Good luck Dougie, you'll need it

Dougie Freedman. There's two words I didn't expect to be typing tonight. Still, at the ongoing soap opera that is Nottingham Forest, little should surprise us now should it? A returning character back at the Queen Vic, cue the 'doof doofs'.

I'll be honest, I'm underwhelmed. Dougie looked to be on to good things with Crystal Palace but jumped ship to Bolton, where things didn't work out. A Bolton fan friend was, well, less than impressed with his tenure at the Trotters to put it mildly.

The people who seemed obsessed with Pearce's win percentage at City will probably be outraged now since Freedman's figure was worse at both Palace and Bolton. Still, if Danny Mills hasn't got a bad word to say about him he'll be ok, right?

I just hope the new man at the helm hasn't been set a 'get the top six this season or else' target. We're a long, long way off being ready for the big time. We shouldn't go down but we cannot be complacent and think that isn't a danger. In essence this next 18 games should be the perfect period to settle on a formation and build a side that can be the basis going forward into next season. That makes sense and would be logical but you fear that Fawaz doesn't deal in the world of slow, steady building.

But, regardless of the new man at the helm we have to now face up to some home truths.

Firstly, we aren't a big club any more. I was appalled to read some people arrogantly suggest we could pinch a manager from a top six club as new boss in that heady hour when it appeared I'd be blogging on potential replacements for Pearce. We're not a Premier League club in waiting and we've certainly got no divine right to have a place in the top flight. Especially not since we were last there in 1999, when Freedman himself wore the Garibaldi and struggled to fill the shoes of Van Hooijdonk and Campbell. Most professional players in football today probably don't even remember us being in the top flight. It's a little depressing but it's time to accept that our name alone counts for a lot less than it once did. We should, rightly, aspire to get back to where we once were, but we can't expect it. Brian Clough left a wonderful legacy at this club but we're not far away from squandering it entirely. Footballing wise we're certainly back where we were when Ol' Big 'Ead worked his miracle.

In fact, you worry that we're becoming seen as a bit of a joke, frankly. We sack a manager every few months with no plan whatsoever for the future. When Southampton lost Pochettino they knew exactly what sort of manager would fit their system and ethos. Players, managers and coaches are brought in to fit the style and structure of the club. System, ethos, style and structure are not words you can associate with Nottingham Forest at the moment. Pretty much the best thing to come from the Pearce era is the renewed emphasis on making the academy at the heart of the club's future. It's a start, but we've got an awful long way to go.

We also have to accept that it is going to take some time to get to where we want to be. Constant chopping and changing has created a mismatch of a squad forged together by bits and bobs from different managers. We must have a long term plan, with coaches, scouts and board members all buying into it. It can't go on being Fawaz playing at it like it's a computer game. He needs sound advice from trusted senior employees and, importantly, to listen to it. I've read tonight that some people at the club were as shocked as we were by the Freedman appointment. Did he weigh up all the options, speak to the chief exec etc and go for someone who shared the club's vision or did he just plump for someone who wanted a job and was available? Too many more sackings and even those out of work with a point to prove will start to say no (cough, Warnock, cough). The one constant in the 'failures' of O'Driscoll, McLeish, Davies and Pearce is the club itself.

The job of shaping a squad is even harder given that we are under a transfer embargo. Freedman can make just one signing, and even that comes with financial caveats. He must get more out of what he has at his disposal.  Some may say that's not too hard given the potential of the players at his disposal. That maybe true but he's lacking a left back worthy of the name, a tackling midfielder and anyone with confidence at the moment. He can get more out of this current set of players and he'll have to. He'll also have to integrate our next crop of young players. We can't keep getting in average players on loan to fill full back and midfield berths - we need to start to forge those players 'in house' and use our budget wisely on the rarer creative and goalscoring positions.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Fawaz means well. He's invested an awful lot of money but it's not just cold hard cash we need. It's proper management. That's from the top to the dugout and onto the field with the players themselves taking some responsibility too.

So, a club stuck in a rut with little or no strategy except a failed short termism and scant opportunity to change the squad. There's your in tray Dougie. Welcome back and best of luck. By God you'll need it.

