Still a lot more to come.
Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live in the aftermath of the Derby County game, Lewis Grabban spoke about how the team managed to grind out their result against Derby County by virtue of the fact that they were playing counter-attacking football and allowing them to capitalise on the mistakes made by the Derby County players.
But playing a counter-attacking style can only get you so far.
Let’s look at it statistically (all stats via WhoScored). Forest currently rank second-highest in the league when it comes to the amount of time spent in their own third with 32%, and joint-sixth fewest in terms of time spent in the opposition third at 27%. This shows that they are spending far too much time around their own area and not enough time pressing the opposition and putting them under pressure in their own end.
Add to that Forest being ranked 13th in terms of shots per game with 13.1 and you start to see a pattern emerging, Forest are playing far too passively this season and need to start playing more on the front foot if they are to be serious challengers for promotion at the end of the campaign.
Whilst their style of play is managing to get results, and they managed to go on a long unbeaten run off the back of that playing style they are treading a very fine margin when it comes to the results, as their defeats to Wigan Athletic and Hull City proved. If you don’t create and score chances, as soon as the opposition gets one, it’s hard to come back from that.
The fact that only one of those games, the one against Birmingham ended with a margin of more than one goal shows you how lucky they were to be able to last that long and how it could have been over before it became a thing at all.
Do Nottingham Forest need to be more attacking?
Yes, more goals more fun
No, just get the three points
This international break should be seen as not only a time for rest, but a time for tweaks. A tweak to a more attacking style of play. You can at least keep the counter-attacking play as a backup if things don’t work out. Forest have a good Plan A, but a lack of a plan B could be what costs them at the end of the season.
