So we beat Brentford, beat Southampton and won in Europe again to make it three wins on the trot. Can we make it four?
Just as it frankly amazes me that we’re sixth in the league, given our recent form, it amazes me even more that Forest are actually a place higher. I’m sure that says something about the Premier league this season, but I’m not sure what. It’s probably that most teams have been pretty rubbish.
I really ought to be confident about this game, but I’m not quite there yet. I know results show that we look like we’ve turned the corner and got through a rough patch, yet I have a feeling that the Champion’s league is taking more and more out of the squad. We so badly need to automatically qualify and by-pass that next stage so the lads have a couple of months away from Europe, but then of course, we might be fighting on the FA cup front.
Squad news and Ollie Watkins will have a late assessment. I’m not sure it matters much, because I think Unai will start Jhon Duran, who surely deserves a start? It would however be nice to see Ollie on the bench if we require an option. Jacob Ramsey and Leon Bailey’s fitness hasn’t been updated, so the assumption is nothing has changed and they won’t feature.
Forest don’t have many problems, but Alex Moreno isn’t eligible, which is probably a bit of a loss for them, as he’s apparently been very good, while Ibrahim Sangare and Danilo are both long term injured.
Forest have a very similar record to us this season. They’re on the same points, but have a better goal difference. Not much, but they concede less and score more at the same time. Given that we’ve conceded 23 in 15 games, it’s really not hard to see where our problem lies. It’s in the defence and we need a right back so Konsa can return to by far his best position. But we’ve been saying that for ages and I have a feeling it won’t be addressed in the upcoming window either. Given our position in the CL and even the Prem, considering we’ve been so poor, it’s hard to criticise Emery though, I suppose.
I certainly didn’t expect us to be doing so well in Europe.
All this begs the question of if we don’t buy a right back, what position will be strengthened? Not long until we find out, but you’d expect we’ll get at least one player in.
This seems to me to be a game all about strikers. Duran is going to start, it’s just been confirmed, as is Mings, who will surely be wanted in trying to keep a lid on Chris Wood, who’s on a roll.
This game looks drawish to me and I’m going for a 1-1, which I’d be okay with.
UTV!
“Clapped out? See if Villa are interested.” Grealish is another player touted this week.
Sorry but Jack has been utterly ruined by Pep. City can reshape and take a breather when the ball is passed to Jack on the left wing. Jack goes through the same routine every time before passing the ball backwards to the full back and City can build again.
100 million for that – a brilliant piece of business by Villa! Jack used to take players on. He would lose the ball sometimes, a cardinal offence in Pep’s book, but he would get through the banked defences often enough to set up scoring chances. Now he has had the nerve extracted.
Utterly.
Napoli – 40 million euros for Duran, apparently. That gets you his head (hair is included). Multiply by 3 and we can MAYBE start to THINK about WHETHER to open negotiations for the rest of him. Someone’s having a laugh.