More Maierhofer and less misery

I don't know about you but I like watching Stefan Maierhofer. The bean pole Austrian has lined up for Millwall in each of the last two seasons at the City Ground and has provided some light relief from two dismal defeats.

Last season Ian Holloway's men were the party poopers in an odd occasion which came straight after Stuart Pearce had been announced as being on his way in the summer. This time the Lions once again did their bit to dent the enthusiasm for Psycho with a win that leaves Forest looking firmly downwards. Any faint optimistic talk of the play offs which may have lingered has to end - in this form we may be lucky to get another 13 points let alone make up a 13-point gap on the top six.

But enough of that doom and gloom for now. At least we had Maierhofer. Last season he snarled and griped and harrumphed his way through the game and was promptly hauled off before he could be hit with the red card that loomed. This season, back for a second loan spell in south London, he was at it again. Youngsters wanting to perfect the 'what, me ref?' shrug should study him. He also displays an excellent technique in running after a long punt up field with his back to the ball, often ending up bouncing face first into a centre half with no intention of winning the ball or, indeed, knowing where the thing is. He's bit like a crazed dog on an eager chase crossed with one of those street mime artists who extravagantly flail their limbs about. It's probably just me that finds the whole thing strangely fascinating and, at times, laugh out loud funny.

He also has other attributes to admire. He's one of those 6ft 7 1/2in big men who doesn't jump and doesn't really win that many headers. Nor does he run much. I like to imagine each of his actions in a game is accompanied by a comedy sound effect. 

Yet there's another big reason why I enjoyed Stefan Maierhofer's performance yesterday. That was because with him at the forefront of their attack Millwall looked unlikely to be able to take advantage of another pitiful display from the men in red.

When Holloway shuffled his pack we were in trouble. Yes, it took an all-too-familiar howler to let Ricardo Fuller in but you just felt it was coming. The plucked-from-non-league Lee Gregory battled with purpose and power to unsettle Wilson and Hobbs and Fuller loomed dangerously, with his experience and guile an obvious threat.

The arrival of that duo meant that some end product seemed likely to the man-of-the-match work of the on-loan Diego Fabbrini. At times the Italian threatened to take the 'comedy bad guy' crown from the marvellous Maierhofer with a couple of Bafta worthy tantrums. Yet, the odd mardy aside, Fabbrini's talent shone out in a game that was desperately devoid of it (Dorus De Vries's super save aside).

The Watford man displayed a touch, control and vision that looked a level above of anyone else and, frankly, showed up our midfield duo of Tesche and Lansbury. Both of those showed flashes of talent but, as a pair, they simply don't dominate games and didn't again here. 

Millwall, not constrained by an embargo of course, seem to have shopped sensibly this month to plug a few defensive gaps. Jos Hooiveld kept Britt Assombalonga on the fringes of the game (although there was precious little supply in fairness) and Shaun Cummings is another solid defensive addition to the ranks as the Lions look to make an escape from the bottom three. You can't help thinking that we maybe ought to have done more to plug our defensive gaps than chasing Gary Gardner and now, it seems, Jack Grealish. I'd happily let Jorge Grant or Oliver Burke have a go in midfield if we could finally become more solid at the back.

Which bring us to the other defensive addition made by Holloway. Dan Harding. He had been maligned in certain quarters while on Trentside but I can't help but feeling he deserved a longer run in Forest red. He's maybe only capable of a 6 or 7/10 performance but he looked a lot more assured than Danny Fox or Eric Lichaj in that position and obviously has a lot more experience in that berth than Stephen McLaughlin.

That was perhaps more marked yesterday by the fact that McLaughlin was at the heart of the decisive moment. I don't think we should be too harsh on him. 'Proper' defenders have made plenty of similar errors over the years to his woefully tame header back to De Vries but his showing as a whole yesterday suggests he has a little way to go if he's to be 'converted' into a full back.

