Nottingham Forest's pre-season preparations continued on Tuesday night with another goalless draw at the City Ground, this time against Serie A outfit Fiorentina. Forest have now drawn four of their friendlies 0-0 this pre-season and have scored just a single goal in six games, with one more to play.
It was a night when fans saw new signings Jair Cunha, Dan Ndoye and Igor Jesus on home soil for the first time, and during which Nuno Espirito Santo was able to utilise 19 of his outfield players, who received valuable minutes before the Reds' opener with Brentford a week on Sunday (August 17, 2pm). Forest welcome Saudi Pro League Al Qadsiah to the City Ground for their final friendly this Saturday (7.45pm kick-off).
Here are the major talking points from Tuesday night.
A pertinent challenge
If, hypothetically, the Court of Arbitration for Sport were to decide that Forest should return to the Conference League in the new season then the challenge put to them by Fiorentina this pre-season couldn't have been more appropriate. They are veterans, if you can describe a team being such a thing in a competition so young, and they're in it again this year.
In the four years of its existence, the Viola have reached two finals and a semi-final, yet they've never lifted the trophy, losing to West Ham in 2023 and Olympiakos a year later. Still, if you could've handpicked opponents, as Forest did - on a memorable evening for Nikola Milenkovic, against his former club - these would be high up on the list in pre-season.
Of course, there is an obvious caveat; this is a friendly match, with nothing much on the line save for pride. Still, Forest were the better of the two sides, just about, over the course of the 90 minutes and, certainly in the first half, looked far likelier to open the scoring. The City Ground can get more used to nights like this, irrespective of the competition they're in.
New signings impress
While the towering Jair Cunha was perhaps, of the three, the one who least caught the eye - not only because he is a defender, but also on this occasion was a defender playing out of his favoured position - attack minded pair Dan Ndoye and Igor Jesus did look the part in the final third.
Ndoye has been recruited to fill the void left by Anthony Elanga, and he was sharp and eager to impress throughout his hour-long run-out. He tested David De Gea from the edge of the box early on, coming as close as anyone to breaking the deadlock, and intertwined impressively with Nico Williams and Callum Hudson-Odoi as the pair swapped wings.
Jesus played just off of Chris Wood when Forest were without the ball, but it became a little more of a conventional 4-4-2 when they attacked, committing players forward and asking questions from both out wide but also through the middle, via the creative talents of Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White. There's lots to like about the newbies on this evidence.
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The 2024/25 campaign proved to be a special one for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. But it could get even better for the Reds this time around.
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A need for goals
Ryan Yates said post match that you shouldn't pay too much attention to results in pre-season friendlies, and he is right - in general, they are designed to improve fitness levels and sharpen up elite athletes in the weeks leading up to the real stuff. Still, there is an unwanted pattern which has emerged over this campaign.
Forest need to find more goals in their side once the season commences. They've hit the back of the net only once so far and, while they've been coming up against decent opponents, strikers getting a feel for hitting the back of the net before the proper competitions begin cannot be replicated in training alone.
Still, there remains one more friendly for the likes of Ndoye, Jesus and Wood to continue to gel. Conversely, they've looked rock solid at the back and, bar one Moise Kean chance just before half time, they weren't really troubled. Murillo was excellent throughout his performance, and Matz Sels was on hand on the rare occasions Fiorentina did break through.
Treasure chest
On nights like this, it's pretty worthwhile reflecting on how far Forest have come, and what they've assembled by way of a squad. When Elanga left earlier this season, and Gibbs-White was targeted by Tottenham, and with the likes of Ola Aina and Murillo being linked with moves away from the City Ground too, you wondered if this squad was about to be taken apart.
Instead, Gibbs-White and Aina have not only stayed but committed their long-term futures. You can't fault the club either in the way they've gone about replacing Elanga by spending money on an international who, on this basis, has all the attributes you want in a flying winger at the top level.
They've topped the squad up with cover up top and at the back, and Nuno undoubtedly would like more additions before this squad tackles what'll be an intense and relentless campaign ahead, but there remains so much to work with - and what new signings wouldn't want to join a squad with Gibbs-White, Murillo, Milenkovic, Aina, Anderson, Hudson-Odoi and Co?
As existing personnel have demonstrated, you wouldn't be in a rush to leave, either.
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