With the season approaching the midway point we decided to cast our eyes back on 2021 and have a look at five lessons that Forest will learn from the year.
Loans can work
Max Lowe, Djed Spence, James Garner, Philip Zinckernagel and Jordi Osei-Tutu are all pretty decent players on loan.
The Forest quintet have all played a part and in the post-pandemic era and Steve Cooper has utilised them all during his time at the club.
More could follow in January and the cynical angst towards using the loan market is perhaps over the top from the fan base.
Forest are in good hands
New CEO Dane Murphy will have learned a lot from his first transfer window at the City Ground.
It would be mightily unfair to judge him on that but his one permanent signing, Braian Ojeda, has certainly showcased some talent since arriving.
Murphy seems a respectable man and he will be hellbent on getting things right from a business perspective at the football club.
Keeping a manager for the sake of it doesn’t work
Murphy was arguably guilty of giving Chris Hughton too much time to get things right at Forest.
In hindsight, had Forest lost at Derby to make it five defeats on the spin to start the season, he may have gone early.
Instead, he was given two more winnable home games against Cardiff and Middlesbrough. Forest lost both and became rooted to the foot of the table.
Forest and Murphy will have learned a lot from the Hughton debacle.
Steve Cooper is the one for Forest
Hughton did nothing but moan about the lack of resources and the unbalanced nature of his squad.
Cooper has secured 30 points from 15 games in charge with the same group of players and isn’t remotely interested in excuses.
The Welshman is always striving for his team to be better and he sets his team up to have a go in every single game they play.
Logn may that aspect continue.
Scott McKenna is brilliant
We perhaps already knew this in 2020 but this season, McKenna has come of age.
He has been Forest’s only ever-present during 2021/22. He’s also showing himself as one of the best defenders in the league.
Forest could lose Joe Worrall during 2022 but they’ll remain solid at the back as long as McKenna is still in place.