Nuno’s Nottingham Forest have been fantastic for Premier League by mixing things up in era of poor Guardiola imitations
NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO is clearly a manager who does things his way — and thank goodness for that.
Nuno is one of a dying breed of bosses proving modern football doesn’t have to be about playing half-a-dozen passes before reaching halfway.
That it’s not always about false nines, floating tens and lingo from laptop users trying to complicate a simple game.
Instead, Nuno has shown that in an era of stats and soundbites, it’s still possible for the best lessons to come from the old school.
That’s the refreshing way Nottingham Forest do things, anyway.
And it could even end with a Champions League place and an FA Cup win.
The second bit won’t be easy with a semi-final today against Manchester City.
But, whatever happens, they have had a fantastic season.
And it’s been fantastic for everyone who loves to see fast, exciting football, rather than a poor imitation of teams trying to copy Pep Guardiola’s pass, pass, pass methods.
I’m not knocking Pep, of course, he’s won everything in the game that way.
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But it’s pointless trying to follow suit if you haven’t got the players.
Unlike many others, Nuno knows it — just as he knows playing to your strengths brings the best chance of success.
And for Forest, that means a throwback approach.
If you’ve got wide players with pace, why build slowly from the back?
Maybe that’s no-risk football but it’s no-excitement football, too.
With two wingers, Nuno wants the ball wide as quickly as possible for Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi to cause mayhem.
Which means getting the ball into the box for Chris Wood to hold it up, lay it off or, ideally, stick it in the net — like we saw the other night at Tottenham.
Chris was a journeyman in his 30s before going to Forest yet only Mo Salah, Erling Haaland and Alexander Isak have scored more than his 19 Premier League goals this season.
He’s a “proper” centre forward. Powerful and strong in the air, along the lines of a Mick Harford or Joe Jordan.
Every club had one back in the day, but there are so few now that centre-backs have a nightmare trying to handle them.
They’ve not managed it with Wood yet!
Sadly for Forest, though, I can’t see a fairytale ending today because City’s big-game nous can see them over the line.
I’ve never made any secret of how much the FA Cup means to me and it was great to see three different names — plus City! — in the semis.
You could argue it’s kept the season alive because the title and relegation business has been sorted for weeks.
It’s unlikely to happen, but I’d love to see the winners get a place in the Champions League.
It would certainly end all those weakened teams!
Better late than never
LIVERPOOL have been the best team by a mile and it’s hard to be critical of anyone who wins the title in a canter.
And I’m delighted their fans can celebrate properly this time, too, after missing out because of Covid five years ago.
I wouldn’t say this is the greatest Liverpool team but there’s no knocking what a great job Arne Slot has done.
Now the challenge will be to defend it… and the others have certainly got a job on to catch up!