Here is every word the Forest boss said after the third straight defeat.
A disappointing afternoon
“Yes, very, it’s a game in which we shouldn’t have lost on the balance of play, credit to Swansea, they managed the game very well, particularly after the goal, they defended well when they had to. But it’s probably a little bit similar to how we’ve been where we’ve had periods of the game, very good periods of possession and also good periods of possession in the final third. But we’ve got to be able to capitalise on them periods that we have and the balls that we're getting in and we’re just not showing enough moments in the final third to get the breakthrough.”
Do you want more from your players when in that situation?
“I think there are two things, I think is the team working hard enough and I’m certainly not going to accuse, particularly in the way we were pushing in the second half, of not working hard enough.
“I think one, it’s about making good enough decisions, to maybe to get that extra body in, maybe at the time should work a little bit harder to get in the box, and of course it’s about showing that little bit more quality as we get into them areas. And the goal is a poor goal to concede, Anthony Knockaert’s had the chance, it’s probably the best chance of the game, so you know, at the moment there’s the fine balances of us conceding some poor goals that put pressure on us to score, and at the moment we’re not able to score the goals to alleviate that little bit of pressure.”
The Four-minute spell with Knockaert’s chance and then conceding
“That’s probably how we are at the moment, if we’re looking at something going for you, something going against you, they would say it’s a good goal, they’ve got the ball into a danger area, but defensively we should have done better, I think everybody seeing it would say exactly the same.
“Once you get them moments in front of goal, and to be against the better teams, what you would regard as better and clearer chances you probably aren’t going to have so many. Certainly for us at the moment, I think as we are, we haven’t been creating, apart from Barnsley away where we created clear chances, we haven’t been creating the clear chances and when you get into them moments we’ve got to be able to take them.”
Does it feel a bit like Groundhog Day?
“No, it never does, because the opposition is always different and we evaluate each game on the content of that game. But if I’m looking at some similarities, some similarities are am I happy at time the possession we have? Yes, am I happy with the areas that we get the ball into, and the areas where I’m not happy is of course both ends. We’re conceding poor goals and we are not creating enough good chances."
Are you frustrated at the moment?
“Yes, I think frustrated, as is the changing room, but I think it’s my responsibility to be able to change that, that comes maybe with a little bit of fortune, the game in which things do go our way, when we do take them chances and take that little bit of pressure off and takes us into a little bit more of a confident mode.
“But it’s my responsibility to make sure we come out here Wednesday night, against a very, very good side in Watford and show the qualities that we’re showing but showing sporadically.”
Position adding pressure?
“Yeah, but that comes with the position, it’s only ourselves that have got ourselves in that position, probably what we have after looking at my period are a decent start, certainly the first seven games and we’ve now gone into a three game period where we’re speaking about a lot of the same things. All you can do is look to break that cycle.
“We will not be the only ones, and at every stage, teams are going to go through difficult periods, we want to come out of this period as quick as possible. Wednesday is the first and best opportunity that we have, but we will need to show more.”
Are you confident it will turn around?
“We are still very, very early in the season, there are so many games, so many periods to still play and in the period of time here, I’m finding out about players still, looking at the best formations that I’ve got and the best form in the team. You’re always concerned when you’re not getting the results you want. You’re always frustrated that you don’t get the result that you want but if anything, it just means we’ve all got to work harder to make sure that we turn this recent form around.”
How’s Jack Colback?
“To be perfectly honest, I don’t know. My gut feeling is that hopefully it’s not too bad, but I don’t know.”
Was it his ankle?
“I think so yes.”
A blow for you at that point of the game?
“Yes it was, Jack’s obviously been a steady campaigner for us certainly in recent games, so it’s the last thing we’d probably want and some areas we’ve got really good cover and a lot of options, and probably Samba Sow hopefully will be into full training tomorrow, so that’s another option of course that we have in that position, but hopefully it’s not too bad.”
What do you need to change to get things right?
“There are only two ways in which you can change and that’s by changing the personnel that are playing and this is something that we are always working on and are always assessing and always trying to play the right team, the best team that we think.
“Or it’s a change of fortunes, and a change of fortunes comes with continuing to work hard and looking to turn that around and whether that’s a game, whether that’s a lucky result, a fortunate goal.
“I think anybody watching the game today, I think would say that we didn’t deserve to lose, but it’s fact that we did, so it’s analysing how we lost that game and working as hard as we can to turn that around.
Maintaining performance for 90 minutes?
“Particularly against the good teams, and there is a lot of good teams in this division, you can’t dominate a game for 90 minutes, you can’t, but the game is about both ends and you’ve got to be able to release that little bit of pressure, you’ve got to be able to take those opportunities to be creative at any moment of the game.
“If I look at the goal they’ve scored, you wouldn't particularly say that was a good period of their game, but they’ve had that one or two or three opportunities and they’ve taken one of them. We’ve had similar and not taken them. All you can do is continue to work as hard as you can, be as positive as you can and look for that to turn around.”
Good to give Will Swan the opportunity?
“Yeah, and I thought with the way the game was going to give us that option, a number nine option as well off the front, and it’s all around, a poor result, but it’s a nice moment for him.”
What did you think about the challenge on Colback?
“I must admit, I haven’t seen it again, but I think there was a few complaints from the players, but it’s difficult to comment as I’ve not seen it.”
