Football News: Nottingham Forest v West Bromwich Albion 3 August 2019 Match Review

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Nottingham Forest v West Bromwich Albion; A game that was in the end decided more by poor goalkeeping than lethal finishing to see us fall to our first home opening defeat in 36 years which in itself is perhaps not the most shocking of statistics.

The sane expected 4 3 3 line up with Cash at right back perhaps being the only enforced change saw us start very brightly with some nice passing and movement off the ball was rewarded with a shot from Cash beating Johnstone at his near post which on reflection he should probably have dealt with but no matter.

The game followed pretty well the same pattern with in fairness neither side posing any real credible threat until THAT moment when Muric let a very tame shot through his hands on 15 minutes and from that moment on Forest were never in the game for the remainder of the first half.

West Brom themselves were hardly knocking on the door either and it took yet another calamitous goalkeeping error by Muric as the ball sailed over his head from a hopeful cross .

Half time duly arrived with no real efforts on goal from either side and one had every right to expect us to come out and have a real go at a West Brom side who were nothing like the side we played in the corresponding affair last year.

Sadly this was not to be the case as quite frankly both sides seemed to for the most part to huff and puff and stroll alomg in a quite sedentary way which is fine if you're winning but there was no real urgency in our play and the much mentioned lack of pace in our side was perhaps painfully obvious.

The old malaise of our taking an age over throw ins was again evident at a time when urgency was really the order of the day and substitutions of which more later seemed to me to be haphazard though in fairness we didn't really have a game changing kind of player on the bench.

The final whistle was a kind of relief because it was by then patently obvious that we were not going to score and West Brom had no need to and the way the game was being played suited them to a tee.

Clearly mention has to be made of individual performances with Muric having an absolute complete and utter nightmare for both goals and although he did make one half decent stop in the second half it is to be hoped that, young as he is, he will be able to put this one to bed and not let it affect him too much or the gk situation could become a problem bearing in mind the supposed terms of his loan.

Robinson did what he had to do with not much of an attacking threat whilst Cash defensively still has much to do but it must be born in m, ind that he is not a natural full back.

Dawson seemed at times to be exasperated by the events unfolding on the pitch but made several timely blocks whilst Worrall looked a little lost and won relatively little in the air.

On a day when little was to be taken from the game I thought both Watson and Semedo were our two best players with Silva trying very hard but coming up against big, strong and solid players at times looked like he was running into brick walls.

The substitution of Lolley seemed to most to be a strange one because whilst he was not having the game of his life he is one of our few ( arguably only ) proven match winners with the ability to conjure up a goal from nothing and I hope that his long slow walk off was just one of disappointment and nothing else because he gave the impression of being deeply unhappy at being hauled off.

Adomah on the few occasions he found the time and space again performed well but Grabban continues to me to be a worry.

He is a finisher who feeds on scraps and knock downs etc and is not, as I have said before, a one up front player who yesterday had precious little served to him and as the game progressed he looked less and less interested with little appetite for chasing the ball down to create something for himself .

This was the first game of a new season with a relatively new group of players and at times yesyerday it showed and of course its not time to hit the panic button just yet which would be foolish.

That said there are for me clear issues that hopefully will be dealt with over the upcoming days and the glaringly obvious ones are a right back and a striker with the decision to release Soudani, Ansarifard, Walker on loan and Murphy being told to move on looking a little odd to say the least if there is no back up plan.

Whilst I am not a card carrying member of the Murphy fan club surely a place could have been found on the bench because make no mistake he will not be finding another club due to his high wages and will leave only if he is paid up ( and I for one do not blame him at all ) and it seems a strange decision to tell him to leave under those circumstances.

Early days yes and no doubt supporters up and down the land will all be beavering away on their own sites with similar quibbles to us but that's what keeps us going back for more.

So on to the Dirties next week when we will I think have to step things up a gear because I don't think they will just let the game meander like West brom did and will go in for the kill no doubt.

So let's hope the signings we all know we need are made so its onwards and hopefully upwards and in closing

As always .

COYR.

Written by creepy1 August 04 2019 18:17:22