Forest Five Asides: Support for Karanka, Burton, signings, corners, Appiah

With a third of the season already behind us, we're heading into the meat of the Championship season. After an up and down few weeks for the Tricky Trees, here are some thoughts on five talking points...

Gone for a Burton

The less said about the 'performance' at the Pirelli Stadium the better. Yet, I can't help but hope that the fourth round Carabao Cup defeat to Burton doesn't turn out to have a similarly destabilising effect as another recent Clough-inspired cup exit. February 16 2014 saw the Reds visit Nigel's Sheffield United side on a 16-match unbeaten run. A win would have meant that only a home tie against Charlton stood between the Tricky Trees and an FA Cup semi final. Despite going a goal up, Forest capitulated, failed to seize the moment and killed their momentum. Billy Davies never won another game in charge and was sacked just a month later.

I'm not suggesting that things will explode as badly as they did for Billy MK II, but it's a cautionary tale in how a poor cup defeat can have a knock-on effect if you're not careful. Momentum is difficult to build, but easy to lose. It was certainly frustrating to pass up a great chance to progress against Burton and it'll be tough to put that disappointment behind us when the league leaders are in town on Saturday.

Support for Karanka

One thing that was worth noting from Tuesday night - and in other games in fact - is the level of support from the paying punters for Aitor Karanka. He's attracted not one but two chants and both were audibly expressed by the travelling Trickies. Managers are rarely around enough to warrant such a privilege these days and while the support might, in part at least, come from a desperation for someone to stay around for a bit, that he is supported by the fans who attend games is not in doubt.

Is this significant? It's certainly worth bearing in mind when grumbles and murmurs begin on social media. It definitely ought to act as a reminder of the fact that Twitter is not always the best gauge of the entirety of fan opinion.

A goal from a corner

The Forest goal against Leeds United was a rare treat. Jack Robinson's header was the first goal from a corner since Dani Pinillos' injury time leveller in the 2-2 draw against Derby on March 18 2017 (thanks to Darren Morley for that shocking stat). That game - Mark Warburton's debut in the Forest dugout - feels a long time ago now doesn't it? The club's dismal record since is brought into sharp focus when you consider that we were the only team in all four English leagues and the top flight in Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Holland not to score from a corner last season (stats here). That's on top of conceding the most goals from corners in the division too.

It all goes to shown that we make life hard for ourselves, missing out on a potential source of goals and a way to win the sort of tight game that is common in the Championship. Let's hope Robinson's goal is the first of many.

Lesser spotted signings

I wonder how long it will be before we see the most recent two additions to Aitor Karanka's squad? Claudio Yacob and Panagiotis Tachtsidis are both yet to make their Reds bow despite, apparently, being fit. With Jack Colback being suspended, might Yacob step up to make his bow on Saturday? Given his recent pedigree, you'd like to think that he'd have plenty to offer at this level.

It's certainly the case that, despite having an abundance of midfield talent at the club, we haven't quite found a combination that can consistently dominate teams and dictate the play. You feel that the balance is much better when we don't field two deep-lying 'destroyers' - and Watson and Colback doesn't feel like the best combination.

Arvin on target

There was one bright note to come from the Burton game, however, as 17-year-old Arvin Appiah stepped off the bench to net his first senior goal on his debut. It's great to see the Academy production line continue, and that's something that we can't afford to lose sight at a time when we've just seen a big influx of new signings. With Joe Worrall out on loan and Ryan Yates struggling for game time, it's important to see that the door is not shut on the club's young talent.

I'd like to see us have the confidence to field Appiah on the bench for league games. Especially given that we've had some games in which there have been three wingers among the substitutes and no strikers. It'd take some strange circumstances for us to need to bring on three fresh wingers and, given the size of the benches these days, it's surely worth having an attacking player up our sleeves.

It also made me feel pretty old to read that Appiah was born on January 5 2001 - a time when the rest of us were suffering the second season of David Platt.

Wigan and Burton: Two tough six pointers for Brazil

When Bristol City arrived in town at the end of January it was said that it was the first 'proper' six pointer of the season. Thanks to Ben Osborn's Le Tissier-esque free kick, Gary Brazil successfully navigated that test. He followed that up in the next home game with another important win against a slightly more doomed relegation rival in Rotherham. Now, however, comes the tougher test of two away six pointers, either side of back to back home games from second place Brighton and Brentford.



We head into the Wigan game having had the optimism of three home wins eroded. It always looked a tough ask to take on play-off contenders Norwich, Fulham and Sheffield Wednesday in a week and so it proved with three defeats. Even if we'd been doing well this season, that would have been a tricky trio of fixtures.

