Inside story of Postecoglou’s first month at Forest

He has been in charge of Nottingham Forest for less than a month but the first dark clouds are starting to appear on the horizon for Ange Postecoglou.

No win in five fixtures, which included Championship club Swansea and newly promoted Burnley and Sunderland. Ten goals conceded in those games, with only four scored. It’s not the new manager bounce they hoped for when the Australian was appointed.

And it does not get any easier for Forest, either.

On Thursday they will look for their first win in any competition since the opening day of the season, when they face Midtjylland at the City Ground in the Europa League, before tackling Newcastle at St James’ Park three days later. And after the international break they meet Chelsea, Porto and Bournemouth.

As their team sit 17th with five points from their opening six games, Forest supporters are understandably starting to feel a little anxious.

After the heavy spending in the summer and the sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo, they wonder when things will turn for the better under Postecoglou.

Forest’s priority

Evangelos Marinakis wants to take Forest into the Champions League and winning the Europa League is the quickest way to get there. Postecoglou did so with Tottenham last season and that was one of the factors that made him such an attractive candidate for Marinakis. The new manager has a track record of delivering trophies wherever he has been.

What of the Premier League? Naturally, Forest want to finish as high as possible. But they recognise that reaching the top four is a tall order, given the vast wealth of some of their rivals and the greater level of competition. And that’s if they can dig themselves out of the hole they are currently in.

You sense that if Postecoglou can deliver the Europa League, then Marinakis will be delighted – even if domestic performances do not match last season’s, when Forest finished seventh and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Last weekend’s surprising team selection against Sunderland, when playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White and in-form forward Igor Jesus were left out of the starting XI, indicated that European progress is at least as important to Forest as the domestic competitions.

It has been said that Postecoglou should be extracting more from a team who did so well under Nuno last season, but the issue is far more complex. The formidable team spirit that carried Forest along last term had begun to fray in pre-season, when Nuno’s frustrations became apparent. 

Some of the players were sorry to see Nuno go. But the manager’s words about the decline of his relationship with Marinakis, and his criticism of Forest’s transfer policy, had disturbed the squad long before he departed. 

Postecoglou is tasked with restoring that unity while trying to implement a completely different style of play – going from the counter-attacking of Nuno to Ange’s all-out attack. It is a tough job.

The Postecoglou plan

In Postecoglou’s early meetings with the players, he assured every one of them that he would begin with a clean slate – music to the ears of some who Nuno had little time for. Yet there was to be no slow-and-steady approach.

Even though Postecoglou’s principles are wildly different from the defend-deep-and-counter favoured by Nuno, he wanted to implement them immediately. If that raised a few eyebrows among the squad, it would be only natural.

Postecoglou’s training methods can involve near-constant movement and be highly demanding. Some modern coaches will halt sessions regularly to explain a particular concept, perhaps even showing players images or diagrams of what they require. Postecoglou likes to keep things moving and challenges players to solve problems for themselves.

Those who have worked with Postecoglou describe his team talks as some of the best they have heard. He has been heavily involved on the grass during the early days at Forest but at other clubs, Postecoglou has trusted his staff to carry out his instructions. 

In the latter part of the week, as players build towards match day, they can expect to see and hear more from Postecoglou, who leads the video analysis sessions that prepare players for their next opponents.

There have been winners from this initial period. Jesus, one of three summer signings from Botafogo, was not trusted by Nuno but has four goals in two starts under Postecoglou. Nuno did not want Douglas Luiz, and did not play him, but the Brazilian midfielder looked very impressive in the first half against Real Betis last week, before he came off injured. 

Record signing Omari Hutchinson delivered a promising cameo in the home defeat by Sunderland and may start to get more chances in the Premier League, with Newcastle away next up on Sunday.

Postecoglou has shown from day one he means business. He has sought to include existing staff as well as those he has brought in, and has demanded significantly more detail from analysts. Despite the big change, players like the idea of his attacking style.

Reasons to be hopeful

Any Forest supporter who saw the first half against Betis could not fail to have been excited. Against an experienced European outfit, Forest were outstanding. Some of the football they played would have been admired by the great Barcelona or Ajax teams of the past, and they deserved to lead by far more than just 2-1 at the interval.

If Postecoglou can coax that sort of performance from Forest anything like regularly, they will surely move up the table quickly. Even against Sunderland, they were unlucky not to earn at least a point and injuries to Ola Aina – before Postecoglou had even worked with him – Murillo and Luiz have not helped his attempts to develop the team. 

The problem is that Forest ended up drawing that game at Betis. The late goal they conceded was the third of Postecoglou’s reign, with the other two in stoppage time in the Carabao Cup defeat at Swansea.

Despite leading the matches against Swansea, Burnley and Betis, Forest are yet to bring home a victory. As Postecoglou found at Spurs, playing sparkling attacking football will only get you so far.

Marinakis’ reputation as a serial hire-and-fire merchant is undeserved. He sacked Carlos Corberan as Olympiacos boss after only 11 matches but generally, the Forest owner gives his managers a fair chance to succeed. Having personally driven the appointment of Postecoglou, Marinakis will surely want his judgment to be proven right.

With Edu adapting to his role as global head of football and Postecoglou still working out his best XI, there is a great deal of change at Forest right now and allowances will surely be made for this. Forest couldn’t half do with a win to settle everything down, though.