Football Preview: Nottingham Forest

Half Empty

We’re simply not very good now. We’ve lost Assombalonga until well after Christmas, and the only players we’re able to bring in are free ones. Five years ago Matt Mills would have been an excellent target; now, he’s a fantastic free signing but little more. Same goes for Jamie Ward. The re-appearance of Darius Henderson is indicative of the signing power we have. A player who was barely good enough for us two years ago is probably our summer marquee signing.

There’s too much pressure on Tyler Walker. His famous surname means that any accomplishment will always draw comparison with an incomparable father. The weight of expectation for sons of legendary players has always been great, and it feels like young Tyler may wind up with drooping shoulders. It was both disappointing and a mistake not to give him significantly more game time at the end of last season. Favouring the development of an Arsenal wonderkid (who showed nothing) over development of our own young talent means that he’s still green in a season where he may wind up carrying the entire team on those shoulders.

Does Fawaz have a clue? Sacking managers left, right and centre, not paying bills, and generally doing some pretty crazy things (if anyone saw that picture of him and Brian Clough, they must have had a little worry about Fawaz’s state of mind). More worrying is that he could just dump us at any moment. It’s Hobson’s choice, really. I don’t think we’re in great shape with him, but it could be worse without him. Whether through intent or incompetence, he’s presided over and steered us into a very bad situation.

It’s been said that QPR’s dire financial status means they will challenge FFP, hopefully freeing Forest from the straight-jacket. However, with the sale of overpriced youngster Rah££m St£rling generating £9m for them, QPR may no longer really need to, which means we’ll still be in the embargo wilderness for the foreseeable future.

Injuries happen every season, yet now more than ever we cannot replace an injured player. If we lose Reid and Cohen again then we’ll be in a relegation dogfight. If Antonio does one, we’ll be even more devoid of talent. Still, Abdoun has declared his availability for us this coming season.

 

Half Full

The return of some long-term injuries may be like the new signings the Football League have told us we can’t make. In anyone’s book, Andy Reid and Chris Cohen are players you’d want in your team. Unfortunately, neither has seen a full season for some time, and expectation that they’ll see a full one this year is pretty much non-existent. However, rumour has it that both should be fit and ready to start the season – meaning that, at least until the clocks change, we should have a pretty robust midfield.

The new kit looks like Spain’s shirt. While they may have fallen from their perch as the best team the world has ever seen, if we can mimic a mere 10% of their ability through wearing similar clobber we should be in with a shout of avoiding relegation.

Speaking of avoiding relegation, with Steve Cotterill’s Bristol City, Preston, and a Rotherham side that now contains a plethora of Forest cast-offs, there should be three sides worse than us this season. Hopefully.

We have an experienced goalkeeper in Dorus de Vries. Yes, Karlow is an excellent goalkeeper, but last season he was poor. It was clear he’d had his head turned by the bright Toon lights and too many episodes of Geordie Shore, too busy growing his Premier League barnet and practising tashing on with lasses to maintain form. Much talk of his replacement has been had, but it’s probably the strongest area we have at the moment.

Expectation is low. Very low. While we’ve been very guilty in the crowd of growing restless if we’re not ahead after twenty minutes, we may be in for a season – or start of the season, at least – where we’re audibly relieved to still be in the game after twenty minutes. Without the pressure of expectation, we may just allow the team and manager time to gel and get things right. Of course, a couple of wins will reset expectations to winning the Champions League in three years.

Nottingham Forest website