they decided that a 3-1 would have killed the game and instead wanted a show.
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It’s mad isn’t it? Those penalty decisions are black and white - if there’s contact, it’s a penalty - yet somehow they’ve been allowed to turn grey through the use of VAR.
 
bg1968 said:
Maybe as fans we underestimated Forest , they have a solid defence and some quality in midfield , they are in a false position , if it wasnt for their dickhead owner changing managers every few weeks they would much further up the league, but agree we cant afford to concede leads especially at home.
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Dropped points are dropped points but those ones lost at home from a leading position may ultimately cost us. Very frustrating.
 
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M Gaudino said:
my concern with foden is that hes burnt out after 7-8 seasons that hes packed into his career already and that his peak was two years ago.

Sterling, who has a similar physique, peaked in 2018-2019 when he was about 24 snd has plummeted in form since then. and we are now on the downslide with Phil.

same thing happened to Rooney - after starting very young his peak was around 2009-2011, aged 24/25.
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Yes, very possibly pal. I know Pep tried to hold him back when he burst onto the scene and did do to a degree, but the sheer amount of games we've played as a club really hasnt helped him. That said,last night he looked like a pub player winging it.
 
skillman said:
What annoys me about the penalty is that those are usually just given. Players have bought contact for years on them and there’s not been a change in stance/ruling on whether that makes it a pen or not.

If there’s contact, it’s a penalty. And there was.

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How often has a slight touch on a trailing leg been given? It was described by one pundit as a "coming together" so not a penalty. In the same way late tackles are not a foul? Sels commited a late tackle that got the man not the ball.
 
Disappointed

It feels like a loss but two very good goals for forest

It was a penalty as gk plays the player and not the ball

Ref seemed to be waiting for advice through his ear piece

Phil is not the player he once was and he doesn’t warrant a starting spot

We also missed O’Reilly next to Rodri big time
 
Master-Lotus said:
Forgot to mention that I actually feel bad for Semenyo. He played incredibly well today especially considering the Norwegian plank made everything more difficult for him.
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I thought Semenyo was poor ..granted he scored a goal but did nothing else.
Erling is making some good runs but no fucker passes it to him..
 
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