The goal just put the rancid cherry on a particularly sour cake. I've tried to remain positive but it's hard not to be concerned by that showing. We're still left without a settled and solid back four - although Todd Kane seems a decent signing. Our midfield keeps shuffling about to no avail and you can't help feeling that moving Michail Antonio further forward has reduced the effectiveness he showed earlier in the season as a dangerous winger. We're also now signing or chasing players in positions that we really ought to have covered. With Lichaj on the books we shouldn't have to be using up one of our possible signings on Kane. With Burke and Paterson in the squad then Grealish shouldn't be a target. Yet failures and poor form have meant having to do just that. I'm not yet sure how good Gardner is but he certainly doesn't like the sort of player who could have the impact Fabbrini or Hooiveld had on Millwall yesterday.

In most Championship seasons 45 points would be enough to stay up but here's a sobering thought. In 2012/13 Peterborough were relegated on 54 points. 20 more points seem a long way off on that display don't they? We desperately need to finish the season on a high, playing better football with a more settled side. That way we can at least feel a lesson has been learnt from all this.

And the manager? I've backed him so far but he really does need to address our serious issues and quickly. You feel he won't survive if points cannot be plundered from four more games against struggling sides, particularly Wigan at home and Blackpool away. Fawaz's finger will be hovering over that trigger finger once again and the manager must show he can deliver progress even if promotion is beyond him.

It's all getting very gloomy at the moment. And we've not even got a comedy Maierhofer to come back and bring light relief...

No need to push the City Ground reset button again

Well, that was an almightily balls up wasn't it? 2013/14 is a season heading straight for the bin marked 'waste of time'...or is it? Is there a crumb of comfort to be rescued from the wreckage? As it happens, not just a crumb but hopefully much more than that (a slice?!).

It started off ok, probably more brightly that your average Billy season, and even featuring an impressive 3-0 win over a Bolton Wanderers side that this writer laughably thought would challenge.

Then, after the obligatory home defeat on the birthday of yours truly to Reading (cheers lads, still not quite as bad as the 0-4 reverse to Leeds a couple of seasons ago), Billy's boys went up a gear and powered through a 16-game unbeaten league and cup run.

At that point a tilt at the title still looked a little way off, but the race for second place wasn't too fanciful and a play-off spot was surely on the horizon.

And then it happened. The meltdown of Shakespearean proportions befell Trentside, eventually sweeping away Billy 'Macbeth' Davies and his team amid an ever-fractious environment.

Gary Brazil laudably brought in some calm - and a couple of kids - and there was a glimmer of false hope just to ensure we couldn't properly relax as the season finished. But, if we're honest, it was never going to be our season after a bizarre month-and-a-bit stretching from the cup defeat at Sheffield United on February 16 (we would've been a home game vs Charlton away from Wembley) to the pathetic display down the road on March 22.

The end of the Davies era has been, rightly, dissected from all angles - with the laughing stock press conferences (my highlight being when he once posed his very own question to himself and then answered with a 'no comment'), the clashes with photographers and 'legal advice' not to discuss his own team's performance following games while he served a touchline ban all mulled over. Billy's own bland 'it is what it is' mantra became a tongue-in-cheek catchphrase among the fans, a bit of dark humour from the masses to rail against the Davies dictatorship.

If we're honest, all or most of that trouble was looming large in the sidelines even when things were going well. It just took 8 games without a win - particularly the painful sheep dip showing - to convince Fawaz that it was time to part ways.

It could, of course, be argued that it was injuries that cost us really. Add Reid, Wilson, Cohen, Hobbs, Lansbury, Lichaj into the side in March and we would, surely, have done better - especially with Reid's magic wand of a left foot to conjure something from nothing.

But can injuries be purely put down to bad luck? The sheer volume of those on the treatment table at least causes you to question if more could not have been done to a- keep the players fit and b-not sign players that were unfit.

Bad luck or bad management - we might never know on the injury score but the alarming slide meant Davies' demise proved inevitable.

So that's it - wash our hands with the whole episode, etch the Natalie Jackson interviews from our memory, forget the 'unfinished business' hashtag and start again?

Well, maybe not. Two years ago we were still facing the prospect of attracting an owner. We'd had the failed McClaren experiment and the watch-through-your-fingers Cotterill rescue to endure. When Fawaz bought the club and appointed Sean O'Driscoll we had barely a month to piece together a back four without a defender on the books. With that much upheaval you're always going to struggle to succeed.

