Your Thoughts On The Current Nottingham Forest Manager

[JWJW]

Unbeaten this season.

Performances need to pick up, but its not a bad start.

He needs time to work out his main squad, he needs to see how the players handle themselves, he needs to see who can perform their tasks and who make mistakes. Mistakes need to be cut out, either by the player not making them or cut the player from the squad.

its going to take time, but AK will get there.

[the jock]

gattuso said today you cant change players in a week. this will take months.

much of our team is far from settled.

[PsychoStooge]

Yep. Whoever said patience is a virtue wasn't wrong, it's even more applicable now days when it seems everyone craves instant gratification and not just from their football team.

[PsychoStooge]

Well from my POV he inherited a squad that was far too weak and full of coasters and had been for god knows how long, Karanka was the first manager that had the bollocks to actually do something about it which isn't easy to do in January. 

To be fair, that's a bit of a myth, MW moved out 10 last summer, 22 left the season before, 20 the one before that, & Pearce moved 6 the summer before that. In fact most managers, at most clubs have a clear out when they arrive, to make room for their signings. The only real difference this time was that most were done on the same day, with a big fuss being made about it on social media, so it caught people's attention & looked bigger than normal.

The difference is the other managers did it in the summer time with a pre-season to get the new players drilled and up to speed, not two and a half months at the busy end of a season, for me Karanka put us 6 months ahead of where we would be by doing that in January.

[Kylos247]

Ak will get till Xmas unless performances get worse, I hope.he succeeds, sick n tired of the revolving door. It just becomes embarrassing to support nffc.
Bridcutt for me has got to start against Newcastle, and I hope he plays out his skin. Always gives his all and is a quality player. Unsure why Kara dislikes him.

[Alf]

I think it's fair enough saying he needs to be top 6 this season but that would represent a manager getting a whole season though, that hasn't happened in a long time at Forest and my earlier point was more regarding fans who have clearly decided Karanka won't be successful here after 5 games of a new season and will decide the same of the next manager and so on.

It's not just the 5 games though is it? It's inheriting a club 14th last year, adding 10 players, and finishing 17th.

Let's be honest, last year was abysmal under AK, with the odd highlight season end with the pressure off. Fans were understanding and wanted to see him backed & given his team to start this campaign.

That's happened & we can't beat Bury, Wigan or Brum. With Brum a team who haven't gained 1pts away all season, nor scored 1 goal away all season until they play us.

It's poor, whichever way folk paint it AK's tenure here so far has been well below par & makes a bit of the mockery of the backing he's had too.

It's early days for this season yet, but AK seems to be chopping & changing hoping to hit a magic formula than having any real plan. Personally I'd have expected last year's highlights under AK - Cash & Lolley - to have been the first names on the teamsheet this year.

He signed 47 players at Boro, and I'm starting to wonder if his method is simply spend until you accidentally stumble across a combination which works. Either way I've not seen anything to warrent the hyped-up reputation which he had coming here. Personally I think he's yet to show any of the nouse which SOD, Davies, even Dougie did.

Well from my POV he inherited a squad that was far too weak and full of coasters and had been for god knows how long, Karanka was the first manager that had the bollocks to actually do something about it which isn't easy to do in January. 

I could name you a few managers who were hired at the back end of Championship seasons recently, didn't improve the league position when they took over and then went on to have successful seasons the next year. So what happened last season in terms of league position means very little to me. 

I'm not trying to paint it as anything other than it is, which is 5 games into a new season, not long enough for anyone to prove anything, which is also why I'm not raving about being unbeaten because it really doesn't mean much. 

But I'm not gonna argue with people who want him sacked, they're well entitled to that opinion, especially if they pay money and aren't happy. It's not surprising, as I said our fans have been like that for a while, I just don't think they'll ever see success while they want the manager sacked every half season.

You think I want him sacked? Where have I said that? I just think there's plenty we're doing wrong.

Those so called "coasters" had us higher in the league this time last year than where we are now. And as subsequent posts have pointed out, other managers have moved players on to.

And it's not 5 games, it's now 9 months - longer than most Forest managers get with 25m backing to boot.

[wassy04]

Pretty pointless comparing where we were after 5 games this season and last season. It’s 5 games! There’s so many variables in that to be considered. Ideally 10-15 is a fairer reflection, you could easily play 5 strong teams.

[PsychoStooge]

I think it's fair enough saying he needs to be top 6 this season but that would represent a manager getting a whole season though, that hasn't happened in a long time at Forest and my earlier point was more regarding fans who have clearly decided Karanka won't be successful here after 5 games of a new season and will decide the same of the next manager and so on.

