Nottingham Forest’s trip to Huddersfield Town this past weekend left the Reds going back home with their tails between their legs as they were outclassed with a 3-0 scoreline fair reflection. Forest conceded from a header from former player Joel Lynch inside the first minute of the game. The defence went into meltdown mode, making a comeback impossible as they conceded another two soft goals, with the third scored by another former Red, Grant Holt.
Forest manager Stuart Pearce reflected on this defeat, and he believes the reason behind this result and Forest’s recent run of form is down to the defence and the lack of confidence from his players. He said: “We created plenty of chances but I think the starting point is making sure we’re hard to score against.
“With the line-up we have we will create chances in matches, we have done all season. But at the start of the season we were keeping clean sheets and were very tight to play against. At this moment in time we’re not, so we have to solve that.”
Pearce also believes it’s down to him to help the players with their confidence issues and help them find their first win in eight Championship games. “We’re the only ones who can turn results around for Nottingham Forest, nobody else,” he stated.
“It’s down to me to install confidence in the players and make us hard to beat. The good thing is we have a home game in front of our own fans on Wednesday evening.”
It will be good for Forest to rekindle their form at the City Ground against Brentford on Wednesday evening, as they have only played three home games in their last eight league outings.
However, they haven’t been lacking fan support, as the fans at the Huddersfield game last weekend were in strong vocal form right up until the final whistle despite the team losing the game.
The absence of strong Forest leaders such as Chris Cohen and Andy Reid doesn’t help the confidence issue either, as Cohen isn’t expected to return till June 2015, and Reid isn’t expected to be back till January at the earliest.
The good form of Michail Antonio, Britt Assombalonga, and Michael Mancienne is a distant memory, as neither Antonio nor Mancienne have put a string of good performances together since Forest drew with Watford in mid-October.
Assombalonga on the other hand, has only scored once during Forest’s eight game winless streak, and needs to start finding the back of the net soon to revitalise his side’s promotion push. Forest would be over the moon if he could find the form that helped him score eight goals in the first seven league games of the season.
A good start for Forest to find their confidence would be in their next game at home against Brentford. If they don’t win, the fans and Forest owner Fawaz Al Hasawi need to back Pearce in his decisions, otherwise the club will not move forward.
Al Hasawi has a history of having a trigger finger with managers, not quite to the same level as Massimo Cellino at Elland Road, but not dissimilar. He has stated he would like his club to be in the Premier League within the next two seasons or so but we all know he wants it now. Hopefully he has time and patience with Pearce during this bad run of form.
A surge of confidence will bring back to life Nottingham Forest’s promotion push in a very competitive Championship, but this would have to start with a win against Brentford, and a strong run of form will be needed for promotion to happen. Results will turn around, but as Brian Clough famously once said, “tactics don’t lose you games, players do.” It is down to the players to heave themselves out of this situation they have got themselves into.
