Nuno Espirito Santo is a man on a mission at Nottingham Forest and he’s desperate for the Reds to progress this season.
Yesterday, Forest won 1-0 at Southampton courtesy of a Morgan Gibbs-White goal and the team are now fifth in the Premier League.
Forest are unbeaten so far in the top flight this season and there is real hope that progression can be made.
After the game yesterday, Forest boss Espirito Santo spoke of his delight at the victory – and a crucial three points.
Nuno Espirito Santo raves about one Nottingham Forest star
This game was all about Morgan Gibbs-White and the forward will now believe he can force his way into the England reckoning.
Prior to coming to Forest, plenty were questioning whether Gibbs-White would get along with Espirito Santo.
However, any notion of that was quickly extinguished and the pair are now full steam ahead to revive the team’s fortunes.
After the game yesterday, Espirito Santo raved about his player – and captain – as Forest went fifth in the league with a first win of the campaign.
He told BBC Sport: “Very pleased, I think we played a good game. First half we were on top of the game. Southampton had a spell in the second half, of course, they are at home.
“We played well, we were really dominant. We knew the game was 90 minutes so we didn’t get desperate. I felt we were able to reach the goal.
“We started it really well. We are asking and demanding a lot from the players but they are giving good answers. We did right to control the game and control the ideas of Southampton to get in charge of the game.
“Like I said, I think we are asking a lot of things from the players and Morgan is one of them. He can give many days like this.
“It’s not about the points now. We cannot get over the moon because we have a game on Wednesday so we are preparing for the next one.”
Gibbs-White can thrive this season
This was a vintage performance from the Forest captain and he looks set for a fantastic season.
The £25 million Gibbs-White probably does need to add more goals to his game and yesterday he was in the mood for doing just that.
He was on hand to tuck away after his header from a free kick had been cleared off of the line.
The 24-year-old knows that England games are just around the corner and perhaps he has one eye on getting a call-up to the squad.
Gibbs-White will sense that there is a real opportunity now with Lee Carsley replacing Gareth Southgate as the manager following Euro 2024 and he will want to be doing well for Forest.
Yesterday was just the tonic for the Forest man and he will hope that there are more days like this during 2024/24.
It certainly feels as though he will continue to retain the backing of Espirito Santo for the foreseeable.
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