Forest v. Brighton, 25 Nov 2023

Gibbs White was excellent and Anthony Elanga is always dangerous but you cannot lay the door of blame on Chris Wood who was isolated throughout the game. He linked up when best he could. He isn't Taiwo but he is used as the outlet. We are just slow to transition from defence to attack with the ball going backwards rather than forwards. Murillo is the most aggressive with the long ball and most of his attempts were spot on. Danilo didn't have a great game and it was his mistake that allowed Brighton back in. We need someone to turn with the ball and go forward. Morgan is always ambitious in that nature but who else? I would say Ryan Yates certainly looked to get forward when he came on. Mangala is always looking for the ball but then who is ahead of him or making the progressive runs. That was Barry last season. This season because of injury not as much.

Chris Wood is servicable but only if you use him. We really didn't. We weren't bad but clearly possession based seems to be the case of not losing the ball which is fine if you do something with it. In the second half the press was on and we made it interesting but I did unfortunately call that Joao Pedro was a better fit for them than Fati. And that turned out to be the case. Unfortunately.

Evan Ferguson is deadly. 19 years old too. A definite Star in the making. I am glad Mitoma wasn't playing but i felt that we had a chance. The Penalty for them was a killer and then the very similar penalty down the other end.

Pity Goal Threat didnt finish even though it was a decent header, We are one or two players away from having a very decent side. A progressive midfielder and of course the elusive deadly forward (who isn't Taiwo..)

3-3 would have been great. We didn't deserve to win. You can see it meant a lot to Brighton so they knew we gave them a game. It wasn't dull.

We have to make do until January. Who do we have next? The blue cheating Scouse gits?

MOM: Gibbs White.

Chicago: A little disappointed.

MGW had another one of those games where it he was 10% better he'd be unplayable. I wish he could find that extra percent. He could have had a hat-trick today. The header chance he missed was really bad.

I thought Origi worked hard pressing when he came on and was generally a nuisance to the defence and the keepers, but he does not look like a striker whose immediate instinct at all times, or ever, is to get a shot on goal.

In post match, Cooper talked about needing to be braver with choices etc.

But also mentioned giving the ball away around half way for their first goal.

Didn't that happen because Danilo tried a brave ball to MGW.

So I am a bit confused. I thought that being braver came with some extra risk of losing the ball, but risk worth taking. But maybe I just don't understand (and Cooper just says words post match that don't really mean anything).

It was a poor pass by Danilo. But there were chances to prevent the goal after that.

The midfield just didn’t really work - don’t know whether it was the absence of Sangaré, the change in shape or just coming up against a very good team, but it all felt a bit reactive and chaotic.

They’re an excellent side. To play like they did for an hour with all those injuries underlines the importance of a club philosophy. But to lose their minds so spectacularly over a soft but not unfair penalty decision was remarkable. They clearly take their lead from the manager, whose attitude undermines his ability on a weekly basis.

It's clearly a fine line with an obvious risk of it falling off a cliff at any point but keeping the players at the top of their operating window and keeping the commitment/team spirit absolute is part of the skill. It's one of Cooper is pretty good at when he gets a settled side. All this shithousing and arm flailing is just part of the act. The ain't going to believe if they don't think you do.

Yep, it’s a balancing act. Classic Mourinho behaviour. But it would have been crazy if they’d let us nick a point yesterday through their own indiscipline.

I’m not liking the celebration policing from our side. They hadn’t won in 6, we hadn’t lost at home in ages, they held on with 10 men. Of course they are going to celebrate. We’d do the same if it was the other way round.

Is anyone else concerned we will be in the bottom 3 by Christmas?

Yer, check out twitter and Facebook, there's 1000s of um.

Apparently Dunk's red card yesterday was a straight red for personal abuse of the ref, the first such red card given in the Premier League for 12 years. I wonder what he said.

There's a video of it on Twitter. The referee gave him a yellow for the penalty foul, then Dunk called him a bald twat. The referee then gave him a straight red. Brighton Captain can be seen asking "What's that for?" and the referee says "He called me a bald twat".

Wonder if they've history, as even at 0-0, the Brighton fans were changing "You're shit every week, you're shit every week, Anthony Taylor, you're shit every week".

Was there a red card check on Murillo yesterday down by the corner flag in the second half? No idea what was going on in the ground, other than we stopped playing for a few mins,.before their winger went apeshit.

We weren't great yesterday, but not deserving of some of the shite on twitter today. We were never going to dominate possession against that lot. We had barely had a kick in the couple of minutes before we scored - it certainly wasn't a case of sitting back on the lead as I've seen repeatedly suggested.

Murillo is a fucking terrific footballer that is only going to get better. He's pinging long passes with both of his feet now,. The last ditch tackle in the second half was outstanding.