Davies wants five-man strike force at Forest
BILLY Davies wants to put together a five-man strikeforce to fire Nottingham Forest away from the wrong end of the Championship table.
The Reds boss is hoping to add two strikers to his City Ground squad to bolster his attacking options.
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Billy Davies
And he believes the club's current injury situation shows just why he needs the extra firepower.
Robert Earnshaw (hamstring) and Nathan Tyson (calf) both picked up injuries in the 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday.
And Joe Garner collected his fifth booking of the season, meaning he will be banned when Forest face Derby in their FA Cup replay next week.
Tyson does have a decent chance of being involved against Cardiff this weekend, although he may have to play through his injury – as Ian Breckin (groin) and Wes Morgan (hernia) have done in recent weeks.
But Earnshaw looks to be facing at least a couple of weeks on the sidelines, if the club do not want to make his injury worse.
It is a big blow for Davies as Earnshaw and Tyson have scored eight goals between them in Forest's last six matches.
And the manager wants to make sure the Reds have cover in place when this situation arises again.
He said: "They have been key players, but if this club is going to be a force, we need a five-man strikeforce of real quality.
"We need a five man front-line that we can rotate so that they can handle playing three games in the space of a week.
"At the moment we cannot do that. I look at the bench and I don't know whose nappy to take off first.
"We are working on new signings and hopefully something will happen before the weekend."
The situation may at least provide an opportunity for Garner to earn a return to the starting line-up, with the £1.14m striker having to cope with the frustration of a place on the bench in recent weeks.
Davies may initially bring in only one striker, with a left-back also a priority – although he said he was impressed by the performance of youngster Joe Heath on Tuesday.
And the boss said he had faith in his young players to keep producing the goods in the meantime.
"They are a joy to work with, they have given us all they have got," he said.
"There is naivety in their play and they show their lack of experience at times, but they deserve huge credit for what they have given us."
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by Keith Gordon, Grantham
Thursday, January 29 2009, 11:28PM
“If you read BD's actual interview on the web site,as opposed to the NEP's selective paraphrasing of it,you'll see that Billy is talking about the need for 5 strikers NEXT season ,if we are to push for a top-end position in the CCC as this will give him the chance to rotate players,both for form and fitness reasons.
This was something Warnock always did at Sheff.Utd,although it can be a tough job keeping them all happy if a couple aren't getting regular opportunities.
He may well be looking to augment our strike force in view of our list of injuries and suspensions,but ,in view of his statement about the January transfer window being a time when clubs rip you off for players not good enough to get into their own team,I very much doubt if he has 2 permanent signings in his sights now-that's something he'll be looking to do in the summer.Unfortunately,Sinclair and possibly Newbold (whom Billy hasn't even see play in a competitive game yet) are unlikely to be seen as able to fill the breach.”
by Howlin Red Dog, Queen Of The Midlands
Thursday, January 29 2009, 10:48PM
“iI's just been reported on News At Ten that the two British seamen held hostage for eight weeks by Somali pirates without any access to the outside world were released today and were anxious to know if Derby had won a game under Nigel Clough yet.”
by You dont get it, do you? How big your ego must be.
Thursday, January 29 2009, 10:34PM
“I feel the same way as dougie. If it comes down to a choice between being well informed by spies, or protecting the club and its information, i'd rather not be well informed. You're not very clever leaking club info, what were you expecting a blue peter badge? Well done.”
by Silky, N Ireland
Thursday, January 29 2009, 8:38PM
“Why do some of the people waste their time typing crap on here? Porter never coming here, someone mentioned Luke Moore, no way. You may aswell say beckham while your at it. What about Lambert, i know hes top scorers so far.”
by LinbyRed, Nottinghamshire
Thursday, January 29 2009, 8:24PM
“Cant believe BD is not looking at a central midfielder after the pairing of Perch and Mcgugan and their level of performance the other night. Still 3 points is 3 points but i feel we will need to improve greatly at Cardiff on saturday to come away with something.Good luck and best wishes to Morgan and his family.
PS Please keep in touch Mansfield Maddog i miss you?”