This time it should be different. The last two years as a whole were a mess. Although backed with money, SOD was sacked after precious little time to put a side together, McLeish was just a terrible mistake and then came the rise and fall of BD round two. But, if we set aside the managerial merry-go-round, the basics of a team/squad have emerged from those ashes.

Stuart Pearce (*resists the temptation to pause blogging for a Psycho fist pump*) should come in on July 1 with much less to do transfer wise than either of the last two pre-season incumbents. Why? Well, when fit, there's no reason why the following nine players can't be part of a Pearce line-up come August: Darlow, Lichaj, Cohen, Hobbs, Wilson, Reid, Lansbury, Vaughan, Paterson.

Add to that:

Lascelles - perhaps harshly missed off that list but bound to be needed given the injury record of messrs Hobbs and Wilson

Fox - who is better than he showed here last season - especially given his background from dead ball situations

Halford - maligned by some but does have a good touch and football brain, if not a preferred position. In some ways the 'perfect sub' since he can cover for anyone else

Mackie - a hard worker who just lacks finesse

de Vries - an able deputy at this level

Osborn - looks a natural 'Forest midfielder' and really took to first team action when thrown in under Brazil

McLaughlin - also stepped in towards the end of the season, looks a little raw but will hopefully benefit from the experience and could push for a place on the bench

Then there's players we may be 'stuck with' and have to find some use for...

Majewski - has proved himself to be pretty unreliable over the years, performs in fits and starts but goes missing too often and makes mistakes that leave you tearing your hair out

Cox - a huge disappointment in the Garibaldi Red. Has shown very very occasional flashes of the talent he possesses but looks far behind the player he showed himself to be at Swindon and West Brom. Maybe a Pearce sized boot up the posterior could get something out of the Irishman?

I'd move Henderson, Harding and Collins towards the exit door if possible - all have proven to be below the quality needed for the top end of the table and are surely no better than what Brazil might be able to prepare for us from the academy.

Pearce wants a smaller squad apparently so that probably only leaves 3/4 berths to fill. Of those nine starters mentioned you could either see that 'core' as two banks of four that simply need two strikers to round it off or as a creative midfield that needs a tackler behind it and striker in front, or a natural 433 that needs a striker and another attacking winger.

In essence I'd like to see that core of nine being adapted to be play as all three of those formations. Pearce's shopping list should definitely have a tackler on it to free up Reid, Lansbury and Vaughan to run games, with Paterson just off a front man. Too often we pushed Vaughan and Reid very deep to paper over the fact there was little or no 'screening' for the back four. That can only be to the detriment of players whose talents lie elsewhere. The others used in this role - Moussi, Greening and Jara - have all been moved on.

The shopping list should also, most obviously, have strikers on it. Yes, maybe one that can peel wide as a modern winger-cum-striker but absolutely top of the list should be an out-and-out goalscorer. Forget the departing Miller and Derbyshire, the deteriorating Henderson or the mis-firing Cox, this needs to be a proper 20-goal figurehead. Reid, Lansbury and Paterson managed 29 goals between them in a stop-start season, a proper striker on top of that would make us an altogether more deadly prospect.

I'm sure Pearce knows this of course but it is worth reflecting on the fact that, despite everything that has gone on, if we sort our fitness out we are just three or four players away from having a pretty good side - maybe just two from the starting 11. Yes strikers occupy probably the hardest, and certainly most expensive, of positions to fill but we've got (and had) plenty of time to look and it's refreshing to think that what we require isn't a massive rebuilding job, it's a sensible 'building on what we've got' job.

All that may not be the sexy 'clear them all out and start again' territory that excites some but, as we've seen, that sort of thing doesn't bring overnight success. Everyone praises Leicester for building a side and developing over time. If we utilise the decent core of players that I think we have then there's absolutely no reason to think we can't look back and consider these last two years as being ones in which we've 'built' towards our long-term goal.

Of course, it isn't all about players. But you do feel that Pearce and his staff should bring the leadership, enthusiasm and calm to the dugout that should help to move his side in the right direction. If he's scouted sensibly then let's hope he can get those couple of players in early, get a decent, injury-free pre-season under our collective belts and then definitely ensure we haven't been wasting our time for two turbulent years.