Nottingham Forest v Charlton AthleticTuesday 11 February | Kick-Off: 19.45pm | Live on Sky Sports Football via Red ButtonReferee: Darren Bond (Lancashire) - Previously officiated Charlton in 2-2 home draw with CardiffPrevious Result: Charlton Athletic 1-1 Nottingham ForestIntroductionAs I write one of my last few previews of the season, it can only be fitting that it includes a team that was one of my first. After a shocking display against Stoke away on Saturday, we have another very tough away trip to contend with, Nottingham Forest.
OppositionManager: Sabri Lamouchi (49% win rate)
Stadium: City Ground |
League Position: 4th
Nickname(s): Forest
We are now at the time of the year where fixtures are being repeated in a very similar order to the first half of the season. If we cast our mind back to August, we played Forest on the 21st having recently played Stoke and Barnsley. Whilst Forest played Leeds and Birmingham, also their last two fixtures. It could be argued that the first 45 minutes that Wednesday night was the best football we have played all season. The two sides though have since gone in separate directions, but a repeat of the performance that night this time round will put us in a half decent position to get a result.
Forest have developed their formation as the season has progressed. Previously using the 4-1-4-1 formation, Lamouchi has tweaked things slightly and moved to the much used 4-2-3-1. Their previous line up was:
Samba
Cash Figueriedo | Worrall | Ribeiro
Sow | Watson
Lolley | Silva | Ameobi
Grabban
After writing the preview for the reverse fixture (attached at the bottom of this one), I would like to focus on different aspects of Nottingham Forest.
A team built on solid foundations, Forest have conceded only 30 goals so far this season. Lamouchi has also changed his defensive personnel 15 times too. That number might seem a lot to some, but Bowyer has made 42 changes in just the defence alone. With this in mind, it's no surprise that they've kept double the amount of clean sheets as us. Forest have managed this tactically too. Being extremely compact with little distances between each line, it makes it difficult for the opposition to get into any kind of exploitive space to hurt them. This way of playing also allows them to press teams as a group effectively, and often win the second balls before quickly playing it to their front men. In order for us to be a threat, we're going to have to move the ball side to side at a good tempo to allow for the right moment to find that bit of space. With their defensive shape, getting in behind on the counter attack could be another avenue Bowyer has identified that would see us some joy. However, playing it from back to front in the way we did on Saturday is not going to work against this opposition. We are going to have to try and work through the thirds with pace, different angles, and clever movement.
Their overall form, home and away, is almost identical; Forest are strong wherever they play. 3 wins and a draw in their last 4 at home, whilst they've won 6 and drawn 2 of their last 9 in the league. However, for a side pushing for promotion, one weakness that can be drawn is that they've struggled to score goals regularly at home. Only 20 in 15 league games, and scoring more than once in a home match on 4 occasions all season. Their last coming on Saturday evening when they beat Leeds 2-0.
Charlton Team NewsDue to Forest playing 4-2-3-1 to such good effect, and a poor performance from us at Stoke, it could mean that Bowyer decides to match them up. This time round, we have the personnel to use that formation with many options in the centre of midfield and players able to play wide.
The squad now looks far stronger than it did this time last month, but we must continue to manage the players who have recently come back from injury. With them all being longer term, even machines like Cullen aren't able to hit the standards consistently at this level without needing time to get into the swing of things. Of the squad from Saturday, it was still without a number of senior players for different reasons: Solly, Oshilaja, Page, Forster-Caskey, McGeady, Aneke, Bonne. This bodes well for the rest of the season and a few of them will be hoping to be involved on Tuesday.
The usual suspects for a midweek game come back into the thinking with Sarr likely to replace Pearce, Oztumer could replace Williams, whilst Field could make his first start for us in 16 weeks by coming in for Pratley, who could be given a complete rest. We can also hope that McGeady has recovered from illness to be involved, whilst Forster-Caskey, Aneke and Bonne will be pushing hard to make the bench.
Subs: Amos, Pearce, Doughty, Davis, Williams, Bonne, Hemed
An attacking trio of Green, Taylor (to be made captain for this game), and McGeady, with Oztumer just behind could be a match for Forest's front three and cause their defence a lot more trouble than we did on Saturday. But this is going to be an incredibly difficult game. A great result against Leeds would have them thinking that they have to follow it up with a win against us if they're really serious about promotion. Whilst Saturday's result for us leaves us only one place outside the drop zone. I do though believe that Bowyer will make sure we don't lose both away games before the sell out next week. A tough match where we frustrate them, but do enough to earn a draw.
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Charlton Athletic
Taylor
Reverse fixture preview:https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/86550/charlton-athletic-v-nottingham-forest-wed-21-august-match-preview-predictions-news-views/p1
Comments
Regardless your help has been great this season and hopefully look forward to more of the same from us both next year too
Would pretty much agree with the team you've put out
Am 50/50 in my mind as to whether we'll see Solly over Matthews, hopefully be good to see McGeady!!
I thought about Solly and agree we could see him come in, but Matthews has played 12 of the last 15 league games going back to the last international break, so clearly is first choice right now.
Need a much better performance to get a result here. We have to go for it because sitting off just won’t work.
Having gone to Stoke yesterday I honestly cannot see anything other than a defeat.
I absolutely hate predicting anything other than a Charlton win but after yesterday's performance I can't.
3.1 Forest.
Please prove me wrong Charlton.
That performance against Stoke and the Forest result against Leeds can only mean defeat for us (3-1 again).
Sad to say, but we were awful against an ordinary Stoke side.
You'd hope that Tuesday is the opposite to Stoke in the sense that the latter needed to win due to their 4-0 loss... I wont be surprised if Forest are a bit jaded after their Leeds win, they'd have used a lot of energy to match up yesterday so could be sometime we can use to our advantage
It’s going to be extremely tough, but if we compete and battle like Bowyer’s teams usually do, we can get a result.
After Andy Hunt's awful game against Coventry (which was later because of his illness) I've always tried not to simply blame a team performance because the players havent shown up, always gotta be something more than just that
3-1 loss again as the trapdoor is waiting to gobble us up
shadows looming BUT one or two real six pointers to come this month will ease our nerves a bit...
Phillips
Matthews Pratley Sarr Doughty
Cullen. Davis
Green Ozzy. Williams
Taylor
Subs Amos, Lockyer, Field, McGeady, Purrington, Aneke, Morgan
Subs in bold/italic. Save Bonne for Saturday.
I think it'll be a loss, but not one we should be overly worried about. I already have half an eye on the Blackburn game where the Valley should be near enough sold out.
Just dont think we are good enough without Gallagher and our defence is getting worse by the week.
3.0 defeat.
Right now I would be satisfied with a point.........I can tell ya!
We are not good enough and esi have left us in the shit. My attention fully on Wigan Boro game.
Think a team below us are going to pick up a result, leaving us clinging on outside the relegation zone by a point.
I much prefer the lineup above. Keeping possession will lessen the chance our tragic defending will be seen again.
No game in this league is a free hit. Everyone can lose to anyone. We need to go for maximum points every game. We'll need them.
if Nicholas is right (I was not there so have no idea) it did no good at Stoke and it'll do no good at Forest
I thought we had a strong team out on Saturday. It proved to be nowhere near strong enough. We miss Gallagher and have no-one near good enough to perform his all action role .. anyway he's gone and it's up to Bowyer to devise tactics to cover the loss and whoever he selects to perform to the very best they can for the rest of the season.
Best outcome, a draw and no injuries .. no score prediction