Ten Years on: Hello Jeopardy my old friend (The Postecoglu Crossroads)

Time for some reflections on where we are as a club...

Timestamp:  62 days into the 2025-26 season.  3 league games and 22 days under Nuno.  4 league, 2 European and 1 domestic cup game and 40 days under Postecoglu.  Chelsea at home tomorrow.

After achieving European qualification at least a couple of seasons ahead of schedule we had to consider how to adapt our strategy to fit our new reality.

We suddenly became able to offer a future good enough to keep players we had expected to leave with Murillo and MGW unexpectedly staying.

We also knew we had to build a new type of squad, to move from the small tight consistent first 11, so as to compete in 50% more fixtures.  This is not Nuno's preferred method but he earned the chance to try.

We also took the decision to at the same time evolve our playing style from the low block with fast counterattack, to look to be able to win a possession based game against teams who sit in against us.

This was always going to be a calculated risk - because it moves away from the approach that played to the teams strengths and had the astonishing success last season.  There is a reasonable argument that it was necessary if teams were finding us out, but a risk nonetheless.

It's clear that something unplanned happened.  Going from giving Nuno a longer contract in July to sacking him within 3 months shows it was not an intended shift.  Nuno and Edu falling out was highly problematic but conceivably manageable.

Nuno's gripes at not having a fully expanded squad for pre-season seem wholly unreasonable given how transfer deadline dynamics work.  Forest had an excellent window in keeping the squad together other than Elanga whilst using the income to decisively upgrade forward, wing, centre midfield, keeper and centre back positions.  In fact it was only full back where we are not stronger in quality (despite 2 additions.)

Nuno clearly engineered an exit via the media but what led to it is less clear.  It does sound like Maranakis got his head turned by national pride with a fellow Greek manager winning the Europa league and the two clearly had personal contact prior to these changes.  

We had come to see the Forest of recent years as much more professional - in the Brighton mould - with a clear idea about our playing philosophy informing recruitment and a list of future manager and backroom staff targets.

The strategic play being made was an appointment that would enable a Europa season to result in future European competition (ideally champions league from a Europa win) whilst being settled in upper mid table in the league.  That in turn promised the potential to keep and further build a highly potential first eleven mostly at an age with their best football ahead of them.

Ange Postecoglu was a left field appointment for this brief that didn't look like it was off that target list.  A high press, inverted fullback,  high chances created and conceded to outscore the opposition was a huge lurch for the Forest squad - not something to do mid season with no preseason coaching window to  iron out vulnerabilities 

That lurch in playing philosophy, together with a 17th placed Premier league finish with Spurs meant concern and scrutiny were elevated from day one.

Ange had been blessed with a bionic start at Spurs winning 7 of his first 8 when Kane was in his pomp.  But that was the exception not the norm for his tenures in club management.  His Won 0 Drawn 2 Lost 5 start, the worst by a forest manager in over a century, was similar to his start at Celtic.

The owners judgment - that the team could do a mid season pivot to a totally different style with instant results - seemed reckless from the start.  

The whiplash for fans has been of a scale few can expect to experience.  The eager expectation of a first European season after 30 years of languishing in the third tier.  An owner making smart moves off the field to strengthen and seemingly capitalise on the big chance to stabilise on the edge of European places.  Having Brazil’s starting number 9 together with a prodigy of a  centre back, and Morgan and Elliott taking England by storm.  

The signs of faltering in the last 2 moths of last season were easily put down to fatigue and the 3rd place spot occupied for most of the year was enough to limp to the first tier of Europe only to be upgraded when it turned out the palace chairman doesn't read his emails so didn't comply with uefa rules.

The first two games started well enough.  A sparkling home demolition of Brentford and a creditable away point at Crystal Palace something to build on.  But after the media fireworks the team seemed affected and failed to beat put a dreadful west ham team to the sword before capitulation with 3 rapid goals conceded.

But almost overnight, the city ground faithful have had to come to terms with the resurfacing of something we’ve not had to consider for more than a season - jeopardy.   Jeopardy of two kinds both of which will not be good for the blood pressure of the men of my age on the terraces….

