Bacalhau à Braga? No thanks, just the 3 points.

I was with you until the last sentence...

This season has reached that awful stage for me as a supporter, where people are becoming entrenched in different camps - usually the 'didnt want Dyche as manager anyway, he's the problem, sack him as soon as possible' camp or the 'the recruitment has been awful, we have wasted all our money, Dyche is working with a dismal squad. He needs a pre season and we will see a better outcome' camp.

I know I am in the second of those camps, but I hate the splits amongst fan base. Even on the family football whatsapp groups these arguments start getting heated. Its not pleasurable at all.

Oh how I miss last season!!

I'm in the Dyche seems to be a problem (can't help remember what Everton fans prophesised) and recruitment has been shit camp.

I'm in the I can't believe how bad last night was and I hope Dyche and Yates don't really believe what they said post-match camp.
I'm also in the I hope MGW is taken off penalties camp as the only decent one he has taken for Forest was the one that secured our place in the play off final.

I took the Mrs out for a fancy dinner and didnt have to suffer any of this shite. Nevertheless, Dyche out!!

As well as these, I think there are a number of factors that have highlighted the drop in results and consistent performances this season. I could be wrong but I think that pretty much all of the 1st team squad didn't play any of the Euros / Tournament football in the summer of 2024 whereas a lot of other premier league teams did. I think that rest + an arguably more settled pre-season did a lot for last season (and probably had a knock on effect into the relatively few injuries for 75% of the season)

This time around we've had 3 players in the U21s + 2 in the World Club championship + increased demands on key players. Anderson has been knackered for a while, ditto Jesus. MGW and Milenkovic have played in pretty much every game this season + internationals - they're probably a bit jaded as well.

Good (or, in some cases, "telepathic") partnerships between players take a while to form - we started to see some of that between Elanga and Wood (& Elanga / MGW, Wood / MGW) in 23/24 (Wood's goals at Newcastle, Elanga/Wood combining to equalise at Spurs) which came to fruition last season. They've gone. MGW's flicky tricks rely on a Wood or Elanga or a not-knackered Anderson (and MGW is probably knackered himself.) With injuries, a bigger squad, lack of game time for fringe players, we're not going to be building new or better partnerships quickly (which is what I think Dyche is partly alluding to with his "no magic dust" comments last night and in recent games)

In short, a large number of positive / benign things happened last season to have the season that we had.....and an opposite number have happened this time out and we're seeing the results, namely inconsistency: good in parts, bad in parts and the latter more often when there's less at stake.....and this is outside of the managerial/hierarchy shenanigans which has had a huge effect

It doesn't make last night's result any less frustrating - that game was Forest's to win (probably score the penalty and defend for a dour 1-0) and they didn't look up for it. But, I'm still in the Dyche in camp. The performance against Arsenal and Man City showed their mettle under him and I think he's still the right fit for the way Forest should be playing but........the relationships between players on the pitch takes time

This is his MO. Basically, pointless nonce chat before a stupid last sentence designed to piss Tricky off (which, fair fucks, normally lands) and then thread disappears into the usual 2 horse shit up. Joy.

Agree with this but Dyche without a big lad up front is never likely to go well.

I think we keep Dyche for the remainder of the season as I hope (rather than believe) he will keep us up. I cannot believe that he will be kept on beyond that. He will have had his Forest swan song and can leave with his dignity and legacy just about intact.

Gritty performances against Man City and Arsenal will not define our season when we are utterly dogshit in every other game. We cannot keep following those sort of performances with such abject displays.

Some of it is on Dyche. The tactics seem very strange and certain players look lost. I cannot believe McAtee, Bakwa and N’Doye are bad footballers. Luiz looked great under Ange. Actually McAtee was beginning to look bright in he second half yesterday when he was more central (won the penalty, created two nice changes for N’Doye and MGW) Bakwas looked better on the right than the left and N’Doye is not a striker. Yates was a fucking disaster (again) but stayed on and he didn't make any subs until it was too late. He needs to TELL MGW that he’s not on free kicks or penalties, especially when Luiz is standing next to him.

