I think there's too much hyperbole being written about our recent performances, which seems to have led on to a torches and pitchforks mentality regarding the manager. In the pre-match forum, some people were concerned that Forest were going to play us off the park and 2-0 and 3-0 defeats were being predicted. As it turned out, we were hugely dominant up until the sending off, but even there were the better side over 90 minutes.
Our main problem currently is that the players have no composure in front of goal, something which I imagine is being exacerbated by them regularly being booed at present. Our 5 forwards are all playing badly at the same time, which is inevitably going to cause us problems in terms of scoring. However, to claim that we didn't have chances last night is simply untrue. I can remember 4 clear-cut chances and there were probably others too.
The 2 full-backs overhitting most of their crosses is also an issue. The question is to what extent is all of this the fault of Valerien Ismael? In my view, less so than many are making out. We now have a week until our next game and he said he's going to focus on our attacking play, so let's see what comes out of that. Whoever is to blame, we badly need a goal.
On the plus side, for all the pre-match comments about how superior Forest were going to be, they never really looked a threat until Molumby was sent off and, with Fulham and Bournemouth yet to play this weekend, they are the only 2 sides in the division to have conceded fewer goals than us.
As someone who's advocated strongly for Molumby, I thought he was mostly poor last night. He looks to pass backwards too much and didn't provide the spark that I thought he would, which was more of a problem as Mowatt isn't the player that he was earlier in the season. Of course Mowatt having to play 3 games in a week after being out for a month won't have helped him. We simply don't have enough central midfielders in the squad. Returning to Molumby, his rash challenge means we're going to have a problem in central midfield next weekend and it makes it easier for Valerien to turn back to Livermore in the game after that. I hope he doesn't but I'm pretty sure that he will. Molumby has blown his big chance really.
We've lost 4 games out of 20 thus far, so I don't really understand the extent and vitriol of the criticism that Valerien is receiving. Whilst we didn't create much at Huddesfield, we did have clearcut chances against both Blackpool and Forest and, with better finishing, we could have scored 2 or 3 in both of those games. Therefore, for me, our current form is a slump and not a crisis, and I certainly don't believe the calls for the manager to be sacked are warranted. We lack a goalscorer and don't have enough players in some positions. I don't blame Valerien for that, the Board simply didn't provide the funds needed in the summer, so I think the vast majority of the brickbats should be reserved for them.
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