KaKa

What a goal that is. No nonsense sublime placement.

Yes, they did let him and they've all gone. It was still Howe's decisions though, and so if things continue to go badly he will ultimately pay the price, especially if there is resistance to the changes the new DOF is trying to make.

GIving ETH a new contract then sacking him a few months later was incredible. This move with Ashworth is actually more astonishing! Ratcliffe came across as a nutter during all those interviews ranting about gardening leave, and we all couldn't believe his behaviour, and thought it would turn out badly. And here we are. The guy seems very reactionary and chaotic.

There's deals out there to be done with more bravery. This is how to navigate and beat PSR. Ola Aina has been brilliant for them too, and is a Chelsea Cobham graduate. They signed him on a free. Hudson Odoi out of Cobham too, they signed for £3 million from Leverkusen.

Jim's 'best in class' Ashworth. After all of that fuss and money. What a dummy!

Wait, what?! No way man! This is tremendous

Your team looked far more suited to how Ruud was looking to play. More direct and explosive. Would have been interesting if he got till the end of the season. Your lot at board level seem enamoured with Man City and that style of football. I don't think the players you have can get their heads round that sort of play, which was essentially the problem under ETH too.

The squad we have built over the last two years is very much his. He has said he is happy with the business they have done regarding transfers. I find it strange the idea he's been let down in this area. Ultimately, the way the squad has been put together has ended up causing him big problems. For the last two years at least there have been numerous complaints on here regarding not addressing the right wing, and also not addressing how open our midfield looks defensively. Neither of these issues have been addressed with adequate signings, or tactical adjustments. This season we have largely continued to play the same formation with Bruno playing most often in front of the defence in a single pivot. I find that extraordinary to be honest.

Honestly, that's all well and good, but we haven't even made the best use of the talent we have available to us right now. If we were doing that and coming up short then fair enough. The confusion of how to integrate Tonali, and how best to utilise Barnes and Gordon to overcome the issues on the right has been a disaster. There are teams with less costs that are performing better than us right now and are on track to finish ahead of us.

Kelly was not the fall back because we didn't sign those two. Either of the other two would have been signed in addition to Kelly. My goodness man. Why would you even say that?

Sounds about right. Don't think a lot of the current first 11 were there aside from Yates and Gibbs-White I think.

I remember folks clowning Forest for the raft of signings they made when they came up. And now here they are sitting in 5th after a win at Old Trafford with Wood and Anderson as key contributors. Pretty impressive progress they've made this season.

Well this is great

Really need a Forest win to lift my mood.

Biggest concern was that today was such a similar setup and approach as the West Ham game, and things played out in a really similar fashion. Seems there was a failure to recognise the issues that existed with how we approached that game. It's very very surprising, and pretty disappointing really.

Personally, I'm at the point I don't trust anyone in front of the back four other than Tonali. Against Liverpool he killed a number of breaks in transition they had and was just far more convincing there defensively, as he gets back the quickest. Not to say he's perfect, but he's our best bet. Today was just like West Ham, we looked great going forward but we got sucker punched by the other team, as we were unconvincing getting back defensively when we needed to. Tonali was then thrown on late with a number of other players to chase the game, and the shape was completely lost and the play became disjointed. And so at that point it all looked rubbish and it's difficult to assess performances from that point onwards.

Disagree completely. Tonali makes a big difference protecting the defenders. Brentford have been good going forward at home, and we should have been wary of that. Howe can keep going with the same sort of approach though, and we'll see how it ends up. It certainly won't be good.

We didn't play well enough to put them away. We are nowhere near good enough to rotate like we did, end up on the back foot and then try and come back with subs later on. Lost track of how many times this has been the case this season. We have to start with our strongest team at the minute and pile pressure on these sorts of teams early on to try and demoralise them and put them away. If players then tire we can make changes then. A big part of the reason we were so vulnerable in transition today again was losing Tonali in midfield and it has cost us.

The most shocking thing is if we'd have just managed a couple more results we'd be right up there vying for the Champions League. It's been a disgraceful missed opportunity not taking advantage of the way the league is playing out currently. Totally unacceptable.

Could not believe the starting lineup today personally. We should have started like we did at Liverpool and looked to make early subs if they were struggling, as we don't play again now until next Saturday. Never think we'll get a result with that right side combination we started with. Today is a complete disaster. The number of points we've thrown away this season with poor team selections has been extraordinary.

Man ... this would be a terrible terrible result.

One of the upsides of PSR. Even the so called bigger clubs are more hesitant on big transfers. Good. Serves them right.

Crazy how much that Atalanta move has changed Lookman's life. They are going to be right in the mix for that title. Sweet revenge for De Ketelaere today too. Has really found his feet since leaving AC Milan for Atalanta. AC Milan look well off the pace and may miss European football altogether. Tomori again didn't play. Going to be interesting to see if we are really in for him this January.