eighteensixtyfive

Coventry City 1-0 Nottingham Forest: has the bubble burst?

So much to report upon…

As we already know, Forest didn’t sign anyone in the transfer window (Just Got Back has expressed this far more eloquently than I could, before reporting on last night’s match against Coventry), and Billy had a rant about the lack of signings, especially the failure to tie up Raddy “Radi” Majewski. And worse than that, we have started to lose games, when only a couple of weeks ago, we felt like we would win every … single … match … we … play.

Has the bubble burst? I hate to say it, but possibly:

• Billy playing mind games with his superiors in the media suggests that he is frustrated, and a frustrated manager may not stick around for long.
• We have the perennial “square pegs in round holes” situation, a weaker squad than we had three weeks ago, and Billy’s apparent willingness to tinker with the balance of the team to make a political point.
• Chris Cohen was apparently decent at left-back last night, but he has driven our midfield for the last four to six weeks, and with Tys and G-Man McCleary apparently out of favour/form, he leaves a gaping hole on the wing that is, unfortunately, not the same shape or size as Joe Garner.
• The players are starting to look tired, particularly Paul McKenna, and against Sheffield Wednesday, there were indications that, having been beaten into submission at D*rby, they have got the fear.
• The reason why our players are good, but not necessarily great, is that some of them are either brilliant, or rubbish: Moose, Earnie, Ando, McKenna, Garner, Goldie, even Dex – all of them either make an amazing contribution or look like rabbits in the headlights. McKenna and Moose, in particular, have really flattered to deceive in the last week or two. Our form since October was usually about the team playing greater than the sum of its parts, but all the proverbial cogs do need to be working for the machine to function*

What does this all mean? Firstly, that I am probably feeling unnecessarily negative after a hard week and a half for the Reds; secondly, that it is worth remembering that only two or three months ago, we were all saying that upper mid-table would be a victory this season, and even Billy was saying only a couple of weeks ago that promotion in one season is too much; all is not lost, as we are still only four points from the top of the table, and the play-offs would hardly be a disaster… Finally, remember that there is always the emergency loan market (ahem)!

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In other news, Amy Fearn coming on as a supersub referee last night was the first time a woman has officiated a League match. Our luck against Sheffield Wednesday has been recognised (especially as both Billy and Alan Irvine admitted that it shouldn’t have been a penalty), but nonetheless, Dex-On-Fire took his chance and ended up in the Football League Team of the Week (NB this link opens as a PDF). Finally, Radi Raddy Majewski’s thunderbolt against Derby has been nominated as one of the top 20 goals of 2009 in the Football League – vote for it here!

* Sorry if I am mixing my metaphors here!

Tags: alan irvine, amy fearn, billy davies, chris cohen, coventry city, dexter blackstock, Guy Moussi, joe garner, just got back, paul mckenna, radoslaw majewski, sheffield wednesday   Posted in General

Trouble from the rumble at Pride Park…

Nigel Clough has denied any wrongdoing following on from the handbags at the end of Saturday’s match, and appears to be asking for leniency as it is a local derby (not sure that this is an argument that will curry any favour with the FA). However, Billy Davies has continued with his claims and made an official complaint (involving lawyers) against Sir Brian’s son. I saw some footage on East Midlands Today, and while it wouldn’t stand up in a court of law, it doesn’t look too clever on Nigel’s part (I have had a look but cannot find the footage online – sorry)…

In the meantime, Garry Birtles has a grumble about Forest not adding any players to the squad (no, not even a left-back), while there are vague rumours circulating that Nigel Doughty may have had enough of January inactivity and will “restructure” the acquisitions panel.

Finally, wee Billy and Chris Cohen are nominated for Manager and Player of the Month for January – results announced on Saturday.

Tags: billy davies, chris cohen, derby county, garry birtles, nigel clough, nigel doughty, nottingham forest   Posted in General

“There’s a lot of poison in and around this fixture…” Naughty Nigel bundles over Billy and faces FA investigation

Well, we cannot ignore this one can we?

I was just about to post some thoughts on the match, but got sidetracked by Billy accusing Nigel Clough of assaulting him during Saturday’s match:

“I told him I wouldn’t have minded him doing it to my face but to do it when my back was turned was cowardly,” an incensed Davies said. “That’s why I never shook his hand at the end. I said to him on the touchline he was out of order because when I was in the middle of that scrum he came from behind and kneed me in the back of the leg. I felt the blow on the back of my right leg and it was deliberate.

“He tried to claim it was an accident but he knows, as well as I know, that it was no accident. He was trying to be clever and he did exactly what he was trying to do, but to do it behind my back was a bit cowardly and that was my disappointment.”

The FA are to investigate, and Nigel has refused to comment. Amazing stuff…

On the match itself, I was otherwise engaged so couldn’t even listen in, but I am going to be honest and agree with Rahoul; I had a gut feeling that this might have been the one that got away. Put simply, I think it meant more to Derby this time, they needed a result to boost morale, and when you are having a disappointing time, you naturally focus upon games like this.

