Kenny Burns: A little more aggression, a little more satisfaction guaranteed
IT might only be until the start of January but Alan Hutton might be the man Nottingham Forest need to instil a bit of aggression in the side.
On Saturday, the on-loan Aston Villa man made his debut shortly after arriving and played his part in a 2-1 win at Wolves. A great win.
The Reds are right up there in the promotion mix and by the time he leaves on January 2, I hope to see Sean O'Driscoll's men even further up the Championship table.
But, despite the pretty football and strong position, I would like to see a more nasty side to the Reds. A little bit more aggression.
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And the experienced Hutton, a man who joined Spurs from Rangers for £9m, is the man to do that.
I mean, I have seen a couple of his tackles in the past and they are some I would be proud of!
But I'm not just talking about the miss-timed ones. I just like the fact, as well as bombing up and down the line, he likes to get stuck in. He likes to let wingers know he is there.
That is something every Forest player needs to do. Have a strong word in their ear, make that first tackle count. Make sure you use your upper body and let your man know he's not going to get the better of you. After all, if you put the frighteners on them, they will soon go and hide. Trust me, they will. That's why they are in the Championship.
If they were the full package, they would be in the top flight, undeterred by nothing but that is not the case. Mentally, you can grind a player down and have the battle won with a simple hard, but fair, tackle.
We have not seen enough of that from Forest but hopefully players like Hutton will bring that to the team and the controlled aggression will spread through, making the Reds even more of a dangerous force.
I mean, Saturday's win was superb. To come from behind and beat Wolves is no easy feat, regardless of how they have been struggling, and it shows intent by the Reds.
It will also have boosted belief and confidence and the only concern is the injury to striker Simon Cox, who could now be out for a while.
It will put more pressure on Billy Sharp but he will rise to that as he proved at the weekend with a well-taken goal to equalise before Adlene Guedioura struck a corker to win the match against his former club.
But now, as they head to Ipswich tomorrow night and then prepare to face high-flying Hull on Saturday, they must really believe that maximum points will put them right in the hunt.
Ipswich are in dire straits but there is an added twist to that game as their new manager is Mick McCarthy, a man who turned down Forest in the summer.
He will be desperate to prove a point, but for the Reds it is a great opportunity and they have to remember if they can win at Wolves, they can win at Portman Road. And in doing so, put one over McCarthy themselves. Show him what he is missing out on.
There will be no more signings until January but with the current squad, in the coming weeks, Forest can really push on.
As I have said before, show pace in your play and add a little aggression, and they will be a force to be reckoned with.
And in Hutton, they have a man who can lead the way when it comes to getting stuck in and making the opposition know they are in for a rough afternoon.
Comments
by Chuck_Forest
Tuesday, November 27 2012, 2:39PM
“I'm sure there's a song title in there somewhere Kenny ......”
by sandbagga
Monday, November 26 2012, 10:05PM
“i recall Bobby Gould in an interview once telling a story of a left back playing alliance footbal once the put the winger off the field in a heavy tackle he signed him or 30k he had a habit of letting wingers know he was around the rest is history”
by trickygaz
Monday, November 26 2012, 8:17PM
“kenneth burns is spot on & believe me Hutton has had plenty of practice when playing for
Rangers.Hard to believe that was only our second win since Burnsy inspired a 3-2 victory in the title winning season(i woz there!!).Lets hope we gain another 3 points tomorrow & again on saturday(Hull will be tough).The injuries are a tad worrying,guess we'll find out how good SOD
will be at juggling the squad.Lets hope we're in the mix come january,then things WILL get
interesting!!FTID”
by Davesbedroom
Monday, November 26 2012, 8:16PM
“Oh Larry, this is the City Ground, not Elland Rd”
by derkaiser
Monday, November 26 2012, 5:18PM
“Psycho66:
If you wrote these experoences and some of your others I'd be one to read it. Sounds quite an adventure for you!”
by Psycho66
Monday, November 26 2012, 3:40PM
“Richardw11, my father in law is Irish and we go to the England Ireland games here and in Dublin and have done for the past 10 years, we have banter of course but neither there or here I have never seen one bit of trouble. I guess England Rugby have sites like this and I would wage they do not have a Marseilles Martin or a Scotlandram trolling on them. Football does attract some idiots and always has, problems that do not seem to occur with egg chasing. Having said all that I've been locked in at Old Trafford to save my life, waded in ankle deep wee at St James Park, put in a 50ft square cage at the Dell, been left by my bus in Bruges, Seen things at Hillsborough no man should ever see, been to Wembley 10 times, been pinned to a wall by a police horse at Elland Road, hit by a dart outside Stamford Bridge and been in the Market Sq twice to see the European Cup being lifted, let's face it Football is just so much better than Rugby even if it is how sport should be played.”
by Psycho66
Monday, November 26 2012, 2:50PM
“HighburyRed, couldn't agree more, Arsenal are very pretty but after losing Vieira and one of the nastiest back fours ever they have struggled to win anything.”
by richardw11
Monday, November 26 2012, 2:48PM
“Psycho66 - and the other thing about Rugby is that after smashing each others faces in for 80 mins the losing team applauds the winners off !! No twitting that the fly half is a such-and-such with Rugby, Then there's the move the free-kick 10 yards if the offender complains rule. Football could learn a lot from rugby !!
Agree with the Lansbury comments - I too have been saying for the past 3 weeks that Reid needs a rest, and Lansbury showed his quality on Saturday - one of the passes of the season that was !
I think we have to write off Cox for the next 2 months - bit of a disaster - so hope to god that Sharp or Blacksrock don't get injured or we will struggle. I can see McGoldrick coming back in Janauary and seeing out the last 6 months here instead of at Coventry. He should have renewed confidence. Many will say that he's been scoring in Div 3 but Charlie Austin was also in Div 3 just 2 years ago and is now being talked of as Div 1 material.”
by HighburyRed
Monday, November 26 2012, 2:06PM
“Agree with all of this ... All the great teams in history have had a hard as nails enforcer, and the reality is that is still true today, they just have to do it slightly differently to the old boys. Man U aren't half the team without Vidic, Barcelona have Puyol and look what happens to Chelsea's defence when John Terry isn't playing (regardless of what you think of him as a human being). Also look how Arsenal have failed to win anything in their attempts to play 'pure football': great team but they miss a key ingredient. The thing about all the top 'enforcers' through history (and this is where we start to include Steve McMahon, Graeme Souness, Psycho, Kenny Burns to the list above) is they could play a bit of football as well. This is what sets this group apart from the Vinnie Jones's and Lee Cattermole's”
by bolulu
Monday, November 26 2012, 1:04PM
“Flipflopper:
I do believe you're missing a "Kenny" in that memorable chant!
Btw, agree with all the posts on this page!”