Fa cup 4th round

Don’t worry, Chic - even over here the game might as well not have been on. ITV showed the Villa - Chelsea game (fair enough) but did not even mention ours. This morning’s Times has a report of only one game, despite having only two to choose from.

All those years outside the ‘Ship, one of the things I disliked was the complete lack of coverage of Forest. Now that we’re back, the situation hasn’t improved much - particularly if you want a journo prepared to do some research. The press are only interested in about 6 clubs; the rest of us are simply here to provide cannon fodder.

The Press
The Banks
The Global Market
The Refs
Kids
Anyone who was bullied at school
The FA
EUFA
FFP
VAR

To be fair the kids who got bullied at school were normally asking for it. Empowering those freaks is why we are in the shit we are in.

See that’s where you are going wrong. You need to ditch Murdoch. Full report in the Grauniad

Never want to see Kouyate again. Appreciate he's not played much recently but just killed everything in midfield. Improved immeasurably when they put MGW in there.
Felt like Turner should have done better with the first save for their goal.
Tediously slow build up when we had the ball and we just seemed totally unable to beat their press, which is poor.
Good for Niakhate to take and score the pen.
Gardner had a few nice tackles but they seemed reluctant to pass to him and I'm pretty sure he lost his man for their chance at the end of extra time.

Left as soon as they cranked up the Quo.

Yes, I thought Gardner lost his man as well. Not a bad debut though to be fair under the circumstances.

I can't blame Turner too much for their goal - I thought it was a good save to be fair, that then hit both posts.

The midfield got better when MGW dropped in to it. Thought Danilo was poor last night (worse than Kouyate). And Montiel. CHO made a difference when he came on though. Also, lovely to see Felipe back (and the uneccesary acrobatics after our goal).

I thought we really missed Murillo's distribution from the back. His passing tends to be quicker and more incisive.

Niakhate spent a lot of time with their guy who missed a pen after the game, which was a nice touch.

In defence of Mr Murdoch (I know), to reach deepest Dorset, your copy of The Times was probably printing within five minutes of the final whistle at Villa Park, way before Forest's game finished.
And the media only reflects the consumer. Why have ITV chosen the bindippers at home to lower-league opposition as their flagship ITV1 game in both R4 and R5, for example? (My concern is the BBC, which shouldn't have this concern, is being forced into chasing ratings as well).

Put me in the camp of Turner should be pushing the first shot away/around the post.

How Felipe managed to get through that game without getting booked amazes me, he was caught out several times trying to nip in front of the striker to win it unnecessarily. He's looked off the pace in the games he's featured in since his return.

Taiwo seemed rusty as well, hopefully that will come back with more match fitness because we'll need him firing for the second half of the season.

Very, very surprised he actually got off the bench. Highly doubt he would have been used if not for Montiel's injury. Can only presume Murillo was not fully fit either.

Yes, the Felipe incident where he tried to pull Wells down, and failed, really should have been a yellow. He was clearly bollocksed at the end. And you're right, Taiwo did look rusty. In contrast, Divock actually looked quite mobile for the first 20 mins or so.

I don't know what Gardner is but when Montiel went off, who else could have come on? Murillo would have left us with 4 central defenders - Niakhate could play left back but I wouldn't fancy Omobamidele or Felipe on the right.

Incidentally formation last night was Cooper mark 1 - 3412 with Origi in the role of Davis and Elanga as Brennan. Felt like the whole thing got congested in the middle and the only space was for the wing-backs, which Montiel and Toff were poorly suited to exploit - Williams and Tavares should probably have started.

Also, if we're digging at Turner - he surely should have saved their fourth penalty as well. Got to it but, somehow, still let it get in.

Gardner is mainly a wide midfielder/forward. Presume Neco dropped into Montiel's position? Could have stuck with 3-4-1-2, with Tavares, Danilo, Murillo and Neco across the midfield and MGW behind CHO and Taiwo.

From what I saw before I left it did seem that although he was always looking for the ball no one wanted to give it him. Nice little crunch in front of us when he first came on.

Felt like there was a lot of this on Wednesday: x.com/oliverpostingls/status/1756000104232759650?s=61&t=w-weDDzS0PXEYtazUCi1rg

In particular, not sure why Felipe is hiding in midfield.