‘Complete change’ :Nuno accused of making ‘complete change’ which actually made Nottingham Forest worse vs Brighton

As head coach of Nottingham Forest, Nuno Espirito Santo is slowly but surely winning over his critics.

   The Portuguese boss faced an impossible task when he replaced Steve Cooper as Forest’s new boss in December.

   Considering what Cooper achieved at the football club, it was always going to be difficult for Espirito Santo, but he took it all in stride.

   Forest were rumored to be considering sacking Espirito Santo twice last season, but now Evangelos Marinakis must be glad he didn’t use the axe.

   Yesterday required a bit more careful planning from the Forest head coach and he was forced to make three changes at half-time after being caught on the break.

   Stephen Warnock cites Nunn’s decision which made Forest worse

   Despite a reasonable first-half performance against Brighton, Espirito Santo has made three changes to his second-half squad.

   Neco Williams, Jota Silva and Ryan Yates all came in with James Ward-Prowse, Alex Moreno and Anthony Elanga.

   Warnock felt this stifled Forest and had some issues with Espirito Santo’s decision.

   He told BBC Sport: “A complete change in midfield for Nottingham Forest who didn’t look that organized in midfield.
   “There was a little bit of a change with Gibbs-White going third with Sosa – she lost the momentum to push forward.”

   Espirito Santo still pursues different methods

   The depth of the squad is now the best since the club’s return to the Premier League in 2022 and that speaks for itself.

   Last weekend saw Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi link up from the bench, and this week Ramon Sosa and Silva made the same impression.

   Espirito Santo gets paid big money to make those decisions – but Warnock is right about yesterday.

   Although Ward-Prowse wasn’t heavily involved in the game, Forest seemed to lose something when his pace of possession wasn’t clear in midfield.

   Yates dropped a bit deeper and seemed to hand the initiative to Brighton.

   Still, there are plenty of positives, although Forest must now find an alternative to Morgan Gibbs-White following his sending off yesterday.

   Espirito Santo did a lot of things right yesterday and now it will be exciting to see what happens this season under his leadership.