That’s not to say that I don’t mind losing to Derby, of course I do, and I am terribly disappointed that the Reds never really got going on the day. However, if this is the pinnacle of Derby’s season (as Robbie Savage’s comments and the DVD release suggest), and they only end up scraping safety (or worse), then more fool them. But I won’t be crying over this one if we end up in the top two, or in the play-offs (even if we don’t go up).

I certainly hope that the noises from the dressing room about learning from the experience hold true (we were always going to get complacent at some stage), and I found it interesting that Billy said (in the audio link) that he picked the wrong team (whether that is an admission of culpability or trying to protect the players is another matter).

Let’s look at the bigger picture, we have been THE best team in the country recently, and it would take a dramatic loss of form for us not to be one of the top three or four teams in the division over the course of the season. I was Mr Cynical for a long time, but it is hard not to be so confident when you have watched this team over the last few months…

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In other news, it comes as no surprise that we haven’t signed Victor Moses, who has gone to Wigan; unfortunately there are rumours that Nicky Shorey will also be staying in the Premier League, with Fulham keen to take him on loan.

Tags: billy davies, derby county, fulham fc, nicky shorey, nigel clough, nottingham forest, paul mckenna, robbie savage, victor moses, wigan athletic   Posted in General, News

What’s a winger anyway?

GeriRed asked (in the comments) why William Davies keeps playing Cohen (left-footed) on the right and Anderson (right-footed) on the left, when you’d expect them to be the other way around.

Well I’m just a punter who bangs on about tactics without knowing what I’m on about; but in my (ill thought out) opinion, there are good reasons.

In the “olden” days, a winger had two jobs.

The first is obvious: cross it. Wing it, cross it, head it and in was the way. It was English football. An essential skill here was running at the full-back, taking it outside, and then getting your foot around the ball to put in the cross.

The second is slightly more subtle: making space. When your winger has the ball near the touchline, the defence has to move across to cover; leaving space, either on the other wing or for a central midfielder to slip free of his marker.

With the way the game has changed, that first job is much less important than it used to be. Alan Shearer is the last striker I can think of who played that way, with both Blackburn and Newcastle using out and out wingers to get the ball to him.

Instead, today, the second job is much more important.

That’s why, when Paul Hart failed to replace Jim Brennan, his diamond formation suffered – no width (in this case, from the advancing full-backs) meant no space for the attackers.

That’s why, against Reading yesterday, Ando wasn’t actually taking on the full-back and trying to go outside him. Instead he and Cohen were there to stretch the defence, to draw the defenders out of position and make space for Madge, or Gunter and Shorey to run into.

And as they don’t need to go outside their man, as they don’t need to push a cross in from the byline, the fact that they’re left or right footed becomes much less important.

However, there is another reason for the switch that is much more important than crossing and making space. Nowadays, there is another job that wingers are required to do. That is defend.

In the olden days the full-back was on his own when the winger ran at him. Today, we expect the opposing winger to have at least two tracking him. And normally that’s the full-back and our winger.

In our side at the moment, we have Gunter and Shorey (alas no more) at full-back. Of the two I would say Gunter’s real strength is bombing forwards, while Shorey is much more content to advance more slowly. This means that, when the attack breaks down, we have a massive gap on the right hand side.

And ultimately, this is why Cohen is playing on the right (and also why Tyson isn’t making the team). While both Cohen and Ando track back, Cohen is that bit better in the tackle than Ando. So if Gunter is caught, Chris can act as his replacement.

But then again, I’m just second-guessing WMD – he’s the tactical genius, unlike me.

Tags: alan shearer, billy davies, chris cohen, chris gunter, jim brennan, nicky shorey, Paul Anderson, paul hart, reading, tactics   Posted in General

William McIntosh Davies

I finally got round to watching “The Damned United” the other day.

There was one point in the film where Sam Longson (chairman of Derby County) said that the hierarchy at a football club was “chairman, directors, players, fans and at the bottom the manager”.

It’s no secret that I was pretty ambivalent about Billy Davies coming on board; I thought he had been shafted by the Sheep’s board, but the thought of playing it long to Howard, diving and time-wasting didn’t appeal either. And as for my brother …

But our current run of success (I write this having returned from the pub watching us demolish West Brom) is entirely down to William McIntosh Davies.

A few years back, Paul Hart took us to the playoffs with a team that was jam-packed with talent. The enigmatic Marlon Harewood (I still love you Marlon), David “dodgy knees” Johnson, Andy Reid (my brother’s favourite), Michael Dawson (my favourite); all fantastic players. And the diamond formation with Scimeca acting as defensive cover and Brennan and Louis-Jean providing the width was awesome.