The first is in-game peril.  Under Nuno Forest had become somewhat predictable in being good at shutting up shop if we take a lead, and excellent at soaking up pressure, yet a golden glove keeper and - centre back partnership spoken of in glowing terms as second only to Arsenal.  We were, let’s be candid, not creating loads of chances, but when we did our conversion rate - Chris Wood’s in particular - was peerless.    The small squad and largely settled tactics - 4231 with a back 5 Morato appearance to close out games - became the norm.  Not that it was boring - electric pace on the breakaway and a front four chemistry that had Morgan Gibbs-White shown a deafness of touch and silky creative passing as good as we’ve ever seen by the Trent.  People hadn’t sussed out how to prevent Callum’s signature move, and nobody could catch Elanga.  

The second is relegation jeopardy.  It is a feature of our instant success culture that a bad run of 4 league games in the first 7 of 38 has us reaching for the ‘break glass’ alarm, but with European and cup games a sense of negative momentum - 7 games no wins - leaves us looking anxiously for signs that there is a plan and strategy to pull the planes nose up before we crash into the mountainside.

But are we really in peril?  The issue for us was Forest’s managerial changeover drama squandered what looked on paper like a comparatively easy first 6 fixtures:

Brentford (H) Palace (A) Hammers (H) Arsenal (A) Burnley (A) Sunderland (H) 

14 points from the first 6 - 4 wins and 2 draws could have put us back into the top 3 to resume last year’s form before the tougher next six

Newcastle (A) Chelsea (H) Bournemouth (A) Man Utd (H) Leeds (H) Liverpool (A) by last seasons standards might be expecting at best 8 points from this next 6.  Not a problem as a combined 22 from 12 would be top six form.

But Forest finished the first 6 with 4 points, after 4 successive league losses.

Comparing our haul vs the same fixtures last year with cumulative points difference 

Brentford (H) Won both years (0)

Palace (A) Drew both years (0)

West Ham (H) Lost this season but won last (-3) 

Under AP: 

Arsenal (A) Lost this season drew last (-4) 

Burnley (H) equivalent to Leicester - both draws (-4) 

Sunderland (A) equivalent to Ipswich - won last season lost this season (-7)

So overall we can say under Nuno we were 3 points off last years pace and with Ange we are a further 4 points off last years pace.

And the next 2 straight games:  Chelsea (H) Bournemouth (A) we lost last season so even if we get nothing we remain 7 points adrift of last year.   Not good but not apocalyptic yet.

All that said, the in game stats for Forest now make for ugly reading.  Second highest xG conceded in the league so lots of big chances against us.  Set pieces so improved last season are again a defensive Achilles heel.   And a shot conversion rate down from 20% to 2% tells the story that for all of the extra half chances created from front foot style we are firing blanks.

By switching playing style we seem to have neutralised our strengths both defensively - being leaky rather than soaking up pressure - and going forward where we can’t break down teams that we previously would have counterattacked.

Two poor Europa league results have turned us from second favourites to needing an uptick  to qualify at all from the group stages 

The huge question is how to manage the risk of a relegation catastrophe, and whether doing so writes off our European and cup aspirations too soon.

AP is a high-risk high-reward white knuckle ride.  We’ve seen in the first half against Betis that when it clicks with his teams it can be extremely good.  And the signs are our squad are taking instruction well.   But we also know Ange has won 8 of the last 38 premier league games he has managed, a full season points haul of THIRTY.  Even despite context of injuries and being safe from a poor bottom three so playing first string team in Europe, those are scary numbers in a season where a high 30s points tally will likely be needed to beat the drop.

But there is a wider implication of a move to a safety first manager in Dyche.  The floor is lower but so - maybe - is the ceiling.  Forest rip up the intended playing style change and dig in for mid table with the hope to go again the following year.

Except we have had the luxury of building from strength and that would be gone.  MGW,  Murillo,  Anderson, Luiz.  None will want to stay for a season that has no promise of Europe.  We may recoup decent money but it becomes a rebuilding job and a club less able to attract good players with nothing beyond the domestic to offer them.    This is what we are trading off for certainty of safety.   So pulling the trigger prematurely has a big cost, although each game it fails to click and the fan hostility may easily lock us into a tailspin that is better pulled out of sooner than later.

There is one move - in my view - that could keep alive the project.  Pay the £8m to buy out Silva’s contract.  A style that better fits our players.  A reset from the media war zone that Ange has so quickly become engulfed in.  And a reward of a European adventure for a manager who will be sought after when his Fulham contract ends - and is known to be unhappy at getting just 1 signing. 

