by Snowflake Royal »
20 Feb 2018 21:53
Very much under pressure second half with very little outlet. Aluko seems utterly devoid of confidence in creating anything, but actually did ok in the middle third IMO. Summed up by a beautiful piece of skill by Bacuna to beat his man down the right, only to then look confused and pass back to their keeper. Martin offered absolutely nothing and should have done more than just shoot straight at a couple of defenders when (I think) Kelly played him in with not a great ball tbf.
Gunter's inspid play was typified back on the right tonight. Falling over under miinimal contact to scam freekicks when he'd run down a blind alley under pressure rather than clear it early. Deciding not to try to win the ball and instead track his man (fine) then instantly leaving him the second there was a turnover, so when Forest immediately won it back he was nowhere near where he was supposed to be to do any defensive work. And of course Tomlin finds a bit of space attacking our box and buries it.
I thought Berg was pretty decent, if walking a tightrope at times. Kelly tidier than recently but as with all our forward play lacking real spark. McCleary started positively but faded. Richards looks like he doesn't have the legs for 90 minutes at this level yet, but fair play to him he kept at it. Looked like Stam moved Bacuna in to cover his tired legs and stop him doing so much running up and down the line. Good management. Barrow seemed pretty anonymous.
Quite surprised Edwards came on for Kelly... I guess maybe safety first to add a bit of strength in midfield, but I'd have much rather seen Bod on for Kelly, Martin, Richards or Aluko.
All in all very disappointing to fail to beat a very poor Forest side. It's all well and good trying to defend a lead, but you have to control the ball in the middle of the park and still carry a threat. You can't just defend wave after wave of (shit) attacking. It looked to me like confidence shot players rather than a managerial guidance though. We didn't lose, we're a point closer to safety. It'll do, but we still need to get something from at least one of the next two or three as we didn't get the win.
Stam likely to hang on in there for another game or three with that point and other results not being horrendous.