But I think Hart was lucky. No injuries that season. The diamond relied upon Scimeca offering cover and the full-backs providing width. I think we lost that play-off game because Hart chose Thompson above Hjelde (Hjelde may have had his faults but we wouldn’t have conceded four goals with him in the back four). And when he lost Brennan and Scimeca, Hart didn’t know how to change the formation to fit with the players at hand.

Things are different with Billy. This is a manager who has built upon Colin Calderwood’s “group” and fostered an amazing team spirit. Just look at how the players rally round each other at every opportunity. But more importantly, look at his tactics. Every substitution is calculated. Every time Cohen and Ando swap wings, you can see why. When he has a go at the fans, he knows what he is doing. I’m not convinced I’d want to go for a pint with the man – but John McGovern also said he wouldn’t want to go for a pint with Mr Clough. I think Billy’s team has less talent than Hart’s side (for the record, I think that only Earnie and Madge that are truly gifted, the rest are “just” talented), but his side is better.

There’s no denying that Mr Davies is really good at his job and our current run is down to him. It’s just a shame that the manager is simultaneously the most important man at the club and the first to be fired when things go wrong.

Posted in General

Christmas cheer and a Happy New Year?!

Greetings from afar and apologies for the lack of updates – as you can imagine Christmas is a funny time of year to be trying to post on t’internet.

Having listened to most of the Watford match, I think we will settle for a point, especially with Nicky Shorey pretending the ball hit his face (not sure that it is the Forest way, but I suppose these things even themselves out). Coventry today, and this should surely see us extend the increasingly impressive unbeaten run (I hope I haven’t just cursed it).

It is still unclear whether Wes Morgan will be back as tonsilitis can be quite debilitating, but Messrs Earnshaw and Majewski will be hoping for recalls to the “home” lineup.

Off the pitch, captain Paul McKenna (I managed to catch the second half of the Preston match on TV, what an excellent performance by the skipper) says that hard work makes the difference, while there must be something right when a keeper as good as Paul Smith signs a contract extension even though he is unlikely to be anything other than first-choice custodian (a decision that pleases Billy Davies).

Let’s hope for a win this afternoon and I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all of you, and thank you for your support in 2009.

Tags: coventry city, nicky shorey, paul mckenna, paul smith, preston north end, radoslaw majewski, Robert Earnshaw, watford, wes morgan   Posted in General

An evening with Billy Davies (updated)

I was unable to attend this but there is an excellent summary at the Lost that Loving Feeling forums.

I particularly like his explanation of the “11-men in the box when defending a corner” (don’t expect it to change any time soon), what he thinks about promotion (we’re building a pot of cash for survival when we get there) and what he really thinks about Derby (”fuck ‘em”).

UPDATE: More on what sounded like a fantastic night at Lost that Loving Feeling.

Tags: billy davies, the approach   Posted in General

Forest on the BBC: news roundup

Following a fairly successful appearance on BBC2 yesterday (doesn’t Gabby Logan look a bit like a lion?), the nation’s favourite broadcaster has offered us some tasty reaction to the Cardiff v Forest match.

Firstly, an audio interview with Lewis and Chrissy Cohen, and a few words from Billy lamenting the inability to take chances and the non-award of the penalty. A subsequent article allows Billy to continue to avoid talking about promotion and extol the virtues of a mid-table finish (yes please!).

Finally, BBC Online’s Football League man Paul Fletcher reviews the match and both teams’ promotion chances in his blog. He is certainly a better pundit than Messrs Claridge and Savage.

Tags: billy davies, Cardiff City, chris cohen, gabby logan, lewis mcgugan, nottingham forest   Posted in General

Forest v County: the real local derby?

I was recently contacted by Joris from the Dutch football site Doing the 116. He wanted to know a little bit about the rivalry between us and our stripey neighbours from across the river. He was obviously aware that the real rivalry for most Reds lies with the woolly ones, but was fascinated by the history of two such old clubs. You can view the article here, but as it is in Dutch, you may prefer the Google translation.

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Tags: derby county, doing the 116, facebook, nottingham forest, notts county   Posted in General

Ipswich away: news roundup

I couldn’t face listening to the game on the (much-improved) Forest Player, so here’s a quick roundup of reaction to last night’s draw – a game played without Nathan Tyson or Radoslaw Majewski.

The best place to find out about the Ipswich match is the ever-excellent Through the Seasons Before Us – who also kept up a full Twitter commentary during the game.

The Mail singles out Rob Earnshaw for praise and concentrates on the pressure laid on the shoulders of Roy Keane, who has now matched Bobby Robson in going eight games without a win.

Earnshaw himself wants to start – and given the type of player he is, I completely agree that he could do with a decent run in the side. I’m not so sure Billy thinks the same way though.

Davies does, however, think that we are becoming hard to beat – which is the pre-requisite for playing decent football later in the season. And on this count I totally agree – stop conceding, then worry about the pretty stuff, is the way to build a side.

Tags: billy davies, bobby robson, ipswich town, nathan tyson, nffcblog, radoslaw majewski, rob earnshaw, roy keane   Posted in General