It seems mad that the club will invest over £30m in players not even in the first 11 but would not spend to get the best managerial option possible.   Finishing 5 places higher in the league would completely pay off the fee from greater premier league prize money.

All eyes on Marinakis unless Ange can pull off an unlikely victory over a rejuvenated Chelsea team.

Have a seat, Jeopardy.  I think you could be with us for a while.

Forest Players during the Fawaz Era

Things are getting heated.  With the continued possibility of a takeover, and the chairman finally agreeing with his critics that his era has not succeeded and needs a more professional approach, now is a good time to look back at the players the team has acquired during his period in charge.

Is the squad stronger or weaker than the bunch that were pounding the doughty academy training ground in July 2012?  And which managerial team was responsible for that?

The graphic above shows in normal typeface the players that were in the squad the first season which spanned Sean O Driscoll and Alex McLeish's short reigns completed by Billy Davies.  Davies' summer signings in his full season are in purple italic.  The pearce era captures in black bold and the Pereira / Montanier team acquisitions in green italic.  The players are a mixture of signings and playerrs coming through the youth set up shown alongside the manager who gave them their first full first team starts

Keepers
A difficult category to assess.  De Vries and Stojkovic have been astute free acquisitions, with De Vries in particular masking defensive frailties with shot stopping heroics.  Both Camp and Darlow at their peaks were strong keepers, although by this period Camps form had declined, whereas Darlow continued to progress until he got a Premier league transfer.    It has not been a problem position for the club, and the first choice keeper looks not to have progressed but may not have declined either, although there is clearly less strength in depth as Henderson made a very shaky start.  I'd give it on balance to Billy Davies signings, as Camp and De Vries go back to his era.

Left Back

For many years a problem position and arguably the one which showed up Davies' era signings most, an Achilles heel during playoffs.  Freedman takes the crown for this position hands down, with Pinillos and Jokic the two outstanding players, both acquired for free.   Hard to exaggerate the weakness at the start of the Fawaz era, and whilst the jury is out on Traore, and Fox selection elicits widespread facepalms across NG2, Pinillos with Traore/Fox back is a far better state of affairs than the honest but limited endeavour of Harding and Maloney.

Right Back

Despite bursts of decent form by Jara and the promising but short recovery from injury of Chelsea Loanee Hutchinson,  the right back position had become a weak point too by the end of the Doughty ownership era.  Lichaj has made the position his own, despite limited competition, and Pereira whilst a talented player with attacking flair, does not provide the defensive positioning and tackling prowess needed to beat him.   I give this to Davies, and again think we are stronger now than we were four and a half years ago.

Centre Back
A cast of thousands.  Ayala, Ward and Lasceilles were a fairly strong starting point in the first season, with Danny Collins backing up, although the leadership of the Morgan and Chambers / Wilson first era, had long since moved on.  Davies signings were mixed:  Wilson (era 2) was an expensive mistake for a player in decline having lost his reliability, although Hobbs was a solid - if injury prone - signing.   Gomis?  Lets move on.  Although Perquis looks a decent signing, Lam is ill suited to the role and overall Pereria/Montanier have struggled hugely defensively.  I'd give centre back to Dougie Freedman.  Picking up the championships most expensive previous centre back signing on a free in Mills and top flight German league, and ex England youth international Mancienne, during a transfer embargo with a wage cap was outstanding.   On paper the team at this position is stronger now than in 2012 with Mills/Perquis/Hobbs/Mancienne, but progress in individuals only underlines the scale to which the championships leakiest defense bar Rotherham is underperforming, with 3 seasons of year on year defensive decline.   The best signing the club could make right now is a defensive coach.  

Left Midfield/Left Wing
We continue to mourn the passing from football of the mercurial playmaker that was Andy Reid, and the undervaluation of one of the premier league's best acquisitions from the championship in Michail Antonio.    Osborne's effort and tidy ball control make him popular with the fans but we have not hit the heights.   Whilst Abdoun and McLaughlin showed up the random disaster that was the chairman and wee scot together losing the plot.  I'd have to give this to the Pearce era.  Given Antonio was willingly given up by Sheffield Wednesday fans as an under-performer, we captured a gem.  Had we kept him, or got a fee in keeping with his quality, who knows where we might be.  Despite Osborne's industry, Carayol's patchy performances and Dumitru's yet to be seen adaptation to championship football show we are not stronger in this berth.

