Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola names three things he absolutely loves about Nottingham Forest

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Opposition managers have praised Nottingham Forest at every step this season, with Pep Guardiola the latest to do so ahead of Manchester City’s trip to the City Ground.

Before Forest’s trip to Newcastle, Eddie Howe was full of praise for Chris Wood, becoming the latest coach to hail the work of the Forest squad to be in a position to qualify for the Champions League this season.

The Kiwi goalscorer has often been the centre of attention as Fabian Hurzeler hailed Wood’s athleticism in the buildup to Forest’s 7-0 win against Brighton, perhaps suggesting that it may be a bad omen for opposition coaches to speak too highly of the Reds.

Even Guardiola praised Forest in December before his side hosted Nuno Espirito Santo’s, but with the two teams now tightly locked together in the Champions League qualification fight, you could excuse the Spanish manager if he was less complimentary this time around.

However, this is not the case, given how much time he dedicated in his pre-match press conference to crediting the work of the Forest coaching staff.

Pep Guardiola is a big fan of ‘aggressive’ Nottingham Forest

Guardiola is unsure of City’s Champions League chances this season due to their less than stellar attempt at a fifth consecutive Premier League title, given that they sit behind Forest in the table ahead of their trip to the City Ground.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	28	20	7	1	66	26	40	67
2	ArsenalArsenal	27	15	9	3	51	23	28	54
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	27	14	6	7	44	33	11	48
4	Man CityManchester City	27	14	5	8	53	37	16	47

Rather than showing any bitterness, though, Guardiola remained complimentary of Forest, picking three attributes that his side perhaps haven’t necessarily shown this campaign.

He said: “If you’re third in the table after eight, ten games then ok. But if it happens with 11 games left and you’re still third, then you’ve done really, really well.

“They defend really well, really compact and aggressive and the transitions are really good.”

Honing in on specifics, though, Guardiola couldn’t help but single out Espirito Santo’s deadly efficient front four for praise.

Guardiola continued: “The long balls up to Wood, if they win eight to ten, then the four up front are really good and can create many things. [Callum] Hudson-Odoi, [Anthony] Elanga, and [Morgan] Gibbs-White are exceptional players who create many things for themselves.”

There’s no doubt that the three mentioned have been standouts in the Forest squad this season, but reflecting on the previous meeting with City in December, none were at their effective best.

Nottingham Forest’s ‘exceptional’ attackers struggled against Manchester City in December

In a 3-0 defeat, Stuart Pearce was unimpressed with Wood’s missed chance against City in a rare unhappy 90 minutes for the New Zealand international, but he wasn’t the only one who struggled that night.

Callum Hudson-Odoi remained an unused substitute in the game, but of the players that Guardiola singled out, Gibbs-White had a marginally better outing.

Creating four chances, the attacking midfielder had the best pass accuracy of the three, with Elanga and Wood languishing below 70%, an unacceptable level for players of their quality.

Elanga also didn’t manage a shot on target at the Etihad, not doing anything to help his side, who managed just three efforts on target collectively.

Clearly, this blunt performance has been the exception rather than the rule this season, so the Forest manager will be expecting and demanding a showing that better represents their talents on Saturday.