Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest are a tactical anomaly but it works: How they bucked the Premier League trend

There was the first league win at Anfield in 55 years and now a 3-1 victory over rivals Leicester. Beaten just once so far, Nottingham Forest are seventh in the Premier League table, two points off third. It is becoming more difficult to keep things low key.

Nuno Espirito Santo, Forest’s head coach, knows that. But it does not mean that he has to like it. “Compliments,” he tells Sky Sports with an almost pained expression on his face. “When there are too many, it is a mistake. That is just the way that I see things.”

His only aim is to maintain the standards. “I have been around too many years to know that honeymoons do not last forever, you know? The problem is to sustain it. It is very difficult. The challenge is to continue to demand the same because nothing changes.”

He is still doing it his way, although, in terms of the game’s wider trends, that has never been less fashionable. In an era in which almost every coach talks of pressing high, Forest don’t do it. Until Friday, they ranked bottom for winning the ball high up the pitch.

Passes allowed per defensive action – commonly known as PPDA – became the metric of choice to describe the intensity of those teams determined to win the ball quickly. Forest were bottom for that too, waiting longer than any team to initiate the press.

While it can feel like passing out from the back has been fetishised by a generation of coaches, becoming an end in itself rather than a means to an end, the goal that saw off Leicester came from a long, straight ball over the top to their target-man Chris Wood.

Inside an office at the City Ground, it is an opportunity to put some of these statistics to Nuno. He listens, engages with the detail in the data, but offers little more than a smile in response. “It’s crazy, no? But if I tell you, honestly, am I not showing my biggest strength?”

He is not trying to be cute. “It is no secret to anyone,” he adds. “Me, by not telling you, I am not showing that I am smart. It is not about that.” The onus is not on him to explain why he plays this way – the results do that. He does not point to his record either, but he could.

He came to Forest having won the title in Saudi Arabia, his reputation in England forged by taking Wolves from the Championship to Europe. He competed in the Champions League with Valencia and Porto. He is entitled to believe his way works.

But it is the how that is fascinating because it differs from many of the top teams. Consider this graphic, highlighting the fact that Forest allow the opponent to enter their defensive third more than any other side and yet concede among the fewest chances.

There is ordinarily a correlation between the two but Nuno’s team buck that trend. It is not luck. They let the opponent only so far. Most attacks do not result in a shot let alone a goal. Forest do not press high but that does not mean they simply defend deep.

Instead, they often choose to operate with a mid-block because it is there, not higher, that they want to win the ball back. In that zone, there is space for their speedy wingers to run into that would not exist if they gained possession close to the opposition goal.

There is an example from the win over Liverpool that resulted in a chance for Anthony Elanga. Virgil van Dijk attempts a pass between the lines but it is a trap. The positioning of the Forest forwards helps to cut off certain passing lanes and encourages others.

Jamie Carragher even called it Nunoball on Monday Night Football, pointing out that his Wolves team that twice finished seventh in the Premier League were similarly effective at drawing teams on, soaking up the pressure, often without looking like conceding.

Nuno argues it is not the same. “It is totally different,” he says. “Totally different.” For starters, there is the formation. Nuno used to deploy five in defence, now he operates with four at the back. But it is more subtle than that. The traps Forest set are different.

While his Wolves team preferred to force the opposition wide, the emphasis has changed across the Premier League with sides now looking to transition from central zones. It is there, in the congested middle, that Forest force teams to pass. There is no way through.

As the Van Dijk example illustrates, this is the secret of Nuno’s success. Not to press the opposition but to suck them where they want them, controlling the ball’s circulation even out of possession. From there, they spring Morgan Gibbs-White and their wingers.

It requires a lot of work to do this well, players who can maintain high levels of concentration and who are constantly aware of the spaces. Perhaps that explains why the small details were not quite right last season following Nuno’s arrival in December.

It was the first time in his career that he had taken a job midway through a campaign. It made him uncomfortable because he knew the level of work it takes to get this football right without the ball. The change began in earnest during pre-season training in Spain.

“Without a pre-season, you just inherit something, another vision, and that is hard, especially for me.” He used that time to correct their defending of set pieces. “Many, many, many sessions.” The improvement has been dramatic. But it goes much deeper.

“It is not just about the tactical, it is the bonds. When you have a chance to be one month together, and for two of those weeks, almost 80 per cent of your day is spent together, on the training pitch, at meals, in meetings, you get to know the player better.

“Once you understand their behaviours, then, because you understand them better, you can understand which buttons you should push in the right moment.” That involved testing players to their limit. “It was very hot and they played for one hour,” he adds.

“When they are very tired, almost dead, that is when you really know how far a guy is willing to go, when he is hot, sweating, and now he wants water, but you make him go on. These simple things, if you pay attention to them, show a lot about the character.”

Nuno sees that togetherness now, too. “When a player is not in the team but he is still there giving advice to a player in the same position because he wants the best for the team, he is not thinking of himself, this is something that I value a lot,” he explains.

“When you are in the heat of competition, and there is all this noise around, you just do not have proper time to deal with that aspect. This is something that you can only build when you have time, and the environment is ready, and pre-season was good for that.”

Everyone at Forest is enjoying the benefit of that work now. They are organised and resolute, comfortable out of possession and regularly thrilling in it. These are exciting times, not least because Forest look as likely to beat the very best as they do the rest.

Nuno is achieving it his way, not following the trends but maximising his resources and outperforming expectations again. Just do not expect him to relish the compliments that come with it. As former Forest midfielder Roy Keane is fond of saying, it’s his job.

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