As we are now around a quarter way through the season I thought it would be a good time to analyse Stuart Pearce's start as Nottingham Forest boss. Forest recently recorded a vital win in dramatic style by beating Norwich City 2-1 late on at the City Ground which has arguably made this article a lot more positive than it would of been if Forest had suffered another defeat in that game.
I am going to start by looking at results which is what managers are judged on especially in the modern game today. Pearce has been in charge of Forest for 17 league games in the Sky Bet Championship. He has won six, drawn seven and lost four of those games. Those statistics don't seem too bad but considering Forest won four out of their first five games you would have expected Forest to have collected a lot more points than they have in recent weeks. Pearce has got an argument that the loss of Jack Hobbs, Andy Reid and Chris Cohen have had a big effect on this but if you look at the line up Forest have every week even without these players, they are capable of a lot more. Hopefully, now they have had that confidence boosting win against Norwich they can go on to repeat their form from the beginning of the season. If you compare the start to this season to the start to last season under Billy Davies, Forest are two points worse off. After 17 games last season, Forest sat 6th on 27 points. Today, Forest sit 11th on 25 points. However, there are differences between this season and last. Last season there were two outstanding teams in Leicester and Burnley who managed to keep their form up the entire season and stayed near the top for the entire campaign. This put Forest eight points off the top of the Sky Bet Championship at this stage last season. This season Forest sit seven points off the top in what is a much tighter league. No one is running away with the league this season and there are many teams which could achieve promotion. This is shown by the fact Forest are 11th but only seven points off the top. This arguably means that Forest are in a better position to mount a promotion push than they were last year at this stage, with promotion looking more achievable. Of course, there are other teams with similar ambitions which Forest will have to battle with for those top places such as Derby County, Middlesborough, Watford, Ipswich Town, Bournemouth and more who have all shown potential so far this season. If Forest can stay within this group until around Christmas they will then have a great chance with the boost of a returning Jack Hobbs and Andy Reid. They could then go on a good run and push themselves right into contention.
The fans are the heartbeat of any football club and Stuart Pearce has recognised that. The fans seem a lot happier overall than they were under recent managers such as Billy Davies, Alex McLeish, Steve McClaren and more. Stuart Pearce has a connection with the Forest fans which I haven't seen since I have been watching Forest. This was shown during the celebrations of Michail Antonio's late winner against Norwich as Pearce joined in with the fan's celebrations. Pearce always comments on the fantastic support from the fans which helps the fans feel more positive about everything related to the club. The fans have supported Pearce all the way so far, shown in the attendances both home and away. It has only been a minority which have ever suggested sacking Pearce, and there has been no mention of it since the win over Norwich showing how ridiculous it all was. Forest fans have recently shown their fantastic support again by selling out their allocation for the away trip to Wolves next week with around 2,500 fans attending. When managers such as Billy Davies were in charge there were far many more doubters around than they are today. Pearce's reputation as a player is going to buy him a lot more time than any other manager. He needs to continue to build relationships with fans who can't remember him as a player. If he manages to do this then his relationship with the fans is only going to get even better.
The morale among the players seems to be very good under Pearce. The team has shown tremendous character throughout the season especially in that dramatic late win against Norwich. You know that they all want to play and do well for Pearce. This has been shown with their ability to end that long winless run. Billy Davies's side had a similar run last season which resulting in him getting the sack. He had completely lost the players during that run which ultimately cost him his job. This has not happened to Pearce who has managed to keep the players on side the whole time. Pearce has a much different approach to what previous managers have had. He never uses injuries as an excuse or makes out that the players coming in to replace these injured players aren't good enough. He has faith in all the players and believes in all of them. He also has faith in youth bringing the likes of Ben Osborn, Jorge Grant and Jamie Paterson chances throughout the season. This is something which just hasn't happened under previous managers. It is something Pearce has recognised as a very important part of the club and this is good for the development of our young players.
Pearce has also done very well in the transfer market. He started by letting majority of the out of contract players leave. This included the likes of Matt Derbyshire, Guy Moussi, Gonzalo Jara Reyes and more. He also offloaded more deadwood including Simon Cox, Darius Henderson, Jamie Mackie, Rafik Djebbour and more recently Greg Halford. This has helped reduce the wage bill of the club massively and allowed us to bring in better quality players. One deal which wasn't approved by the fans was the £7 million sale of Jamaal Lascelles and Karl Darlow to Newcastle United. However, it was later found out that this had nothing to do with Pearce who also objected the decision. Pearce has replaced these players with better quality ones in the summer. He has brought in the likes of Michael Mancienne, Matty Fryatt, Britt Assombalonga, Michail Antonio, Robert Tesche, Chris Burke and more who have impressed so far this season. Players like Assombalonga and Antonio have brought Forest a threat which hasn't been present in a very long time. There is just no comparison between Britt Assombalonga and players we had upfront last year such as Simon Cox, Darius Henderson and even Greg Halford. He hasn't overspent either, all of his signings have been well worth the money. He managed to sign Michael Mancienne ridiculously cheap at just £1 million. He has also recently attracted England Under-21 star Tom Ince to the club on loan. Forest would never have been able to attract this caliber of player to the club under many other managers especially not Billy Davies. The only concern over transfers is that the club could be faced with a transfer embargo but this is mainly down to Billy Davies overspending in the past on the likes of Rafik Djebbour and Djamal Abdoun who is still reportedly sat on £30,000 a week with no involvement in the squad. Once the injured players have returned this should be less of a problem anyway.
Overall, I think Stuart Pearce has made a very good start to his time in charge of Nottingham Forest. Forest are in a good position on and off the field to make a challenge for promotion this season. I think that after that win over Norwich, Forest will now go on another good run which will push them right up the table. Promotion would be a huge achievement for Pearce in his first year in charge of the team, but it is possible to achieve. I think if the club remains together we can all push towards the goal of reaching the Premier League.
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