Nottingham Forest played their part in an entertaining game at the City Ground last night as the Reds lost to Newcastle in the Carabao Cup.
Forest were denied after a penalty shootout, losing out 4-3. Carlos Miguel gave Forest the advantage by denying Joelinton but Ibrahim Sangare and Taiwo Awoniyi were off target with their efforts.
The Reds were very impressive for large parts of the contest, however. Forest fell behind after just 18 seconds through Joe Willock but responded in the second half courtesy of a well-taken Jota Silva goal.
Nuno Espirito Santo chose to shuffle his pack, with 10 of the players who started at Southampton on Saturday omitted from the team. Only Elliot Anderson kept his place from the win at St Mary’s.
Kevin Nolan shares regret that Nuno Espirito Santo might have
It might have been a surprise to the Forest head coach that Newcastle went pretty much full strength last night. Clearly, the Carabao Cup is a bigger priority to them this season than it is for Forest.
The amount of changes was somewhat surprising. However, the likes of Silva, Ramon Sosa, Awoniyi and Andrew Omobamidele are desperate for the minutes at the moment.
Nolan thinks that based on how the game went, Espirito Santo could now regret his decision to take so many of his charges out of the team – or even the squad altogether.
He told BBC Sport: “Nuno is probably thinking should I have made all 10 changes, could I have just integrated some of them instead.”
Espirito Santo right to make 10 Forest changes
Some of the club’s new players needed minutes and after making a positive start in the Premier League, this was definitely the right thing to do.
Had Forest made sticky start to the league campaign then perhaps Espirito Santo would have gone with a stronger team from the off.
Ryan Yates, Ola Aina, Morgan Gibbs-White and Murillo weren’t even on the bench last night and that certainly bodes well for Saturday when Forest face Wolves.
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It’s easy for Nolan to say what he has now in hindsight but that’s all it is. Espirito Santo is paid to make the big decisions and he did that last night.
Forest didn’t win the game but the likes of Silva, Eric da Silva Moreira and Ramon Sosa will definitely benefit from getting their first minutes under their belt in English football.
Now, it will be fascinating to see how they’re integrated into the Premier League as the season progresses in the coming weeks and months.
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