Right Midfield/Right Wing
At the start of the Kuwaiti's tenure, Forest basically did not play with wide men.  Doncaster's Coppinger comes from the SOD connection.  He was and is a decent league one midfielder.  Davies strengthened in decent but overpaid Tonka Toy Mackie, and the initially impressive but never quite worked out Patterson.  Pearce did well with Chris Burke initially very strong but fading, whilst giving the first outings to teenage prodigy Oliver 'Twisty' Burke gives him credit, although it was freedman who built on this.  Freedman's acquisition of Ward also added depth, so by the start of this season we were much strengthened on this flank, particularly with link play with Pereira.     The club self-destruct button applied since then has left many fans deeply saddened.  Burke in a bit part in the Bundesliga, and Lica yet to blossom, Ward loaned out.  Whilst not quite back to the threadbare 2012 situation, we have reversed the progress that was made.

Central Midfield
It is striking the sheer numbers of central midfielders in the squad in 2012.   Gillett and the by now fading Moussi showed frailty in defensive duties in the centre of the park.  A string of journeymen passing through were not righted until Chris Cohen overcame the successive injuries to resume his box to box duties although David Vaughan has been a solid acquisition.

Creatively we never replaced the initially magical but in decline Majewski, and still do not have an attacking midfield link player of quality, nor the creativity and set piece alchemy of Lewis McGugan.

In the centre of the park Lansbury is maturing and Matt Cash looks an exciting prospect although Kasami whilst showing some early skills has hit a prolonged period of poor form and shows a lack of fitness.  We continue to lack the physical leadership qualities that Paul McKenna in a previous era provided.  Forest are prone to get bullied in the middle of the park, and the whole seems less than the sum of the parts.   Overall an area that remains a problem for the club to control the play and to unlock stubborn defences.  No manager gets the award for this position.

Up Front
With Assombalonga, Bendtner, and Vellios now settled in (and Fryatt continuing to warm the injury table) Forest have much higher calibre firepower than in 2012 albeit less depth.  We might just give that to the Pereira/Montanier era who captured two of these three.  Assombalonga in the Pearce era is the top signing, but the failure of Veldwijk and injury prone Fryatt to make a difference suggests mixed results back then, and Brit was possible only due to Fawaz taking a deal for Darlow and Lasceilles which was not the manager's preference.

Summing up
On balance, the club has a significantly stronger squad than 2012 although it continues to underperform, and good individuals do not always make the best overall team.

Given all the players who have passed through to select from, I'd probably pick the following as my Fawaz era first eleven:

GK - De Vries
RB - Lichaj
CB - Mills
CB - Hobbs
LB - Pinillos
RW - O Burke
CM - Cohen
CM - Reid
LW - Antonio
ST - Assombalonga
ST - Sharp

Do the stats bear this out?  Thats a good question.

The Bare Bones? Forests Squad strength and Results

So..  All the talk on the radio and forums is that Forest are in free fall because of a deluge of injuries.  Which got me thinking...  Is there a way to measure the injury factor objectively?  So, I have had a go.  Here is the method:
1. Describe every position and rank all the players in their squad in order of choice for their best position.
2. Give 3 points for the top choice, 2 for the second choice, 1 for third choice, and 0 for less than this.  This rating responds to new players coming in or going out (the 2nd choice striker may be 3rd choice once the new signing arrives in January)
3. On this basis, a typical squad of 26 players can range from 33 points (first choice in every position) to 28 points (7 second choice and 4 third choice players).  Express this as a percentage and you have a measure for squad strength.

My hypothesis is that we can chart the top 6 clubs compared to forest to see the degree to which squad strength decline due to injuries and suspensions is affecting results.

What does it show for Forest, for the first 36 games of the season?

Three things to note:

• The decline in squad strength is real, and has been steadily increasing since the start of the season.
• Forests' points per game (the black bars) actually did better in games 21-30 with a squad strength of 50-60% than it did in the earlier game 3-13, despite many more of the first choice players being available in the earlier spell with a squad strength around 80%
• The recent implosion does correspond to a further decline with now just 40% of the full strength squad being selected for recent matches.

