Plenty of Nottingham Forest’s stars have surprised pundits this season, but one in particular has forced Jeff Stelling to rethink a shocking pre-season prediction.
Michael Owen named three Forest stars in his Team of the Season as we get to the awards period of the Premier League campaign, giving Reds’ stars the chance to receive deserved plaudits.
More impressively, Morgan Gibbs-White is nominated for the Player of the Season alongside Chris Wood, with Nuno Espírito Santo up for the top manager award, too.
Gary Neville hailed Nikola Milenkovic as the season’s top transfer, but another of Forest’s top stars has made Stelling look rather silly while giving him well-earned praise.
Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images
Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images
Jeff Stelling hails ‘exceptional’ Matz Sels after previous doubts
Espírito Santo praised Matz Sels for his role in Forest’s 2-1 win over West Ham on Sunday, in what has become a regular occurrence given how incredible the Belgian has been this campaign.
For some, Sels’ magnificence has gone under the radar due to his previous underwhelming spell at Newcastle United. One in particular was talkSPORT’s Stelling, who admitted to an opinion on Sels that has come back to bite him.
Naming him in his Team of the Season, Stelling said: “You know, at the start of the season, live on the breakfast show, I called him [Sels] probably the worst goalkeeper in the Premier League. For me, he’s definitely, definitely been the best this season. […] He has been absolutely exceptional.”
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Even opposition managers such as Arne Slot have hailed Sels, showing the impact he’s had in the Premier League this season as the standout goalkeeper over the campaign.
Matz Sels’ standout Premier League season in numbers
Previous coach Will Still lauded Sels’ improvements in his time at Forest, and the stats show that the Belgian shotstopper has been there to keep the Reds in games this season.
Statistic Matz Sels this season
Clean sheets 13
Save percentage 74.2%
Clean sheet percentage 35.1%
Accurate long balls 256
Sels is level with Arsenal’s David Raya for clean sheets in the Golden Glove race, but his performances this season deserve recognition regardless, especially with a save percentage of 74.2%.
The Belgian has kept a clean sheet in 35.1% of his games, which, according to FBref, puts him in the top 12% of keepers across Europe’s top five leagues.
Forest plan to spend serious money in the summer to boost Espírito Santo’s side ahead of the European journey next season, but the club can relax in the knowledge that they have one of the top keepers in the game to rely upon for years to come.