Nottingham Forest spent the summer recruiting several new players to give boss Sabri Lamouchi the very best chance of a successful season.
No fewer than 12 new players checked in at the City Ground and a large number of them have integrated nicely into the squad.
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The Reds beat Brentford on Saturday to go second in the Championship and things appear to be on an upward curve for Forest.
With the second international break of the campaign now upon us, we at Seat Pitch begin a new series assessing the starts made by the Forest new-boys, starting with goalkeeper Arijanet Muric:
What’s the background?
The young goalkeeper arrived at the City Ground from Manchester City in a loan deal that will keep the Kosovo international at the club until the end of the season.
It was anticipated that he would be the club’s new number one goalkeeper, with City boss Pep Guardiola wanting him to play regular first-team football.
How has he looked during the first two months?
Well after just two months at the City Ground, the man paid £10,000-a-week at City (The Sun), has been dropped to the bench, currently playing second fiddle to Brice Samba.
Muric was at fault for one, if not both, of the goals Forest conceded against West Bromwich Albion in the opening day defeat.
Of the 11 games that Forest have played so far, Muric has played in just four of them.
He ironically lost his place in the team after arguably his best performance in a Forest shirt at Charlton back in August. He made several decent stops as the Reds claimed a decent point, but found himself dropped for the game at Fulham.
The 20-year-old definitely lacks experience. He has looked shaky coming for aerial balls and doesn’t seem to instil a great deal of confidence in his back four.
What does the future hold?
Well, right now the future is bleak for the Kosovo international. Samba has looked far more assured; quickly becoming a fan favourite at the City Ground.
Manchester City won’t be overly satisfied that Muric isn’t playing football during his loan spell and they could well reassess during the January transfer window.
Forest do have Jordan Smith and Costel Pantilimon available as potential deputies to Samba, whilst Luke Steele also returns from Millwall in January too.
Verdict…
It would have to be said that it already seems as though Muric will go down as a Forest flop. His goalkeeping fundamentals have been found wanting in comparison to Samba.
He has looked dodgy coming for crosses, his distribution has been suspect, whilst he hasn’t really looked overly commanding inside his penalty area.
The man with five international caps could become a quality goalkeeper at some point during his career. If he does see the season out at Forest, however, it seems certain that it will only be as an understudy to the impressive Samba. 4/10
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