So, it might mean some sympathy for the manager, but also to be noted that the 'first choice' school of thought is only true up to a point.  A well motivated team comprising a fair number of second choice players can outperform the 'on-paper' top choices.    Perhaps the manager needs more credit for the more recent run given the depleted squad that achieved it, and perhaps the players need to take some heart from this.  It will not need the team to be back at 80-90% full strength for our fortunes to turn.  

My opinion has always been that the key issue for forest is the central midfield strength.  For 1 good holding midfielder (Guediora/Vaughan) plus Lansbury & Reid are between them a big big part of the reds success. 

Whether forest can bring in an emergency loan to address the deficit from Lansbury's absence could have a significant bearing on the prospects for a Wembley trip in 67 (and counting) days time.

Barnsley Barometer Brings Billy Blues

Barnsley.  A place I have been to with inexplicable regularity since supporting the club.  The annual away visit is rather like an annual check up at the Doctor.  How are we doing?  We can have an off day against a rival and come out badly, but whether we dispatch this team with ruthlessness and style is usually a good barometer.

Five years ago we were in a tussle for automatic with West Brom in Billy Davies first full season.  We were in second before 2 away losses in mid March, the second being Barnsley, a 2-1 defeat.  We went on to haul just 15 points from the remaining 11 games while the Baggies picked up 28, and the playoff lottery was ours.

After the sting of missing out on Wembley, we were soon back at Oakwell for another reality check in late October.  After an opening day loss the reds had gone on a 9 match unbeaten run until we again found ourselves 2 goals down and despite a Lewis McGugan special, conceded again at the death to be well beaten.  Another playoff year was to ensue, and more pre-Wembley heartache.

By next season's spring venture up the M1 the reds had self destructed with the ill judged Schteve disaster, and were perilously close to relegation.  The club was reeling from the sudden death of chairman Nigel Doughty four weeks earlier, and Steve Cotterill assisted by one  Sean O Driscoll were gamely trying to get the brakes on to halt a slide into League one.  They managed it, for which we owe them a great debt.  But the Barnsley game illustrated why Cotterill would not end up taking up the reins once the new owner arrived.    We dominated a side rock bottom on confidence with 5 losses in their previous 6.   After a good McLeary finish, we should have been out of sight by half time, even if our play was not exactly the beautiful game.  Instead, we sat back to defend a 1-0 lead that the inevitable equalizer came, and Cotterill's happiness with a point epitomised how far Forest had fallen from the previous 2 seasons.

Despite assembling a squad from scratch in about 5 days, Sean O'Driscoll was making a good fist of the Al Hasawi owner's first season in charge which managed to get to the Oakwell game at the end of October having been beaten only twice.  Forest were purring, and despite a Marlon Harewood opener that was not in the script we wopped them with Halford, Cox and Cohen on the score sheet before half time, and the returning son Jermaine Jenas finishing a deft dink over the keeper to put the icing on the cake.  It seemed we were building steadily and Barnsley away showed the promise ahead as we moved into 7th place.  Sean's reign was ended in a ground hog day moment of "chairman gets dazzled by former international manager who comes in and bombs out" plot-line, and the wee scot returned to the managerial fold, ultimately finishing one place below where we were on that cloudy autumn day.

And so to today.  Again Barnsley would be a litmus test.  Forest with arguably the strongest squad in the division and being well placed for a tilt at second, sat a comfortable 9 points above 7th place but problems loom.  The ever growing sick bay at the city ground had its 7th first choice player enter with Hobbs & Reidy joining Lansbury, Cohen, Wilson, Vaughan and Lichaj.   Despite this, we had a 14 game unbeaten run, but it looked like things were finally creaking.  A draw to Leicester was disappointing but creditable, but then back to back losses against Burnley and Wigan.  But both those teams are strong top 6 sides so had the wheels really come off?  The social media noise tended to be looking in the face of triumph and disaster with every result seeing neither for the impostor Kipling unmasks them to be.   Barnsley though.  Barnsley would be the test.  Barnsley, bottom of the table, just thumped 5-0 and having won only once since early December.   A side run on a shoestring, who can muster only 9,300 home fans to the game.  The prevailing thinking is that even if the depleted Reds cant master the top clubs until our squad recovers, if we can build up the points against the weaker teams we will ease into the playoffs for a final burst for the Wembley prize.