It's not just the 5 games though is it? It's inheriting a club 14th last year, adding 10 players, and finishing 17th.

Let's be honest, last year was abysmal under AK, with the odd highlight season end with the pressure off. Fans were understanding and wanted to see him backed & given his team to start this campaign.

That's happened & we can't beat Bury, Wigan or Brum. With Brum a team who haven't gained 1pts away all season, nor scored 1 goal away all season until they play us.

It's poor, whichever way folk paint it AK's tenure here so far has been well below par & makes a bit of the mockery of the backing he's had too.

It's early days for this season yet, but AK seems to be chopping & changing hoping to hit a magic formula than having any real plan. Personally I'd have expected last year's highlights under AK - Cash & Lolley - to have been the first names on the teamsheet this year.

He signed 47 players at Boro, and I'm starting to wonder if his method is simply spend until you accidentally stumble across a combination which works. Either way I've not seen anything to warrent the hyped-up reputation which he had coming here. Personally I think he's yet to show any of the nouse which SOD, Davies, even Dougie did.

Well from my POV he inherited a squad that was far too weak and full of coasters and had been for god knows how long, Karanka was the first manager that had the bollocks to actually do something about it which isn't easy to do in January. 

I could name you a few managers who were hired at the back end of Championship seasons recently, didn't improve the league position when they took over and then went on to have successful seasons the next year. So what happened last season in terms of league position means very little to me. 

I'm not trying to paint it as anything other than it is, which is 5 games into a new season, not long enough for anyone to prove anything, which is also why I'm not raving about being unbeaten because it really doesn't mean much. 

But I'm not gonna argue with people who want him sacked, they're well entitled to that opinion, especially if they pay money and aren't happy. It's not surprising, as I said our fans have been like that for a while, I just don't think they'll ever see success while they want the manager sacked every half season.

You think I want him sacked? Where have I said that? I just think there's plenty we're doing wrong.

Those so called "coasters" had us higher in the league this time last year than where we are now. And as subsequent posts have pointed out, other managers have moved players on to.

And it's not 5 games, it's now 9 months - longer than most Forest managers get with 25m backing to boot.

I didn't say you wanted him sacked, you've inferred that from me saying 'people' I didn't mean you just because I was replying to your comment.

Fair enough if you think those players were heading in the right direction after some of the results around December January time, I don't though for various reasons. I think Figuiredo was an upgrade on Mills, Colback an upgrade on Vaughan, Dowell had about run out of steam so Tomlin was an upgrade there similar story with McKay and Lolley.

As I said, difficult to change a squad at any time, even more so when results have started going the wrong way and you're trying to drill your style.

Again as I said last season's results and table have little baring on this seasons for me. I'll leave it there, I feel I'll just be repeating myself if I carry on.

[Alf]

I didn't say you wanted him sacked, you've inferred that from me saying 'people' I didn't mean you just because I was replying to your comment.

Fair enough if you think those players were heading in the right direction after some of the results around December January time, I don't though for various reasons. I think Figuiredo was an upgrade on Mills, Colback an upgrade on Vaughan, Dowell had about run out of steam so Tomlin was an upgrade there similar story with McKay and Lolley.

As I said, difficult to change a squad at any time, even more so when results have started going the wrong way and you're trying to drill your style.

Again as I said last season's results and table have little baring on this seasons for me. I'll leave it there, I feel I'll just be repeating myself if I carry on.

My point isn't that we've not added better players (although some are debateable), it's that they've not got better results. Jason Lee wasn't as a good a player as Andy Cole, but Lee contributed far more to the club. I look at the squad we have now and ask myself "would I sooner have the current side, or be where we were last year with that side & the money to spend all over again?"

Personally, I think we've spent all that money & failed to address many issues in the side in the process.

It is early days though, and I'll wait until Rotherham's game is over with before deciding fully. By then I'd expect us to be starting to get into the swing of things.

[TEScott]

Even though we have two hard away league games coming up if we fail to get any points I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s sacked. Lose our next two league games and we’ll be well adrift from the top 6 and I can’t see us catching up, even this early on.

[Alf]

You think I want him sacked?

Just to nip this misunderstanding in the bud, I've read Alf for years & he'll discuss good & bad, warts & all, but he is from the stability camp & is someone who has constantly argued against knee-jerk hiring & firing. 

He's firmly of the attitude that we need to pick a manager, stick with him, give him the correct tools for the job, & enough time to see if they can deliver.

Cheers mate. What was your LTLF handle?

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

We can dress it up however we want but the facts are that Karanka has won just 6 games of his 28 games in charge. I can guarantee that Marinakis is getting twitchy, wrongly or rightly.