Unai Emery

[Sexual Ealing]

Its quite alarming that suddenly people think Nottingham Forest have morphed into prime Barcelona over the past week.

They don't need to morph. They just need us to be Aston Villa when the pressure's on.

[Dante Lavelli]

I’m hoping the nervousness focuses the mind. It was never going to be easy, so respect for the opposition can only help.

[eamonn]

Its quite alarming that suddenly people think Nottingham Forest have morphed into prime Barcelona over the past week.

I mean they kinda have.

[Somniloquism]

Well they scored 9 of their 10 shots on target the last two matches and of 20 overall shots. Seems they either have definitely hit on a way to guarantee goals or they have just been lucky to play two leaky defences.

[Rory]

They're still Nottingham Forest, and it's still the case that if they beat us over two legs, it'll be because we haven't turned up.

[frank black]

Its quite alarming that suddenly people think Nottingham Forest have morphed into prime Barcelona over the past week.

I mean they kinda have.

A combination of this and the fact we choke in Semis

[walsall villain]

They're still Nottingham Forest, and it's still the case that if they beat us over two legs, it'll be because we haven't turned up.

Their current form is much better than ours so it’s hard to call. They are playing so much better than when Dyche was in charge.

[PaulWinch again]

They're still Nottingham Forest, and it's still the case that if they beat us over two legs, it'll be because we haven't turned up.

Their current form is much better than ours so it’s hard to call. They are playing so much better than when Dyche was in charge.

They are more solid. I suspect the last two games are anomalies as they weren’t exactly prolific goalscorers before. But let’s be clear, we should have been out of sight when we played them. Rory’s point stands, across 180 minutes if we don’t go through it’ll be because we’ve underperformed.

[Mister E]

Well they scored 9 of their 10 shots on target the last two matches and of 20 overall shots. Seems they either have definitely hit on a way to guarantee goals or they have just been lucky to play two leaky defences.

A few weeks' ago, Forest fans were complaining that they were having 15-20 goals-attempts and not scoring; presumably they had a high xG. Now, performance vs the xG is normalising as they are scoring more freely.
However, the Blunderland game was a bit 'out there' in that the home side massively underperformed vs their home-form trend.

Forest will have renewed confidence against us, and that can be a pretty powerful plus: we have to ensure that we are not bullied or over-run early in the game; make it tight and force them onto the back foot. If we serially concede possession and appear uncertain in our gameplay, they'll beat us.

[Smithy]

They're still Nottingham Forest, and it's still the case that if they beat us over two legs, it'll be because we haven't turned up.

Their current form is much better than ours so it’s hard to call. They are playing so much better than when Dyche was in charge.

Yep, their form is very good since the start of March (when they drew at the Etihad) - nothing like a relegation-threatened team. They're 3rd in the form table for the last 6 league games.  Unbeaten in 6, 3 wins, 3 draws (one of which was against us, obv).

I still fancy us over two legs, obviously, but we really need to stop thinking about this as a champions league team vs a relegation threatened team.  The reality is we're MUCH closer than that.

[Somniloquism]

Although the three wins are against two teams in relegation places and a team we opened up easily enough to score against 4 times, could have easily made it 6-7. We stupidly allowed Sunderland back in it of course which Forest didn't, although I do wonder what would have happened if the first Sunderland goal was given.

[Smithy]

Although the three wins are against two teams in relegation places and a team we opened up easily enough to score against 4 times, could have easily made it 6-7. We stupidly allowed Sunderland back in it of course which Forest didn't, although I do wonder what would have happened if the first Sunderland goal was given.

That is all true, but it also diminishes the impact Pereira has had since he came in.  Thinking of Forest as the same team they've been all season is like thinking of the Villa in Unai's first 5 months as the same Villa as Gerrard's last 4 months.  It's the same team in the same season, but in reality the two sides are chalk and cheese. 

I don't think Pereira's initial impact at Forest has been as stark as Unai's impact was with us - but he has most definitely had a positive impact, and had a noticeable impact on results and performances since he arrived mid-Feb.

I think they'll stay up this year, and be back in the top 10 among the lower European contenders next season.

[RamboandBruno]

Normally agree with most everything you say Smithy, but whilst I do think the S/F will be tough (obviously hope Im wrong and we cruise through), i think its a leap to say Forest will be in the hunt for Europe next season. They might be of course, but Pereira had a really big impact at Wolves before it all unravelled really quickly and whilst Forest have better players than Wolves, who knows which ones they’ll sell this summer. I can’t see Gibbs-White being there for another year.