That nightmare week has left us just six points clear of Wigan who, luckily for us, squandered a chance to make up ground by losing at QPR in their game in hand this week. They'll no doubt be smarting from that and relishing the chance to climb out of the bottom three. Not only that but they'll be buoyed by the fact that they've already put us to the sword in the FA Cup in a game that not only helped to end their own seven-match winless run but marked a real low point in the dying days of the Montanier regime.

Yet the main worry ahead of Saturday's six pointer comes from our appalling record on the road in 2016/17. As Soccerstats shows, if the table were drawn on away games alone, we'd be second bottom.

Luckily, if you did the same spilt for home form, we'd be 10th and, promisingly, Wigan are the worst home team in the whole division. Two wins in 17 away for us is, however, a big concern and raises questions about our ability to handle both this game and the trip to Burton in a couple of weeks.

Our only two away wins so far - Ipswich and Barnsley - came in the same week and featured three centre halves. I'm not necessarily sure that we have to revert to that style but it does show that Philippe had come to realise the need to try to add some resolve and defensive steel to a side leaking far too many goals. We need a solid base, bags of hard work and the right determination to try to avoid a crushing defeat.

Tactically, these away games are the biggest test of Gary Brazil's managerial career. From the day Montanier left until now I remain convinced that Kenny Jackett would've been a smart choice to steer us away from danger but that question is over, for now. Brazil, Jack Lester and Rob Page need a pragmatic game plan. Dare I say it, even some vague inspiration from the Dougie Freedman playbook? We have to try to win the midfield battle and that might well mean packing the middle of the park to avoid getting overran. If we're going to use Matty Cash then we need his energy in the middle, not being wasted out wide, while David Vaughan is an absolute must - Montanier's mistake of wrapping him in cotton wool can't be repeated. I'd take Vaughan on one leg over Kasami, frankly.

Brazil and co have got to fashion a side that's tough to beat amid yet another injury crisis (something that may well mean fielding three central defenders isn't possible anyway) and out of a mismash of a squad.

🎥 #NFFC first-team manager Gary Brazil speaks to Forest Player HD ahead of the game against @LaticsOfficial.
➡️ https://t.co/vLx4mC9wf0 pic.twitter.com/8DPtGzZegg

— Nottingham Forest FC (@NFFC) February 23, 2017

Don't get me wrong, Fawaz's January supermarket sweep brought in some quality players but it was the footballing equivalent of nipping to the shops when you're in a rush and hungry. You can come home with some of what you want but you can also buy things you don't need too.

Can we play Ross McCormack and Zach Clough play in the same line up? How do they fit in with Britt and Brereton? These might not be bad problems to have but have we got time to work all of this out?

Then there's the arrival of the wing wonders Gboly Ariyibi and Joao Teixeira, neither of whom have seen the light of day. I'm willing to accept that Ariyibi is one for the future, but who takes out a 'sub-loan' of a player that they don't seem to have a plan to use?

I know people often say that 'our squad should be higher in the table' but the problem with that is that we haven't once landed on a consistent 'winning team' out of that squad.

The haphazard nature of it all is, of course, indicative of the ill thought out nature of the way Fawaz 'runs' the club. Having been turned down by several managerial targets he has also settled on sticking with Brazil and co until the end of the season. This 'appointment' is, like the signings, a handy way to try to deflect criticism of his shambolic handling of the club. There's a distinct lack of activity in building a structure behind the scenes, one month on from the last round of hollow promises.

The youth structure and the 'pathway' to the first team is pretty much the only thing working at the club at the minute. For that, Brazil deserves our respect and support as he wrestles with first team duties. That surely isn't in doubt. Everyone desperately wants Brazil to succeed and he ought have a prominent role in the future of the club on and off the field regardless of what happens to the managerial position. For now, though, the focus is on the short term and in making sure that his preparation work isn't geared towards getting promoted back from League One.

If we were to get our act together and get good results in these two key away games then it'd be a huge boost to our survival chances. On average, taking the numbers from the last ten seasons, 46 points would have been enough to secure safety. You'd like a few more than that to be sure (in 2013 and 2008 55 and 53 points were needed) but once we're past that point I'd feel an awful lot more relaxed about young players being blooded in.

Before we get there, Gary Brazil needs a couple of rabbits out of the hat. If he does that, we'll have yet another thing to thank him for. If he doesn't then we'll face an almighty scrap, with four of the last six home games against top six contenders. No pressure then Gary...