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Lady Whistledown

Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,639
Mo Gosfield said:
Under the radar is how I like it. OG quietly going about his business under very difficult circumstances. Nicking the odd win here or there, not losing too many. The framework in place, the confidence starting to seep back in.
Neither Burnley or Blackpool guaranteed to stay up there. Reading and Forest inconsistent. Watford missing their two best players from last season and Wigan yet to get going. QPR and Leicester look the two to beat.
Where does that leave us? I would suggest that anything between 8th and 4th/5th is still achievable.
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I don't think it would take much for Forest to sack Billy Davies, you know. They sacked O'Driscoll last season when nobody saw it coming. I think it's Forest that are owned by a group of Kuwaiti businessmen, and history doesn't suggest these overseas investors with no track record in English football tend to display a lot of patience. They lost to Yeovil last week, and at home to Blackpool this. Blackpool aren't doing too badly, but for a club of Forest's size- and resources- they are exactly "the sort of team we should be beating". They finished last season on a decent run, apart from flunking their last match against Leicester, and there is no doubt they are aiming for automatic promotion. With their squad, anything below about fourth and a play off win represents failure.

Wonder what the odds are on Davies surviving until Christmas?
 




mikeyjh

mikeyjh

Well-known member
Dec 17, 2008
4,607
Llanymawddwy
I keep reading about your amazing injury list and I've said it before, but I'm not sure why you lot think your list is soooo much worse than anyone else's?? I don't know about other clubs, I assume they all have a reasonable number of players out, but I don't think it's any better/worse than ours....
 




Lady Whistledown

Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,639
mikeyjh said:
I keep reading about your amazing injury list and I've said it before, but I'm not sure why you lot think your list is soooo much worse than anyone else's?? I don't know about other clubs, I assume they all have a reasonable number of players out, but I don't think it's any better/worse than ours....
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It's not just numbers, is it, it's the players who are out, in terms of who'd be in our first choice XI. Ulloa, our first choice striker, has been both suspended (his own fault) and is out for a couple of months. LuaLua, a winger who has frequently been our only creative outlet in the last couple of months- out with a knee injury requiring surgery. Buckley, our other decent class winger, is now injured as well. Orlandi, a creative midfielder. Injured. Liam Bridcutt- arguably the best player at the club, anchor of our midfield and most saleable asset- out since the second game.

Then we have players who would potentially have been first pick as replacements for those ones- Craig Mackail-Smith, Will Hoskins. Kemy Agustien, also out.

I can't go through the Derby squad and pick equivalents for you, as I don't know enough of your players, let alone who the good ones are apart from Will Hughes, but it's been bloody depressing.
 


Blue Valkyrie

Blue Valkyrie

Not seen such Bravery!
Sep 1, 2012
32,165
Valhalla
Only 5 points away from the playoffs, Game On, it really is.


Top 6 by 1st of January.
 




Lady Whistledown

Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,639
Billy Davies 40/1 to be the next manager out.

Oscar at 33.
 


Simster

Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,952
Surrey
mikeyjh said:
I keep reading about your amazing injury list and I've said it before, but I'm not sure why you lot think your list is soooo much worse than anyone else's?? I don't know about other clubs, I assume they all have a reasonable number of players out, but I don't think it's any better/worse than ours....
Click to expand...

As has been said, it is down to the quality of the injured players. My first three picks on the team sheet would be Kusczak (keeper), Bridcutt (midfield) and Ulloa (striker) because they are all good enough for the Premiership and the cover we have for each them is nowhere near as good. Unfortunately, two of those have long term injuries.

Then we have a whole raft of decent players injured - Lua Lua and Craig McKail Smith cost us around £3-4m between them. Neither are world beaters but we were always going to miss players of that sort of quality.
 






5

5Ways Gull

È quello che è
Feb 2, 2009
1,188
Fiveways, Brighton
Simster said:
Optimism has returned because we beat Doncaster. If you don't know already, Donny are shit, much like Yeovil, Sheff Wed and Millwall, none of whom we managed to beat.

