Nottingham Forest start the season against Brentford and Crystal Palace.placeholder image
Nottingham Forest start the season against Brentford and Crystal Palace. | Getty Images
Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo believes his squad is not ready for the Premier League season.
Brentford and Crystal Palace have been sent a boost by Nuno Espirito Santo ahead of taking on Nottingham Forest over the coming week. Forest host Brentford on Sunday before travelling to Selhurst Park next weekend.
Nuno’s side finished the season in seventh place last term after a head-turning campaign. Forest will play Europa League football next season and have invested in the transfer window, but their manager has suggested that his team are a long way off where they need to be. Forest scored just one goal across seven pre-season friendlies, failing to win a single match.
Forest begin their Premier League campaign against Brentford, with Bees manager Keith Andrews taking charge of his first competitive fixture following the departure of Thomas Frank to Tottenham Hotspur. Brentford won 2-0 at The City Ground last season and will be hoping for a similar result.
Nuno slams Nottingham Forest summer preparation
Next weekend, it’s another London club for Forest as they make their way to Crystal Palace. Oliver Glasner’s side face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this weekend in their first Premier League match of the season.
Nuno has suggested that both Brentford and Crystal Palace will be favourites to win those matches in a candid interview to Sky Sports. He said: “We are very, very far from where we should be. Very far in terms of preparation, planning, squad. We are all very worried that in two or three days’ time, we are playing in the Premier League - the most demanding competition in the world - and we are very far.
“The plans we had didn’t come true, the preparation in terms of squad was not ideal, we didn’t have a chance to create the bond with the squad. We have players working here that know they are going to leave on loan. We have a major problem.”
Nottingham Forest take Crystal Palace place in Europa League
The visit of Nottingham Forest to Crystal Palace could prove a particularly feisty affair. Forest have taken Palace’s place in the Europa League this season, having led complaints to Uefa about their Premier League rivals failing to meet ownership rules.
Forest have spent significant sums on new players in Dan Ndoye, Igor Jesus and Jair Cunha but Nuno clearly feels more needed to have been done by this point of the summer. He said: “It doesn’t have to be if you play Europa League or Conference League, you know you’re going to have a new challenge ahead of us. In terms of preparation, nothing changed. If you’re going to play Europa League or Conference League is just a detail.
“What I’m telling you, is that no matter what we’re going to play, we lost a very good opportunity to do things better. Now we have two weeks to go [in the transfer window] and after these two weeks we can evaluate how things are but what we have lost, and is not coming back, is the chance of doing things better. The competition starts and let’s see how we approach, we have a squad that is unbalanced and doesn’t have options in many positions. We are taking a big chance on playing the game.”
In other news, Chelsea vs Crystal Palace final injury news as 10 ruled out and 2 doubts.
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