As Nottingham Forest’s squad continue their preparations for a third consecutive season of Premier League football, the mood among the players in Spain is a positive one.
Nobody is getting carried away. But there is a feeling within the group that this season could and should be better, and that the coming campaign will not be another relegation fight.
It is unwise to read too much into pre-season friendlies, a time when players are still finding their sharpness, touch and confidence. But that is not to say we haven’t learned anything from a 3-0 win over Chesterfield in Derbyshire and a 1-1 draw with Sunderland in Spain.
There has been the opportunity to take a look at three of the new additions: goalkeeper Carlos Miguel, midfielder Elliot Anderson and full-back Eric Moreira, while the fourth new signing, Nikola Milenkovic, has arrived in Spain and is expected to play against Millwall on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there have been signs that at least one unexpected face might just have a part to play in the coming months. And there has been a slightly different mentality to Forest’s approach.
So what are the main things we have learned?
Anderson looks to be an astute addition
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has lamented the loss of Eliot Anderson, who he freely admits he did not want to sell.
But the fee — which was officially £35million ($45.2m) but is effectively in the region of £15m when the transfer of goalkeeper Odi Vlachodimos to Newcastle is included in the equation — looks to represent value for money.
The question of whether Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White can fit into the same team is still one to be answered. The two men have not been on the pitch together in either of the two friendly games, which saw Forest change 10 players at half-time at Chesterfield and all 11 at the interval in Spain.
But Elliot’s versatility allows him to not only play as a No 10 but also as a more orthodox No 8 or even wider on the left.
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Anderson played 26 times (10 starts) for Newcastle in all competitions last season, despite missing more than three months due to a fracture in his lower back. He was more than just a peripheral figure under Howe, whose frustration at losing the Scotland under-21 international (and Yankuba Minteh to Brighton) for Newcastle to remain within profit and sustainability regulations (PSR) seems genuine.
“I am very sad to lose two outstanding young players. I would have loved to have kept them, I am really disappointed to lose them both. But I think we were backed into a corner. We were in a difficult position,” said Howe.
Joey Barton, another former manager of Anderson’s, compared the midfielder’s play to that of Diego Maradona when the two worked together at Bristol Rovers in 2022 — specifically for how Anderson slows the game down and plays with composure in the penalty area. And while that might have been an exaggerated point of view, Anderson did flourish during a loan spell in League Two, scoring eight goals in 21 appearances to help Rovers win promotion.
Forest are excited about the potential Anderson has. But he isn’t a signing just for the future: he is somebody they believe can have an immediate impact. And Anderson himself is excited about being part of a Forest squad that includes a host of young attacking talent.
“You see those names before you come in, and you want to add to that list. Even in training, playing with those players, you can tell you link together well. They are the sort of players you want to be playing with. It’s exciting to play with them,” says Anderson.
“You can see in the sessions that there’s some great talent in the squad. Youth is really important in any team. A few of the lads are saying how good we look already.”
Nuno Espirito Santo’s challenge, including through pre-season, is to find a way to incorporate Anderson and Gibbs-White in the same team. But Anderson hopes his versatility will be useful.
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“It’s always good for a manager to know you can play in many positions because you’ve got a better chance of getting into the team and he will know you’re quite reliable. But, hopefully, I can pin down a midfield position,” says Anderson.
“I bring creativity. I bring a lot of quality, I hope, and chances for the team. And goals, which have always been part of my game. I didn’t manage to get any at Newcastle, so it’s definitely something I’m going to try to bring to the team.”
Two *new full-back options emerge?
Eric Moreira is a player Forest signed with one eye on the long-term.
Moreira is just 18 years old and has limited senior experience with St Pauli — where he made only one substitute appearance in the Bundesliga 2 — although that was partly due to tensions over the fact that his contract was running down.
But he also won both the European Championships and the World Cup with Germany’s under-17 side in 2023.
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And what has been immediately clear is that Moreira possesses the physical attributes to thrive. He is also versatile, being able to play right-back, wing-back, as a winger or even as a forward.
Against Chesterfield, he got forward down the flank with purpose and threat, showing himself to be a promising talent with a sharp turn of pace.
But the main thing that stood out in the draw with Sunderland was the second-half performance of a different full-back, Omar Richards.
It was anticipated over the summer that Forest’s sister club Olympiacos intended to take Richards back to Athens following his loan spell last season. But Richards has returned to pre-season training with Forest and, after coming on at half-time in Spain, he scored an impressive goal in the space of three minutes.
Following neat work from Anthony Elanga, the overlapping Richards carried the ball down the outside of his marker before hammering an unstoppable angled finish high into the net.
His joyous celebrations told a story of the journey Richards has been on, which saw him arrive at Forest two years ago in an £8million move from Bayern Munich with a fracture in his lower leg.
A series of niggling injury issues have subsequently ensured that Richards has not yet made a first-team appearance for Forest. Former Forest head coach Steve Cooper would talk with sympathy for Richards, who repeatedly worked himself back into a position to challenge only to subsequently break down with a fresh problem.
There is a long way to go in pre-season, but there now seems to be at least a chance of Richards finally making his first-team debut for Forest.
Ibrahim Sangare looks like he is ready to kick on
What happens during friendly games is more about fitness than form. But Ibrahim Sangare, the statement signing of last summer, does look to be a sharper figure than he did at stages last season when his progress was hampered by illness and fatigue.
Sangare has looked like a more dynamic figure in the two lots of 45 minutes he has played so far. He has had a bit of presence about him in the centre, and he even got a goal at Chesterfield, with a well-taken far-post header.
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It is fair to say that Sangare has not yet made the impact Forest expected following his deadline-day move from PSV Eindhoven last summer. But Orel Mangala took some time to settle when he arrived at Forest in 2022 before showing himself much stronger in his second season. There must be a hope that Sangare will walk a similar path.
In Sangare, Anderson, Ryan Yates, Nico Dominguez and Danilo, Forest have a solid blend of midfield options.
One more thing…
It has been hard to judge the capabilities of ’keeper Carlos Miguel given that, in the three halves of football he has played, the only meaningful save he has had to make was a penalty that he came close to keeping out against Sunderland.
The 6ft 8in (203cm) stopper has looked composed with the ball at his feet, but it has been difficult to assess his qualities so far.
What has stood out in the two games is that Forest have been a little more on the front foot. They have pressed higher up the pitch and with a little more urgency than they did under Nuno in the final stages of last season. There has also been an additional urgency to their passing, which has seen Forest pose a real threat when they counter quickly.
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Julian Bennett, the former Forest defender who was on commentary duty for the Sunderland game, was right when he labelled Forest’s counter-attacking potential as “frightening”.
Forest never quite made the most of their attacking threat under Cooper at the start of last season. But following Nuno’s appointment in December, Forest’s mentality was noticeably more positive. Forest scored 49 goals, at a rate of 1.28 goals per game, which is an improvement on their record of netting exactly a goal per game in 2022-23. Their xG of 50.35 was also an improvement on their xG of 39.68, during their first season back in the top flight.
Nuno still wants to see Forest add another winger and another forward to their ranks, with Riquelme Fillipi, Palmeiras’ 17-year-old winger, among their targets.
Again, this is still only pre-season, but the prospect of Nuno finding a way to better harness the undoubted attacking talent at Forest is an enticing one.
(Top photo: Barrington Coombs/PA Images via Getty Images)
