Nottingham Forest’s dismal run continued yesterday as
they fell to a 2-0 defeat against Reading at the Madejski Stadium. Philippe
Montanier will now feel under considerable pressure after only picking up one
win in 11 games in all competitions.
It seemed like all was well back in August as Forest
were picking up wins and scoring plenty of goals in the process. Results such
as the 4-3 wins at home to the likes of Burton and Wigan and hard-earned 2-2
draws away at the likes of Rotherham and Aston Villa, had fans very optimistic
for the season ahead.
However, the £13 million sale of home-grown talent Oliver
Burke to RB Leipzig in addition to many other off the field issues now seems to
be taking its toll on the pitch. Forest’s away form in particular has been diabolical
this season having failed to win a single one and losing six of them.
Forest’s defensive frailties were apparent right from
the first day of the season as we conceded three goals to newly promoted Burton
Albion. Despite this, nothing seems to have been done to improve the team
defensively and in some ways the goals being conceded are getting worse.
Philippe Montanier will clearly have to take a
significant amount of responsibility for this. However, how is he meant to deal
with individuals making such costly errors game after game? For example, Aron
Gunnarsson was allowed to score a header from 6 yards out for Cardiff City at
the City Ground last weekend. These sort of basic errors wouldn’t be accepted
at Sunday League level, let alone the Championship.
Despite all these problems Forest are currently
experiencing, I can’t help feeling that Montanier is still a good manager.
There have been many glimpses of what could be achieved, most notably the 3-1
wins over Leeds and Birmingham where the defence looked solid whilst Forest
were still just as potent in attack.
It just seems that the Forest job is an impossible one
and that Montanier just finds himself to be unlucky to be in the hot seat at
this particular time with Fawaz Al-Hasawi looking to sell the club and fans
becoming increasingly apathetic.
However, I do believe that Montanier will be given the
opportunity to turn things around. This is mainly because I can’t see a
takeover going through anytime soon and with Al-Hasawi looking to sell, he is
unlikely to spend any of his time and effort on a search for yet another new
manager.
