2023 in review

I thought this was a more interesting use of stats than most articles.

theanalyst.com/eu/2023/05/how-nottingham-forest-survived-the-premier-league/

I think the proportions in the photo are about right (although I'd include my poty Serge)

That was a great read, thank you.

It’s clear that SSC wanted to play a different style of football when we came up but we didn't have the expertise or the experience. When we changed, he even gave an interview after one of the games in Act 2 (Liverpool?) where he said that this was not how he wanted to play but it was dictated by necessity. We have given up the idea of a possession based game and have refined our counterattack and set pieces to be highly effective.

Callum Castel has posted some of our best goals of the season. Apart from the goal vs City, most came from set pieces or brutal counterattacks.

He's said a few times in the last few weeks that this isn't how he wants to play. I suspect that's a message for the owner as much as anyone else.

I suggested a couple of months ago that it wasn't how he wanted to play, and that it was through necessity, but was told I was wrong, and that this is his 'style'. If I could be arsed I'd dig out the thread.

It was me - I think what I said (or what I meant) was that he's never been a possession-based manager (post Arsenal, he said something about that being the way football was going) but the 18 to 25%s of recent weeks is clearly not sustainable in the long term. I don't see a Cooper team ever playing like Brighton, and it wouldn't play to our strengths - the aim will always be to be a threat when we turnover the ball. Against Arsenal, in the second half particuarly, we were barely trying to play up the field - almost every posession ended with 50 yard punt back to their defenders.

Well done for admitting you were wrong and that I am the greatest football analyst you have ever known.