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Without the injury nightmare.....

eugenboppboppbopp

eugenboppboppbopp

Jack Armstrong
We would've been pushing the auto spots if not in them and Fawaz would've been god and Billy would've been king.......

But Billy's behaviour whilst back here has been totally out of order.. Good at getting a side playing football but pathetic in all other areas of being a football manager. He won't manage a team again.

Without the injury nightmare (grounhogday) we'd be nigh on up already

If you can still get 5/4 on Dipswich tomorrow put your frickin house on it....

Good luck and all the best

coyr
 
S

sly_old_fox

Youth Team
There are two re-occurring themes on this forum depending when and where you happen to drop in and read: "we have built one of the strongest squads in the Championship, definite top 2 quality" or alternatively "Our squad players are absolute sh*te they can all f**k off now"
 
rockhopper

rockhopper

Jack Armstrong
TheDudeII said:
Couple of outgoings & ingoings and we have a squad that can walk it next season
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Unfortunately the championship is never that simple especially when your names Nottingham Forest, keep hearing this view trotted out, it was being said at the end of last year, you don't think other sides will be strengthening as well then??
 
Ravi

Ravi

Upper Decker
I think we'd be in and around the top two.
But even if not, we'd at least be competing in games rather than rolling over and being a soft touch.
 
Project Zeus

Project Zeus

Steve Chettle
Have Burnley even dropped enough points since Lansbury was injured for us to have overtaken them into second? And there's no way we would have won every game under Billy in that time. He couldn't string winning streaks together.
 
BryanRoy22

BryanRoy22

Ian Bowyer
We'd have been fighting it out with Burnley for 2nd place and perhaps chasing Leicester.

The unbeaten run we went on was strong and that was even after losing 2 key players in Cohen and Wilson.

The ones that really killed us were Lansbury, Reid, and Hobbs. Hobbs was more a key player than some might think. He was a natural leader holding things together at the back. I have nothing against Collins but he's not in the same league and the partnership with Lascelles has never looked solid. With Hobbs we looked a unit at the back. Without him we look shaky.

Lansbury and Reid (albeit he's been in and out of the team) have been the major ones. Like Hobbs, Lansbury is such a key player. One of Reid or Lansbury were going to end up being player of the year because they often came up with key goals/key moments in games but they also had a driving force in midfield that we haven't seen since. To some extent you can add Vaughan to the list.

So the loss of key players in defence and midfield has seen us look pedestrian where previously we looked full of energy. We dominated and won games in the middle of the park with midfield runners, with our full backs and wingers ploughing forward. It's hard to contain. Suddenly we have 2 defensive midfielders sitting back and a predictable full back/winger system, together with Cox up front and an out of sorts, one paced Majewski as a 'forward runner'.

What we've lost is very simple. Energy and desire. And to try and get that from players you told at the beginning of the season are going to backup, is almost impossible.
 
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Strummer

Strummer

Socialismo O Muerte!
LTLF Minion
sly_old_fox said:
There are two re-occurring themes on this forum depending when and where you happen to drop in and read: "we have built one of the strongest squads in the Championship, definite top 2 quality" or alternatively "Our squad players are absolute sh*te they can all f**k off now"
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Well, that is pretty much correct.

Our best, first choice XI is for me a match for any team in the division.

Our squad players however, many of whom have been here some time, are not all up at the same level.
 
Collymore!

Collymore!

Grenville Morris
We would have picked up more points in the last 8 games - maybe two wins.

I think we would have still been in 5th - plodding along, ultimately to fall in the playoffs.

Always the same capitulation.
 
pineapplehead

pineapplehead

First Team Squad
The whole crux of it is the Vaughan signing which is so short sighted it is unbelievable.Everyone knew that our back up were not good enough along side Lansbury but wedid nothing about it except resign him injured.
 
B

Black Rose

Geoff Thomas
No we wouldn't be challenging Burnley for the top 2. We'd be about 5th still and Billy probably would still have a job. But we'd have dropped yet more points from slender leads to be nowhere close to automatics.
 
Alpha Fail

Alpha Fail

Jack Burkitt
chriscl said:
Well, that is pretty much correct.

Our best, first choice XI is for me a match for any team in the division.

Our squad players however, many of whom have been here some time, are not all up at the same level.
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Not without some leadership on-pitch, they aren't. Which has always been the thing for me, moreso than the number of injuries.

Imagine a Man Utd with loads of Van Persies and Ronaldos and Nanis but no Keanes or Giggses or whoever. It's almost what they seem to be heading towards now. Fans stood there looking at an embarrasment of talent and ability and not a shred of spine between them. Of course, stick a couple of leaders on the pitch and that changes.


We've still got plenty of peacocks in the team and I'm not going to be angry at any one of them individually for being selected when there's no alpha males to use in their place. That said, cowardice will always be booed and all a team has to do to avoid that is not be a bunch of pussies.
 
Project Zeus

Project Zeus

Steve Chettle
Since the January transfer window closed, Burnley have played 11 games, of which they've won 8, drew 3, and lost 0. We were 5 points behind them at the end of January, I believe, so we'd have had to have won all 11 of our games in that time to have overtaken them into second place. Admittedly, one of Burnley's wins was against us, so we can perhaps say 9/10 wins providing one of them was away to Burnley.

Anyone who thinks that Billy Davies' Forest side could have achieved that is mental. Even in our best spell of the season during the 14-match unbeaten run we only achieved a win-rate of around 50%. We'd probably still be in the play-offs without the injuries (providing Davies' off-field disgraces didn't achieve the same effect on form), but suggesting we'd be challenging for the top 2 is pure fantasy.

All the evidence suggests that we'd still have fallen away from Burnley and 2nd place, as they have gone on a run of form that Forest could only dream of under Davies, injuries or not.
 
Ravi

Ravi

Upper Decker
Jara Wizard said:
Since the January transfer window closed, Burnley have played 11 games, of which they've won 8, drew 3, and lost 0. We were 5 points behind them at the end of January, I believe, so we'd have had to have won all 11 of our games in that time to have overtaken them into second place. Admittedly, one of Burnley's wins was against us, so we can perhaps say 9/10 wins providing one of them was away to Burnley.

Anyone who thinks that Billy Davies' Forest side could have achieved that is mental. Even in our best spell of the season during the 14-match unbeaten run we only achieved a win-rate of around 50%. We'd probably still be in the play-offs without the injuries (providing Davies' off-field disgraces didn't achieve the same effect on form), but suggesting we'd be challenging for the top 2 is pure fantasy.

All the evidence suggests that we'd still have fallen away from Burnley and 2nd place, as they have gone on a run of form that Forest could only dream of under Davies, injuries or not.
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One of those games was against us though (as you say). None of us know for sure what would have happened in that game with our full team out, or importantly, the impact it would have had on them. I very much doubt we would have been hammered by Burnley, Wigan and Derby.

Turning it the other way, the current side would finish in the bottom three over 46 games.
 
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