According to Martin Keown, he saw something quite unusual happen at Nottingham Forest last week.
The Reds’ chances of staying in the Premier League are at stake this week, as they have games against Sheffield United and Chelsea planned for the following seven days.
If Nottingham Forest wins both, they will probably have done enough to send Luton Town and Burnley down. Burnley will play the Garibaldi on the last day of the season.
Nottingham Forest, however, will be in danger if they lose either of the next two games.
Positively speaking, Martin Keown saw Nuno Espirito Santo’s team take an unusual step last week.
Martin Keown says Nottingham Forest did something rare
In a piece for the Daily Mail, the 57-year-old advised Nuno to continue using the three-man center defensive scheme that was employed in the team’s 2-0 loss to Manchester City.
When talking about that performance at the City Ground, Keown was careful to emphasize how remarkable it was to have Nottingham Forest outperform the Citizens in terms of shots.
The Oxford man wrote: “The wing-backs were able to play high up the pitch by adopting this new system, with Murillo doing for Wolves what Conor Coady used to do by sending long, diagonal passes into their paths to spark attacks.” A rare statistical achievement, Forest shot more than City, got bodies in the box, and flew forward.
Nottingham Forest may get a lot of confidence from their fierce performance even though they were unable to secure any points from it after facing off against what is undoubtedly the greatest team in the world.
More of the same
Nuno should stick with the lineup that caused Manchester City problems in today’s pivotal matchup with Sheffield United.
If Sheffield United can suffer from such method, it can also cause pain to Manchester City, as the Blades have already been relegated and have managed to give up 97 goals in 35 Premier League games this season.
There is – of course – the question of why it has taken Nuno so long to revert to the formation which served the Portuguese tactician so well at Wolves, having arrived at the City Ground way back in December.
Nevertheless, the change has now been made, and if this tactical tweak helps keep Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, Nuno will be heralded for it.
