Only watched the second half caveat but I'm not too down on the performance. For the first half hour it was constant attacks by us with them barely clearing the final third. We'd have been furious if we'd done that against a team in 17th place.
We lacked the cutting edge to break them down but it's tough to create against a good set defence, that's why the first goal is always so important.
If we'd have got the first break, we'd have probably won, draw would probably have been fair, don't think it's changed much about how good i think we are. Bottom half, pretty safe, final position depends on how we balance Europe with the league in the new year.
From where I was sat none of the chances were what I'd describe a decent. An overall XG of 0.6 tallies with what.
JR and I were discussing afterwards how it's been a while since we've really created "good"chances. Even the Spurs game was a worldie, a cross that dropped in and a Spurs mistake. When did we create a chance through our own skill that we'd expect someone to score. Was it Leeds at home?
They wouldn’t have looked great chances due to how hard he made them look. I’m a fan of him but he should have buried one of those last night. The one in the second half he took a touch and got tackled, had to hit it first time.
If you were a West Ham fan, how many points would you say they "need" from their next 4? (Three at home, Wolves the away game only Brighton in the top half.) 7 or 8? Maybe 10?
Jesus was getting bashed all over the park. I don't understand how the defenders of Fulham didn't get booked for grabbing him, pulling him back, bashing him silly.
I think if Taylor had protected Igor by actually doing his job then I think we could have made a a bit more head way.
I think 0-0 would have been the right result as we all looked a little blunted and Anderson was utterly terrible. Losing the ball. Passes way off. It was a bad game for him. Luiz who can be a classy player looked uncomfortable and when we brought Taiwo on and Jesus off I thought it would go pear shaped. The two of them together could have caused havoc.
Just a bad day at the office but the midfield was missing last night and there was a massive gap between the defence and the attack.
Neco was MOM. Everyone else was average or off their game. Odd really.
Agree with the first two statements, but not the last. Points on the board are always more important than possible upturns in teams that are really shit. Has one season of good results left is forgetting how relegation battles work? West Ham are five points behind us for a reason. Barring a monumental effort in the January window they aren't going to suddenly transform into Man City and steamroller the second half of the season; even if they did others teams in mid table will have horrific runs and be dragged in. Leeds are having an upturn at the moment, but can you really say they are going to pull well clear?
Teams at the bottom drop points all of the time. Wolves are done, Burnley are nearly done. One place left, and I honestly don't see us filling it. If we accept that the Ange games were an effective points deduction, then we'd be well clear. Even without the deduction, we are close to halfway to the generally accepted safe mark of 40 points after almost half our matches.
Can we garner another 22 points in the next 20 matches? Of course we can, because teams will come to the City Ground and play the way we did on Monday night (Spurs for example). Five home wins from 11 remaining home matches, plus seven on the road from 9 gets us safe. Even that assumes that the relegation total is higher this season; Nuno kept us up with 32 points (in reality 36), so he was hardly pulling up trees in that first season.
Mid-table teams are that for a very good reason: inconsistency and the inability to put together a good sequence of results. IMHO We are a mid-table team with a points deduction. We have had some great results (Liverpool, Spurs) and some shocking performances (Everton, Fulham - although they were equally shite). If we played the way we did against Liverpool every week then we'd be top 8 at least. If we played the way we did against Everton every week then we'd be bottom 3. However, we don't, and therefore we are 17th with an Ange asterisk, like a lot of other teams struggling to string a good run of form together (albeit without the invisible asterisk). We will finish mid-table; whether that's 8th or 15th depends on how many Liverpool performances we put in as opposed to Everton. However, Wolves and Burnley aren't going to threaten safety, and realistically one place remains.
I don't get the overly pessimistic view where every poor performance leads to relegation struggles. We've seen enough to know this team is capable of pulling clear, and since Ange went we haven't lost more than two matches in a row. By contrast, Burnley haven't won in nine matches (and that win was against Wolves), and West Ham haven't won in seven (against Burnley).
Relegation form is generally picking up fewer than a point a game, something Wolves (spectacularly), and Burnley and West Ham are doing a good job of this so far. Since Dyche came in we have picked up 13 points in nine matches; not relegation form by any means.
I know as Forest fans we have to have something to worry about, we generally don't do mid-table safety and a boring Place style (minus the FA Cup) season, but I firmly believe that is what we are in for. Within that, there will be good and bad performances, but that's what happens in a mid-table season, something we've not experienced for quite a number of years.
