I really thought we were going to put Forest back in their box. I kept thinking about when we went to Leicester a few years ago when they were our nearest challenger, and we put on a proper big boy performance and showed them that there were levels to this shit. That’s what I thought would happen here. It didn’t. Not until the last half an hour or so anyway, and even then we didn’t produce the goals to make it count.
Nevertheless, it’s vitally important that we didn’t lose. I’m not going to call it a good point, but it’s ok. It could have been worse. The point itself is largely neither her nor there, but avoiding defeat is massive because not only did it stop Forest from closing the gap, it also spares us from the psychological damage a defeat does. Drawing away at the team in second place is fine, both in isolation and big picture. We should have won though.
I think there’s an important distinction to be made between should have won, and deserved to win. I absolutely think we should have won. I would not make the claim that we deserved to, because if you create as little as we did in the first half, and are then as wasteful as we were in the second, you only have yourself to blame if you drop points.
That being said, look at the shot map for the second half and it tells you all you need to know. Forest had three, from ridiculous positions on the pitch including the half way line. We had about 15, most of them in the box in good positions. Yet the TV narrative was all about amazing, brave, sticking it to the big boys Forest. The reality was they were hanging on for grim death for the last 25 minutes of this game and on most other nights they get battered given the balance of play. They didn’t get battered though, partly because of how shite Mo was and partly because they put their bodies on the line and defended valiantly.
When they beat us at Anfield they carried out their gameplan to absolute perfection and the game played out exactly how Nuno Holy Spirit wanted it to. It couldn’t have gone any better, that’s exactly how he’ll have drawn it up. This wasn’t that. At least the final half an hour wasn’t. The first hour was Forest basically doing what they do most weeks. Defending well, in numbers, preventing the opponent creating clear chances and then waiting for their moment to pounce.
We were dominating the ball but I don’t think we should be getting any extra credit for that, as it’s what we’re supposed to do and want they want us to do. They don’t want the ball, they didn’t even want it at Goodison recently. They want you to have it and then when there’s a chance to spring out and break they’ll take it. That first half was more of the same of what we saw at Anfield.
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