Nottingham Forest – Brentford: Fluent Midfielders Flourish In The Forest (3-1)

Whilst Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson made creative combinations in the halfspaces, Brentford’s new boss looked lost in the woods. Three goals before half-time settled the score, before Nottingham Forest showed mercy.

Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.

Although both Nottingham Forest and Brentford finished in the Premier League’s top ten last year, the consensus is that it will be difficult to reach such heights again. And for very different reasons.

Nuno Espírito Santo’s execution of the medium block and transitional work got Nottingham Forest back into European football: a controversial upgrade into the Europa League, and links between the outspoken owner, Evangelos Marinakis and John Textor, may have tainted such achievements. Nevertheless, Nuno has stated that the squad is unbalanced and not ready. Anthony Elanga was sold and replaced by Dan Ndoye, while Botafogo pair Igor Jesus and Jair were exchanged for Danilo, who headed back to Brazil. Omari Hutchinson and James McAtee signed just before the match day, but the squad is still in need of more depth before the European campaign approaches.

After seven years, the Thomas Frank era is over at Brentford. He has been replaced by Keith Andrews, the set-piece coach to Frank, a former assistant to Stephen Kenny for Ireland and his first managerial role. It has also been a transformative summer in the market, losing both Bryan Mbuemo and Christian Nørgaard, who had been at the club since 2019. Dango Ouattara, Michael Kayode, Antoni Milambo, Caoimhin Kelleher and Jordan Henderson have all been added to the team. After being out injured for the majority of last year, Brentford . . .