Premier League analysis: What will former Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou bring to Nottingham Forest? Nuno Espirito Santo sacked

Ange Postecoglou has been announced as the new Nottingham Forest head coach following the sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo.

The Aussie had a rollercoaster season with Tottenham Hotspur last year, finishing 17th in the Premier League, but ultimately winning the Europa League.

Before that, he had a successful spell at Celtic up in Scotland, winning five trophies in his two years in charge.

Now the 60-year-old comes into a Forest side that needs to build on a positive finish last season, so how is he different from Nuno?

Here, Transfer News Blitz writer Louie Rudge-Ferro looks at what Postecoglou will bring to the City Ground.

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Different ends of the scales

In a lot of ways, Postecoglou and Nuno are polar opposites as managers.

Nuno’s style of fast counter-attacking mixed with solid defending has led to some great results over his tenure at the City Ground.

Whereas Postecoglou will definitely come in and shake things up.

Where Forest used to sit in deep to defend, they will now play a very high line.

Players like Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic will have more responsibility to make last-ditch tackles and, most importantly, hold a good offside trap.

The Australian’s system lies on a fine balance between brilliance and disaster.

When it comes off, it will look amazing, however, when Forest get caught out – and they will – it will look amateur.

That being said, Postecoglou has brought silverware to every team he has ever managed and will now have the chance to repeat his Europa League triumph again.

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Should Nottingham Forest have acted quicker?

With his style of play being so different from the previous manager, and it being so early in the season, why Postecoglou was not brought in before Deadline Day baffles me.

Current players will have to adapt to better suit his system, especially in the midfield.

Morgan Gibbs-White is going to be vital if Forest are to achieve something special again this season.

The 25-year-old will likely play a similar role to the one he played under Nuno, operating in the half spaces, sometimes dropping deeper, and playing in Forest’s wingers.

The midfield will need to work hard so that they don’t leave massive spaces between themselves and the defence.

With one ball over the top of the backline, it can set the team back sometimes 30 yards, which is then easy to cut back to runners from the midfield with time and space.

Deeper-lying players like Elliot Anderson or Ibrahim Sangare will need to do a lot of chasing back to deny shots on goal.

Similarly, his fullbacks will need to be up and down the touchline all game, as they will be expected to be part of the attack as much as they are vital to defend.

This is another risk-taking tactic by Postecoglou, who likes to have his left-sided players double up on the opposing fullback when attacking.

But when the ball is lost, lots of space will be left for wingers.

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Wide player galore

Some of the most important players will be Postecoglou’s wide players.

The Forest boss loves to play his wingers on the touchline, with space to drive into and deliver crosses, often to their opposite number.

Callum Hudson-Odoi and Dilane Bakwa could work really well this way, with their explosive pace and capability to beat defenders 1v1.

Brennan Johnson was Tottenham’s top scorer from right wing last season, scoring 18 goals under Postecoglou, most of them coming from arriving early at the back post.

So the blueprint is there for the wide players to become focal points for Forest.

However, if they are shut out of the game by quality fullbacks, the team becomes very one-dimensional.

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What to expect from Ange Postecoglou

I think that Postecoglou will, like he did at Spurs, target silverware for Forest this season.

It would not be a shock to expect him to take Forest higher in the table than Nuno managed last season, but he has won everywhere he has been, so I doubt Forest will be his first loss.

Forest should make it to the latter stages of the Europa League, with Postecoglou specialised in unifying a dressing room with his speeches.

The only thing I would say is that it seems strange to give him Nuno’s squad, rather than bringing him in earlier and letting him assess the squad.

I have no doubts he would like a faster centre-back partnership, as Milenkovic does not quite cut it for me.

However, his reported good relationship with owner Evangelos Marinakis will hopefully give him more time than his predecessor.

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