{"id":2998,"date":"2020-02-16T14:00:19","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nottinghamsport.com\/?p=2998"},"modified":"2020-02-16T20:26:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T20:26:07","slug":"chez-merde-why-nottingham-forest-are-no-shthouses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nottinghamsport.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/16\/chez-merde-why-nottingham-forest-are-no-shthouses\/","title":{"rendered":"Chez Merde: Why Nottingham Forest are no \u201csh*thouses\u201d…"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Please note those offended by bad language might want to leave this page now.<\/em>
\nIn a weird way, I feel extremely sorry for my future first-born child. When I\u2019m stood there in the delivery room, and the nurse asks me: \u201cIs this the happiest you\u2019ve ever been?\u201d, I\u2019m going to have to tell her the answer is \u201cno\u201d – because nothing will come close to challenging that feeling we had when Tyler Walker smashed the ball home against Leeds last Saturday.<\/span>
\nGrown men were crying. Strangers exchanged kisses on the terraces. A euphoric high – the type that can only be matched by the first sip of your fourth beer during a day session – swept across the stands. We had it all in the burst of an iconic moment, as the pressure valve was ripped from its hinges… Then Charlton rolled into town.<\/span><\/p>\n

A week of highs and lows<\/span><\/h3>\n

The game left me speechless for a few days. I was in a state of absolute shell-shock. It\u2019s almost manic how we were allowed to feel such an astronomically great after one game, and then a cavernous low in the next. The changes, the performance and the gutting swing of emotions undid all the good work we\u2019d seen just 72 hours before. <\/span>
\nBut in Sabri Lamouchi, we have a manager who is used to stitching the fabric of this football club back together: He came into the job on the back of a tumultuous season, and within three months, we had topped the table. Facing the dreaded \u201cDecember Curse\u201d, we ended up with 11 points from seven games over the festive period…<\/span>
\nAnd now, off the back of our most disappointing display of the season, we saw a team fight for their lives to earn a point against the elements, the team in top-spot and the worst standard of refereeing imaginable. The draw deserves its own name, given that it has immediately pivoted the season back in the right direction: Drawthorns. El-Cashico. The Short Stroud.<\/em> You name it…<\/span>
\nSabri has made men out of our boys, and grafters out of underachievers. But I\u2019ll tell you something for free: <\/span>He hasn\u2019t done it by \u201cshithousing\u201d.<\/b><\/p>\n

How football fans bastardised \u201cshithousing\u201d:<\/span><\/h3>\n

Remember when we all used the word \u201cbanter\u201d and it didn\u2019t make us cringe? Then the 2010s happened. Facebook pages like TrueLad, UniLad and LadBible (see the theme here?) sprang up and dictated the terms of a very bizarre culture war\u2026<\/span>
\nThe word completely lost its meaning. It became the go-to term for blokes who weren\u2019t capable of being funny without dropping their genitals in a pint. \u201cBanter\u201d devolved from its initial meaning. And the exact same thing is happening with the current flavour of the month.<\/span>
\nBut can the phrase \u201cshithouse\u201d genuinely be applied to this Forest team? Quite simply, no… <\/span>
\n\u201cShithousing\u201d is the footballing equivalent of landing a sucker punch in a Boxing match. It implies luck is the only factor in victory, and that those who succeed have somehow cheated the opposition.<\/span>
\nJust because you have fewer shots than the other team, it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ve been fortunate to win. If you\u2019ve been outpassed and done-over in possession, your three points don\u2019t count for any less. If your goal comes from a sweeping, counter-attacking move, it doesn\u2019t discount the skill involved to put the ball in the back of the net.<\/span>
\nThe Leeds result is the best example: We had to spend a lot of the game on the back foot, and at times, the football they played was dazzling. With us emerging as 2-0 winners, some could argue that the Yorkshire side had been hard-done to. However, those people would be wrong.<\/span>
\nLamouchi got his game plan spot-on that day. It was executed with surgical precision. Bielsa, by all accounts, was outmanoeuvred and out-thought for 90 minutes. There is no luck involved when Joe Worrall and Toby Figueiredo marshall the backline impeccably for 90 minutes. A team who win games by being well-drilled and frighteningly-clinical up-front should not be reduced to mere \u201cshithouses\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than a buzzword<\/span><\/h3>\n

Even against West Brom, where we ended up with two goals from one shot on target, it\u2019s still hard to say we didn\u2019t deserve anything from the game. Grabban misses a sitter, we have a clear penalty appeal turned down, and The Baggies<\/em> should have been down to ten men after Jake Livermore left an imprint of his studs in Yuri Ribeiro\u2019s kneecap. We could\u2019ve left with all three points, truth be told.<\/span>
\nLook back further in the season: When we beat Fulham, we were great value for the win. We negated Swansea at their place and picked them off at the end – as per the game plan. On both occasions against Brentford, we were able to blunt their much-praised front-three. Victories on the road against Hull, Luton and Stoke were absolutely perfect in the context of being an \u201caway-day performance\u201d.<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s not a case of squeezing past the other team: It is down to tactical foresight. It is down to Sabri\u2019s trust in a squad that is now running through brick-walls for the gaffer. But, most importantly, it is down to a solid game plan that is working consistently – and we\u2019re more than 30 games into the season.<\/span>
\nFor me, shithousing<\/em> is only an acceptable label if a game goes something like this for the victors:<\/span><\/p>\n