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Irons at Forest – the things we learned

Match verdict by Hughie Southon

Maybe I and one or two others are losing the plot but, given he is not injured, it’s a little tough working out how a marquee £40 million signing isn’t yet replacing Michail Antonio.

No penalty taker

Never mind, maybe his isn’t settled in well enough yet – sigh. At £40 million one might expect him to be!

That was one thing we didn’t learn today but there were several things  we did:

  • Lukasz Fabianski remains way out there as out No 1 keeper
  • Declan Rice is no penalty taker
  • Ben Johnson at central defence is a big problem 
  • and manager David Moyes remains incredibly predictable with his substitutions

On the positive side we also learned that making a signing which puts a pressure on Benny, via Cornet, we may see the player we bought for £30 million and that given a permanent role pushing forward Tomas Soucek could be back on the road again.

Beyond that it was all less than average today against a team with limited Premier League experienced players who  obviously lifted by the atmosphere may have deserved their win.

We were unlucky with the woodwork denying us along OF COURSE with a dreadful penalty which was never going anywhere than into Henderson’s arms.

We all know what is coming over the next few games and right now confidence is in short supply after only their second league attempt at the City Ground in 11 visits.

No time to panic but we are allowed to worry that the team which was given such a hammering by Moyes after the last game of the season remains much the same this time round.

Bizarre!

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

10 comments on “Irons at Forest – the things we learned

  1. At least the performance was better than last week. Cornet and Scamanca have to start on Thursday and we need to buy at least three players by Brighton.

    • One was City – one was Forest

      • I am aware of that.

      • I disagree, another day we would have (should have) scored three or four and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. That said I do find it odd that one of the best strikers in serie A is considered not yet up to speed/fit enough to warrant a start. ??
        But don’t forget Antonio was fouled from the start yesterday and got less than ten percent of decisions – the ref played his role in “Forest’s big day out” with aplomb!
        Seriously, I reckon two more (good) signings and some patience and we’ll be fine – probably better than last season…
        Of course we could always cash in on Dec in a year early in exchange for Broja and Gallagher (and maybe Pulasic) but that would be daft, wouldn’t it??

        • Hoolio, i think that’s a fair assessment of yesterday. The time for over reaction isn’t now. We lost against one of the best teams in the World first time out and yesterday we lost a game 9/10 times we would’ve got something from. I am a little concerned about Brighton, due to our lack of defence right now, but let’s not go over the top. I seem to remember losing our first four games under Pellegrini and then winning our next four.

  2. Agree with all that, starting the same stale eleven, any subs reluctantly used and way too late, frustrating

  3. I agree not sure why Antonio hasn’t been dropped, think he has been poor for some time and best game we have seen from Said for a while. Still think we are lacking a bit of creativity and our game has become to predictable, let’s hope they manage to get some more signings before the window shuts!

  4. I think on another day we would have scored three or four against forest and we’re incredibly unlucky. I didn’t think forest did anything to deserve the win. One of those days. I agree Declan Rice needs to be taken off penalties.

  5. Well said Hugh as a kid I could turn up at a park and play football with a load of strangers but apparently Scamacca needs at least 2 games to replace the ineffective Antonio . Dithering Dave is the problem could of gone 2 up front today but replaces a striker with a striker and starts this season with an even smaller squad than last season losing faith with him

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