Nottingham Forest already facing familiar Angeball concern after 29-point Spurs warning
After a first European game since 1996, the Nottingham Forest fans are taking the positives away from the 2-2 draw with Real Betis on Wednesday, but as the Angeball indoctrination took a significant step forward a horribly familiar quirk is appearing already.
“Firstly, super proud of the players efforts,” Ange Postecoglou said after the game. “I thought, yeah, it’s a difficult place to come, difficult conditions. People don’t realize, just the humidity out there, how energy something it is, even the pitch. And I thought our football was outstanding at times in the first half.”
And it was. Forest are now a passing side looking to cut teams open with that undoubtedly Ange style in which every player has multiple options on the ball thanks to seemingly innumerable forward runs from teammates. Igor Jesus’ opener was a beautiful, quick, side-to-side flowing move ending with a tap-in for the striker, who then scored with a header from a corner five minutes later to give Forest the lead after Cedric Bakambu had given the hosts the lead.
Elliot Anderson was excellent again and Douglas Luiz looked like the smart summer addition we all suspected he might be before injury forced him off at half-time. But Forest weren’t the same after the break.
“Towards the end they looked like a team that’s got a mental block,” Joe Cole said in the TNT Sports studio. “They’ve not got off the mark yet this season, they’ve conceded late goals and they got knocked out the League Cup.
“They looked like a team where that was playing on their mind, especially the last 20 minutes. I think Ange is going to be positive with them. Coming away from Europe with a point, well done. Get back on to the Premier League.
“I still fancy them in this tournament. Betis are one of the favourites for this tournament and they bested them for large parts of this game. I think in six months time they’ll be in a lot stronger place than Real Betis.”
But they will need to overcome that “mental block” which appears to have followed Postecoglou from Tottenham. No team dropped more than Spurs’ 29 points from winning positions last term. They lost seven and drew four of the 22 games in which they took the lead.
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Forest have already given up a two-goal lead in defeat to Swansea and one-goal leads against both Burnley and Betis to draw those games under Postecoglou.
“The subs have made Real Betis better, and Forest’s subs have made them perform worse than the first half,” Lucy Ward said on commentary as Dan Ndoye and Arnaud Kalimuendo replaced Callum Hudon-Odoi and Jesus.
It’s perfectly possible that the players are struggling to contend with the increase in intensity under Postecoglou compared to the relative inertia under Nuno Espírito Santo. That’s the sort of thing which is hard to fix mid-season, and also creates an environment in which there’s a greater chance of injuries. Luiz was joined by Nikola Milenkovic on the treatment table before the end of the game here.
But there’s also a distinct possibility that it’s not the fitness of the players but Angeball that’s the problem, as well as making for delightful entertainment.
