Nottingham Forest are in fine form at the moment, sitting third in the Premier League and into the semi-final of the FA Cup.
The Reds beat Brighton on penalties to set up a last-four clash with Manchester City at Wembley later this month.
It’s undoubtedly a vast improvement on last season, when Forest were fighting tooth and nail at this stage to maintain their Premier League status.
Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer raved about Matz Sels at the weekend and it was a real team performance that edged Forest through.
In the coming months, pundits will be choosing their Team of the Season picks and now, one has decided to do one for the campaign so far.
Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Troy Deeney names three Nottingham Forest stars in Team of the Season so far
Deeney has caused a stir with Forest all season with his Team of the Week picks on the BBC Sport website.
He didn’t include a single Forest player after a win over Liverpool at Anfield, but he has at least bucked the trend with his Team of the Season so far.
Deeney has picked Sels as the team’s goalkeeper, with Murillo and, perhaps surprisingly, Callum Hudson-Odoi also making the grade.
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The pundit delivered verdicts on all three players on the TalkSPORT website and summed up his picks as follows:
Sels: “He’s been excellent. Everyone will normally go for Ederson or Alisson. But both have been injured. While Alisson had a great game, that was in the Champions League, not the Premier League. The rest, he’s been relatively solid, I’d say.”
Murillo: “Both Murillo and Van Dijk are proper defenders. Van Dijk looks a bit more elegant than Murillo doing it, but still, both of them have been monumental this season.”
Hudson-Odoi: “This one is going to be contentious. I think he’s great over time. Massively important goals and plays for a team that’s in the top three.”
Deeney makes two crazy omissions from Team of the Season
Although Deeney was never going to include five Forest players, it’s remarkable that he’s omitted Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood from proceedings.
Gibbs-White has been in fine form and both he and Anthony Elanga have more goal contributions this season than Hudson-Odoi.
Wood has bagged 18 goals and although Alexander Isak and Erling Haaland have scored more, they’ve done it with clubs where you’d expect the striker to score goals.
Still, although it’s a shame that Gibbs-White and Wood haven’t made the cut, it’s nice to see Deeney at least give a bit of credit to Forest for a change.