Nottingham Forest have really hit their straps this season and sit fifth in the Premier League table following a solid start to the campaign.
On Saturday, Forest rocked up at Old Trafford having not won there for 30 years and left with all three points after a 3-2 victory.
Chris Wood was praised by Nuno Espirito Santo after the game as he became the club’s all-time leading goalscorer when it comes to the Premier League with his tenth of the season.
There were other top performers too, with Neco Williams enjoying a win at Old Trafford after coming through the youth ranks with their fierce rivals Liverpool.
There are a number of factors why Forest are going great guns at the moment and Espirito Santo’s tireless approach to improving the defence in the summer is one of them.
Owen Hargreaves and Jermain Defoe agree on Nottingham Forest
As fans, it will never grow tiring hearing pundits talk positively about Forest and this season it’s been great to hear nice words said about the club.
After the win over United, Hargreaves and Defoe chewed the fat over why the Reds have been successful so far.
It’s all down to things settling down on the player side of things and the continuity that Espirito Santo has instilled is something that has impressed the two Super Sport TV pundits.
Defoe said: “It’s an amazing football club with amazing history, You have to give them credit, they’re exciting to watch, they’ve got good players, really good individuals, they’ve got a way of playing and they don’t change the team too much do they, it’s the same players and that’s so important.”
Hargreaves concurred and added: ” “Nobody will want to play them and I think Jermain is right, they don’t really change their team around much. You look at the teams that are successful; Liverpool do it, Arsenal do it, they play the same players all the time. Manchester United, you couldn’t pick their best XI right now but you look at Forest, they don’t have a bad player in the starting eleven. They’ve recruited well defensively and they’ve not got quality players at the top of the pitch too.”
Forest reaping the rewards of sticking with Espirito Santo
It came to light in the summer that Evangelos Marinakis considered sacking Espirito Santo twice last season.
Thankfully, he never went through with that thought process and gave the head coach a chance to get to work on a full pre-season programme.
Espirito Santo has never shirked his responsibilities as a manager and instead, he focuses on the collective rather than himself.
The Forest head coach has really come out of his shell this season with the media and it’s easy to understand why he likes to work with a smaller squad.
Forest have tough fixtures on the horizon but so far this season the team have shown togetherness and hopefully that can take the Reds a long way this season.
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