A Dick Turpin special

A much needed three points yesterday then but my god was that a tough watch, as we mugged Forest in broad daylight and stole 3 points from the City ground in a robbery so blatant that it would have made Dick Turpin blush.

First half we were as bad as we’ve been all season… and we’ve been pretty damn bad this season! The stats were embarrassing, with Forest having 57% possession and 10 shots to our 2. Thankfully Forest have had something like 60 shots since they last scored a goal or things could have been so different.

Losing Wirtz in the build up was a big loss no doubt but this game laid bare how much we’ve come to rely on him making things tick and unlocking doors for us because we looked utterly clueless in attack without him. Even with the loss of Wirtz however, Slot persevered with Szoboszlai at RB and the Hungarian was give a torrid time by Hudson-Odoi in the first half, until eventually Alisson told Slot to swap Dom and Jones. Not really a great look for the manager when your goalie is having to tell you what was obvious to everyone.

Second half we were a bit better but still poor. We completely lack identity, we don’t press, there are no patterns of play and no clear plan or structure in the team whatsoever. Easy to play through and utterly toothless up front. Ekitike seems isolated when Wirtz isn’t playing and Salah and Gakpo were diabolical, as demonstrated by Rio’s stats in his cameo appearance being better than both of them combined.

In midfield, Jones reverted back to the bad old days of holding onto the ball too long and continuously being dispossessed. Macca continued his Jekyll and Hyde season of just when you think he’s getting back to his old self, he serves up another dreadful display like yesterday. I’m not cutting him any slack for the goal either, which was sheer luck and looked offside all day long, although I’ll take it. As for Gravenberch, he continues to be a shadow of the player we saw last season. I honestly forget he’s playing most games now.

The one positive from yesterday was another clean sheet, although playing against a team who can’t buy a goal always helps. It’s a slim positive though. We had 8 days off between yesterday and our last game, while Forest were playing in Turkey on Thursday night, yet it was us who were passive and leggy, while they were sharp and all over us.

The win yesterday papered over the cracks and thats been the story all season. The performances are so poor, it really is concerning. I think I can count on one hand how many times we’ve genuinely played well this season. We’re just relying on world class players doing world class things and pulling it out the bag, or like yesterday just being downright lucky. This isn’t sustainable though and it’s difficult to see anything changing. The way we’ve played this season, we couldn’t argue if we were mid table and bar a few lucky results, we could well have been.

Rio McMOTM for being the only one who really did anything all day. Surely things can only get better from here right? Walk on