Agreement here as well. For me, the only sensible plan in town is to stick with Dyche for the season and give him what he wants in terms of players without spending so much it restricts our ability to rebuild in the summer, hopefully in the Premier League.

Well done for sticking with it, I thought I’d given it far to long to get to that point.

That’s my concern. We were good against Man City and Arsenal in a battling organised way and got a single point. But we are utterly clueless against the weaker teams. Especially at home when they are happy to sit back and we have no ideas whatsoever.

Was (pointlessly) waiting to hear what the manager had to say.

The upcoming home games against Palace and Wolves will be telling. (I expect us to lose narrowly at Brentford and Leeds as their better cutting edge will mean we can't hold out.) If we don't win either of those (or, probably, if we lose one), I expect the panic button will be pressed and it'll be time for the 4th manager of the season.

To be clear, I'd love us to keep Murillo and Anderson in a world where we didn't have to worry about the reality of our best players being wanted by better clubs and wanting to go there. That isn't how things are though and I can't see us those two wanting to stay next year if and when elite and very rich clubs come in for them. They probably won't ever be worth more as Forest players than they are around now, and I think we have to be prepared to cash-in and try and run the club like a business. It was unfortunate to seller Elanga in the summer but probably largely unavoidable, same with Brennan the year before. We need to get used to it until we are a side which consistently finishes in the top 10 and even then we may have to tolerate it.

What we clearly didn't do well this summer was invest effectively in the next, incoming order of first teamers. It's hard to fathom what we suddenly discovered about Kalimuendo for example when he arrived and we never played him that we couldn't have worked out before signing him. McAtee is even more disappointing. Both are just obviously physically not ready, and Bakwa seems like he may be similar. Douglas Luiz was always a bit of a roll of the dice with his fitness, but I don't mind that so much. I can also see why we signed Ndoye, albeit he has not yet got close to justifying the price. Hutchinson has potential but is small and was too expensive.

Dyche knows how to run a club, he's professional, he's articulate, he's far more tactically versatile than I think most give him credit for and he has a connection to the club and fans. I would like to see what he can do when he is not taking over a chaotic situation where we are 2 points deep in the relegation zone and he's working with a confused, unsettled and tired squad. I suspect I may not get to see that and we will be moving on to Marco Silva or whoever the next one is.

I'm also on board with seeing what Dyche can get out of Silenzi Jr.

Still better than Ange but that is not saying much.

It really comes down to surviving this season and seeing what the transfer window. Seems like a decent bloke who wants the best for the team but nothing is gelling. Getting another manager now will probably be suicide. in Retrospect we should have kept Nuno's staff and promoted his second in command as the players liked them and they liked the situation in Nottingham. That at least would have allowed continuity. Wood being buggered is a huge hit. I like Jesus but he is plowing a lone furrow. Hopefully Lucca has more link up play. The disconnect between the midfield and the forward play is a major issue. Obviously we would all like Dyche to succeed. The football is megsonesque at the moment but at least he isn't Megson who did more damage at forest than anyone I can remember.

Footballers want to win. The want to be coached. I am sure they aren't downing tools. They seem low on confidence which is kind of weird after the good battling performance against Arsenal. We do need fast, physical forward players though. And link up play between the back and the front. This means our most important players are actually Murillo and Dominguez.

Since PSR goes bye bye in the summer and Chris is on 100K a week so that will be off the books so we need to go for it this January. At least give Dyche some tools to give it a go. Sacking him now will probably be the final nail in the coffin for this year. i am guessing Marco Silva in the summer with possinly Harry Wilson. This is of course if we manage to stay up. I still contend that Wet Sham are rubbish and we only ourselves to blame if we don't achieve safety by wallowing in our own self pity.

Chicago: Holding on.

Everything boils down to the summer recruitment. We needrd more players to be able to play twice a week and the ones we brought in are, taken altogether, utter shit.

They may all develop and be great but we needed players for this season not two years time.

Everything else mentioned is just a symptom of that.

So have to point blame at Marinakis and Edu.

Interesting Chic refers to Megson. Last time I saw an atmosphere like second half last night was the infamous Woking away.