Juán89’s Take On Colin Calderwood

Over recent months, stretching back to mid-way through last season, there’s been a lot of debate about Colin Calderwood, and whether he is the right man for the job at the City Ground. Until recently, I was right behind the man. He comes across as liable in his interviews, and he never makes excuses, which I appreciate in a manager of the club I love.

Like I say, until now I’ve been firmly on Calderwood’s side. However, I believe I’ve been seeing things through the much-coveted rose-tinted specs (sitting in the upper Clough stand year after year probably hasn’t helped), but I can now see no way forward for this club, other than for Colin to pick up his cards. Fair enough, 4th in the table is no disgrace, but this league is of a pretty poor standard, and with the quality we have, in addition to the money paid by the fans, 4th in the league and generally poor football is a pretty poor return wouldn’t you say?

Let’s think about this. In the summer, we made some excellent signings, got rid of a lot of dead wood. The summer was a period about which I make no complaint at all. The problem is, in a word, Calderwood.

Neil Lennon – rumoured to have fallen out with Calderwood, and I hope this is true, because if he watched us when we played with Lennon and when we didn’t, there would have been no other reason not to play him. Lennon gave us stability and a cool head in the middle of the park, two qualities CC is tragically lacking, which is possibly the reason for the clash of personalities.

Chris Cohen/Arron Davies are two players who did very well for Yeovil town last season. Davies has skill and pace of enough quality to fit into most Championship sides in my opinion, so surely you have to question why CC still refuses to give him a decent run in the side, whilst opting to play a beast of a center forward with no pace at all in Davies’s position?

Cohen meanwhile, has my vote for player of the season in terms of effort. It would not be fair to say he hasn’t been a good signing, but Cohen’s anonymity in several games this season is entirely down to Calderwood’s midfield formation. Whatever happened to the apparently lost art of playing players in their best positions?

As far as formation goes, what is the man playing at? We have two excellent wide players, neither of whom are used in their correct position, if at all. Accusations have been levelled at Commons of thinking he’s better than he is, but in my opinion the only one guilty of over-estimation is CC of Commons. He seems to believe he can waltz through any defence he plays against, and has totally forgotten what he is best at: beating a right back and whipping in crosses.

The fault in many of our recent games we’ve lost in is that we’ve been overrun in the midfield, Bournemouth, Swindon and Northampton (for a spell) being good examples. If I can see that (and if the Radio Nottingham team can also see it), why can’t the man who is paid to analyse our performances and alter the team accordingly?

You’d think that with the talent we undoubtedly have at our disposal, we should be playing attacking football? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I wasn’t aware that defending a corner with 11 men, when 1-0 down at home with ten minutes to go could ever be considered attacking. If the man plays football to defend, expect mediocre results.

I’ve stuck up for Colin, but I’m going to be forced to admit I want the man out of my club. We do have one of the best, if not the best squads in the division, and if he can’t see that simple and logical team selection and playing style is the way forward, there is no way we will get out of this division. I would love to be proved wrong, but I firmly believe the man is an idiot.

Do you have something you want to get off your chest? Do you want to defend Calderwood or the club? If you would like to have your say, then contact forest@vitalfootball.co.uk