Realistically, I think automatic has already gone. We do have senior players returning so I suppose the play-offs can't be ruled out, but I still think we'll do well to finish above 9th or 10th.
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Who over the last 2 weekends have have respectively managed to; Comfortably beat Forest, Draw with the league leaders Burnley, and stuff Reading, with their parachute payments and ability to tempt big names, 5-2.
 


mikeyjh

mikeyjh

Well-known member
Dec 17, 2008
4,607
Llanymawddwy
edna krabappel said:
It's not just numbers, is it, it's the players who are out, in terms of who'd be in our first choice XI. Ulloa, our first choice striker, has been both suspended (his own fault) and is out for a couple of months. LuaLua, a winger who has frequently been our only creative outlet in the last couple of months- out with a knee injury requiring surgery. Buckley, our other decent class winger, is now injured as well. Orlandi, a creative midfielder. Injured. Liam Bridcutt- arguably the best player at the club, anchor of our midfield and most saleable asset- out since the second game.

Then we have players who would potentially have been first pick as replacements for those ones- Craig Mackail-Smith, Will Hoskins. Kemy Agustien, also out.

I can't go through the Derby squad and pick equivalents for you, as I don't know enough of your players, let alone who the good ones are apart from Will Hughes, but it's been bloody depressing.
Click to expand...

I get you, but that's kind of my point - It's not the PL and we don't tend to know who a teams most important players are(obviously I know who yours are, but most wouldn't), but as a direct comparison, our list includes:- Club captain and by far best defender Shaun Barker, probs next best defender Mark O'Brien, strongest midfielder Jeff Hendrick, 1st choice striker Johnny Russell, other regular starters Paul Coutts, Ben Davies. Add in James Bailey, Zak Whitbread and Adam Ledzkins and you start to get the picture. Not trying to make it a p*ssing contest, just pointing out that you might find that many other clubs have this problem....
 






Mellotron

Mellotron

I've asked for soup
Jul 2, 2008
32,476
Brighton
Simster said:
I'd have felt a lot more confident if we'd put away some of the crap sides so far. It cost us an automatic place last season, and will probably cost us a play-off place this time round. That's what made Saturday so pleasing.
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Our reserves have done a solid job to keep us within touching distance of top lot. Our FIRST team will do rather better. As someone above said, it's NOVEMBER. No positions are set in stone yet, and you have to take into account that Oscar is still settling in so we will continue improving. Ridiculously harsh to judge him on very early results.
 


Codner's Wallop

Codner's Wallop

Well-known member
Sep 11, 2013
1,431
Mellotron said:
Our reserves have done a solid job to keep us within touching distance of top lot. Our FIRST team will do rather better. As someone above said, it's NOVEMBER. No positions are set in stone yet, and you have to take into account that Oscar is still settling in so we will continue improving. Ridiculously harsh to judge him on very early results.
Click to expand...

Agree. The play-offs are a very realistic target. No reason to be feel inferior to the likes of Watford, Leeds, Forest, Wigan, Blackburn, who are all above us. It's usually a mad scramble for P/O places and I'd be shocked to see us go backwards under Garcia. Guy seems to have a very strict plan.
 


M

Mo Gosfield

Well-known member
Aug 11, 2010
6,362
edna krabappel said:
I don't think it would take much for Forest to sack Billy Davies, you know. They sacked O'Driscoll last season when nobody saw it coming. I think it's Forest that are owned by a group of Kuwaiti businessmen, and history doesn't suggest these overseas investors with no track record in English football tend to display a lot of patience. They lost to Yeovil last week, and at home to Blackpool this. Blackpool aren't doing too badly, but for a club of Forest's size- and resources- they are exactly "the sort of team we should be beating". They finished last season on a decent run, apart from flunking their last match against Leicester, and there is no doubt they are aiming for automatic promotion. With their squad, anything below about fourth and a play off win represents failure.

Wonder what the odds are on Davies surviving until Christmas?
Click to expand...


The defeat at Yeovil was mind-boggling, considering how they played at the Amex.
I would imagine that Forest see themselves on a par with Leicester. Similar squads, similar expectations. On that basis, Davies is already under pressure and indifferent results between now and Crimble could see him gone.
I do expect other Championship managers to beat him out the door, however, starting with Lee Clark.
 


Papa Lazarou

Papa Lazarou

Living in a De Zerbi wonderland
Jul 7, 2003
19,361
Worthing
I've just bet £30 at 12/1 with Stan James on us going up. Fingers (metaphorically) crossed.
 








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