The Yorkshire club do their best.  Stirring music and a parade of flag waving children stoked up an eery quiet ground despite the ghostly half of the fourth stand, the championship's answer to the Marie Celeste.  Still,  the roar of the eager away mob of just under 3,000 filled the air.  A perfect antidote to the dark malcontent and self doubt of the forums and twitterati of recent days as our heroes decked in the white and blue of the limited edition third kit took to the field.

The first half saw a scrappy forest make a sleepy start, perhaps lulled by the home crowd's polite silence.  There were three  highlights of the first half hour:   Darlow tipping over a good strike by the not-closed-down Dale Jennings, then the WWF reverse slam with half nelson by debutante Kevin Gomis when he got the wrong side of a Barnsley player out wide, and finally the entertaining chants of 'He walks on the Trent, he walks on the Trent, he's Jonathan Greening, he walks on the Trent' as the Jesus lookalikey warmed up down the touchline.     

With echoes of the Cotterill game before it, Forest were giving the home side plenty of room and their shattered confidence was gradually rebuilding before our eyes.   Forest struggled to play with any fluency or create anything to raise an eyebrow, up until Abdoun's act of sorcery by the corner flag to skip past 2 players and head in.  But by now forest's pattern of casual misplaced passing was causing more trouble.  Another shot on Darlow's goal. 

This was a muted performance lacking energy.  No passing to feet, and a level of lumping it forward not seen since previous managers had been at the helm.  Forest's best chance came late on in the half with a well weighted Abdoun cross perfectly placed for a free header from the penalty spot, but with the goal at his mercy Cox headed wide.

There was a sense that it wouldn't take much to pull away from the Yorkshire club, but Forest hadn't got out of first gear and the half was fizzling out. 

Now one thing my trips to Barnsley these last five years have taught me is that it is not a place of lightning fast service.  The prospect of a 25 minute queue for food that has run out waiting for the black capped assistants move in zombie-like dazed slow motion whilst I miss the second half did not appeal.  Could I tear myself away from the languid spectacle of the last 10 minutes of the first 45?   I  sloped off early before the oven chips ran out and secured what is the highlight of the trip to these parts:  a short crust Balti pie.   Waiting in the queue for the inevitable cheer that said I'd missed a cracker of a goal.  I need not have worried.  All was deathly quiet and the crowd heaved a sigh of relief when the ref mercifully added only a single minute of added time.  The players troop off down a tunnel by the corner flag at Barnsley, and we away fans applauded politely to encourage the lads.

Hope reawakens at the re-start.  The vocal optimism of the away fans has been subdued but we hope for a rallying round and some more energy and drive to take this game by the scruff of the neck.  Unfortunately, it seems there has not been a team talk to speak of, and more of the same ensues.  9 minutes in, like the first half, Dale not-closed-down Jennings has another crack - but this time it goes past Darlow and to the home fans delighted disbelief their team are leading.   A brief wake-up call brings out some good work by Cox to get into the box, and earn a corner, and a chance for a rather tame shot by Radi.  But we huff and puff and ease back.  We still fail to raise our game, struggling to string 2 passes together or exert any pressure and the home side begin to really believe.   We are making a terrible side look Ok.  

Again Barnsley test Darlow at full stretch from a corner.  A long clearance swirls to Abdoun who wins a free kick at the corner of the penalty area.   His floated strike comes to nothing as if to mockingly underscore Reid's absence.  Paterson drives a stinger and is not far away.  Abdoun drives a stinger from further out and IS far away, when a pass to a better placed player was the better choice.  Groans all around. 

Hendo comes on for Mackie,   Derbyshire for Cox.  

A mazy dribble past 3 Barnsley players and into the box for Halford proves his last significant contribution of the afternoon as the shot rises skyward high above the goal.  Despite the early season experiment, a centre forward he is not.   So  Moose displaces Jara who has struggled in the defensive midfield role and returns to Right Back for Halford to end his afternoon.

The home side dig in, and defend with passion as Forest try a few of their moves but it is not wholehearted, and a second Abdoun free kick late on is, in all honesty, the only real test their keeper has had all day. 

And with that, and five minutes (or two Barnsley keeper goal kicks if you prefer that unit of time) stoppages, the game is over.   3 defeats in a row.   I join the ranks of those who, a week ago were telling people hitting the panic button not to overreact, who are now silently doing the maths about 7th place and hoping above hope that Jonathan Greening picks up Jesus' other talents and brings some healing power to the city ground sick bay.