Nottingham Forest were beaten 2-1 by Fulham at the weekend in a game that probably offered up more questions than answers.
Talk of Forest being found out is premature. The Reds have massively overachieved to be sitting in third place in the Premier League and fans need to remain calm.
Fulham simply did a job on Forest at the weekend. They were disciplined, worked hard and frankly, they didn’t allow the Reds to get in behind them on too many occasions.
Troy Deeney hailed Chris Wood for his efforts. The striker scored for the 18th time during the 2024/25 campaign and he’s extremely important to what Forest are trying to do.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s team are still in a nice position in the league table. With 13 games left to play, there is still a lot to play for and this season looks set to go to the wire when it comes to European places.
Danny Higginbotham hails Nottingham Forest star Chris Wood and dispels narrative
The man who spent time with Forest towards the end of his career is now a pundit over in the United States and this week he stood in for Robbie Mustoe on The 2 Robbies Podcast.
Forest’s style has been defended by Higginbotham. Espirito Santo’s counter-attacking style has drawn critique from some but it really is a case of horses for courses when it comes to the top flight.
It’s refreshing that he chose to dispel the narrative surrounding the style of play that Forest adopt in games. The counter-attacking style has often been frowned upon, with Forest 20th in the division when it comes to possession in games.
However, there are more ways to play football than the stereotypical way of keeping the ball with Espirito Santo instead preferring for his team to do their damage on the counter-attack instead.
Higginbotham was quick to praise Fulham – correctly – for their performance against Forest, whilst also finding time to join Deeney in praising Wood for his efforts in the game.
The pundit said: “I think sometimes you look this season and when Forest have scored, you look at the stats and you think they’ve scored against the run of play, that’s what it feels like but it’s not always like that. They just stick to what they’re good at.
“We saw how they set up and play and that’s how they got their equaliser through Chris Wood who is having a phenomenal season, it’s a brilliant finish.”
It’s not out of the ordinary to say that Wood is probably leading the race to win the Nottingham Forest Player of the Year accolade for 2024/25 and without his goals, the Reds wouldn’t be in contention.
Wood has stayed in form during the current campaign, picking up where he left off in 2023/24 when he bagged 14 goals and helped Forest retain their Premier League status.
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