Mr Chappers

Good break for some ground-hopping…

GT has had just a handful of games at L2, and is thrown into a struggling Championship team, with no support on too many occasions. Pring has little experience, Atkinson was in National League two seasons ago, Vyner has been around a while but struggling at this level. Same with Bakinson, HNM is still young and not yet lived up to the hype consistently. All still learning, the experience mostly in the forwards, all struggling with 3 games a week, playing in a side lacking confidence. Nothing much on the bench, if you exclude one inconsistent expensive signing who is clearly out of favour.

Let’s be honest, who looked at our midfield line up against Coventry and thought it would be competitive defensively at Championship level? Add to that two very inexperienced full backs and double cover often being absent. With so many young (and old) players, many on their third game in a week due to lack of options, hardly surprising that they tired late on. In the unlikely event of James, Williams and King being fit together, the midfield would look a lot better, guide the younger players and might paper over the other cracks.

Personally, I would prefer a young up and coming manager rather than looking backwards.

Painful, but just far too many inexperienced players, and horribly unbalanced. Thought we kept our shape well first half and frustrated Cov, second half they had worked us out. We have a number of players, both young and old, who need a rest, but the cupboard is bare.

Tanner & Atkinson look promising, but caught out a lot defensively, James looks shattered (understandably), Baker & Weimann bit of a stretch. King & Simpson have not really been a success.

And Nigel’s signings are?

Pretty accurate report, full backs are both suspect, often caught in no mans land as alleged wing backs, then once James went off we had no direction in midfield. Two young players totally overwhelmed. Trouble is that we have no options, down to bare bones and it’s clear that COD and KP are out of favour.

We tried that by appointing DH with two good coaches to support him. Fans were in uproar because the groupthink was ‘experienced manager’ and even a huge injury list was no excuse.

0-0, Dover look the better team, but Yate doing OK

If you look at his statistical record, apart from his spells at Leicester, it’s very ordinary.

A comparison between the stats of ‘failure’ Holden and ‘saviour’ Pearson is interesting. Obviously you can’t just judge on stats, but equally, you can’t judge on blind optimism alone. The summer signings were a very mixed bag, worryingly very ‘old mates’, and leaving us desperately short of forward options. What I found most interesting was that under Holden, the Forum group-think was excellent squad, poor manager. Then it changed to rubbish squad, good manager. You have to objective, if things don’t improve by Christmas, think of accepting things haven’t worked out, just like Forest and Hughton didn’t work out. Time will tell….

McCarthy, Hughton, Pearson. Maybe experience is an over-rated quality.

Cheers Ole, not a great performance again. If this carries on, definitely a chance of joining the relegation battle, and NP’s position will be under scrutiny. So far, no signs of improvement since he joined.

Good old City fans, decide on a scapegoat and all join in. No problem with him personally, decent player who will only get better with more games.

Just proves that there is no magic formula when choosing a manager. Main criticism I hear from a Forest fan is that the football under Hughton was very dull and negative.

So do I take it that a strategy of ditching the Academy and buying in journeymen is proposed? The only way we can afford to challenge consistently is by player development, which requires a degree of patience, especially after a number of very poor purchases and Covid, giving us zero income, and making it harder to shift players off the wage bill.

One very small point... We are an island ?

I don’t fundamentally disagree, but I think the latest virus has changed things a lot. The problem with vaccine speed is not the bodies, it’s how fast the batches of vaccine can be produced and tested, plus a rumoured shortage of the vials. And don’t forget the two doses, I think it’s going to be a very long job and it worries me that the focus is on big numbers, rather than getting it right. We shall see, I’d rather it was sooner, but suspect restrictions will be around for quite a while.

Personally, I think Christmas is highly optimistic. The virus is going nowhere, and vaccines will just be one method of control and reducing the impact. The scientists are suggesting we may need lockdowns next winter and really need to get our T&T functioning as something more than a Corporate gravy train. My guess is no return this season, reduced capacity 21/22, and see where we are then. Pessimistic, but being a pessimist means that you are rarely disappointed. I do hope that you are right and I am wrong though.