Punk Blade
Active Member
We’re all tired of hearing this from opposition fans, many of whom support nearby clubs resistant to leaving the Championship. My Forest mate was insisting last night that we’ll get relegated this season. I genuinely thought I’d misheard him at first as it was such a ridiculous thing to say. But his sole argument for believing relegation was inevitable: now we’ve (just about) played everyone once, they know how we play now and we’ll be ‘found out’. Even on the views from where the opposition are quite complimentary, there’s a belief that we can’t keep this up.
While this has grated on me for the last two or three years, I started to think that maybe they have a point. There is some truth in the idea that you can have a better idea of how to tackle an opponent after having faced them previously.
After a year in the Championship we came back stronger in the second season. After having played everyone once in that second season, we then went on an unstoppable march to promotion after Christmas.
So far this season our preparation will have been based on watching hours and hours of videos, scouting, and our management attending the odd game when they’ve been able. The same will be true of the opposition’s preparation to face us. So far we have demonstrated that we aren’t just good at our preparation, we are significantly better than most, if not all, of the league at this.
If there is an advantage to be gained by having faced an opponent directly, before the return fixture, I would think that the team that is clearly better at their preparation is better positioned to leverage that advantage. In two of three Wilder seasons we found extra gears in the second half of the season and romped to promotion; the anomalous second season can be attributed to an untimely Paul Coutts broken leg without adequate cover.
Now we’re in a position to have ‘found out’ the rest of the Premier League, we’re only going to get better.
While this has grated on me for the last two or three years, I started to think that maybe they have a point. There is some truth in the idea that you can have a better idea of how to tackle an opponent after having faced them previously.
After a year in the Championship we came back stronger in the second season. After having played everyone once in that second season, we then went on an unstoppable march to promotion after Christmas.
So far this season our preparation will have been based on watching hours and hours of videos, scouting, and our management attending the odd game when they’ve been able. The same will be true of the opposition’s preparation to face us. So far we have demonstrated that we aren’t just good at our preparation, we are significantly better than most, if not all, of the league at this.
If there is an advantage to be gained by having faced an opponent directly, before the return fixture, I would think that the team that is clearly better at their preparation is better positioned to leverage that advantage. In two of three Wilder seasons we found extra gears in the second half of the season and romped to promotion; the anomalous second season can be attributed to an untimely Paul Coutts broken leg without adequate cover.
Now we’re in a position to have ‘found out’ the rest of the Premier League, we’re only going to get better.
.
