Nuno’s remarkable Forest resurrection rests on charming simplicity

When Tottenham sacked Nuno Espírito Santo at the beginning of November three years ago, it seemed like one of those sad but inevitable decisions that had to be taken. Spurs had just lost 3-0 at home to Manchester United, their fifth defeat in seven league games. As Spurs entered the purgatory of the Antonio Conte years, few gave much thought to Nuno.

With his quiet manner, sad eyes, bald head and long beard, Nuno had the air of a devout but disillusioned knight, his years of campaigning over, ready to retreat to a monastery. Give it up, old man, leave the field to those who understand the modern ways, those who will press recklessly high and believe in dominating possession.

Except Nuno is not as old as his beard and reserved manner make him appear; even now he is only 50. He left Europe behind, won the Saudi Pro League with Al-Ittihad, and has returned from exile to take up the challenge once again in the Premier League.

When Nuno and Spurs parted ways, Nottingham Forest were 18th in the Championship. Their rise since has been remarkable, largely because of the sense of instability and chaos that surrounds them. Sometimes football can defy all expectations. Sometimes football can seem a very simple game. And sometimes both those things can be true at once.

Which is another way of saying that before this weekend’s fixtures, Forest were third in the Premier League and face Newcastle on Sunday. The last time they occupied such a lofty position was at the start of September 1998, the week Google was founded.

Occasionally clubs do enjoy a meteoric and unexpected rise – a Brighton, a Brentford, a Swansea – after which they will be praised for their far-sighted management, for having a philosophy or for being smarter than the system. Nobody is saying that about Forest.

Their owner, the Greek businessman Evangelos Marinakis, is fighting a libel action against a rival from Greek football over a “smear campaign” including “false” allegations of match-fixing and a high-profile drug trafficking case in Greece. Marinakis denies all of the claims against him. He was recently banned for five games for spitting near match officials. The club appointed and released Mark Clattenburg from an ill-defined role as a refereeing consultant and were fined £750,000 for a social media post questioning the integrity of Stuart Attwell’s integrity.

Forest are a club who enjoy a widespread residual feeling of goodwill because of memories of Brian Clough’s European Cup winners and a sense among those of a certain age that they somehow belong near the top of the table, but it’s fair to say some of the antics of their owner over the past few months have jeopardised that.

Their transfer policy seemed scattergun and was widely mocked. Since summer 2022, Forest have brought in 44 players on permanent deals and a further 13 on loans. Such turbulence goes against all conventional wisdom – and, quite apart from what it meant for team-building over the past two seasons, it was a major factor in Forest being docked four points last season for breaches of profitability and sustainability rules.

There were good reasons why so many of the pre-season predications were for Forest to be relegated. Teams with irascible and idiosyncratic owners who are constantly banging on about refereeing decisions and buy four complete teams over a two-year period tend not to do well. And yet Forest went into the weekend in third, the only side so far this season to have beaten the league pacesetters, Liverpool.

They probably will fade at some point – although everybody said that of Leicester in 2015-16 as well – but already relegation seems a distant threat and the prospect of European qualification for the first time since 1995-96 is very real.At which the tendency is to throw up the hands, declare that football is chaos and that nobody knows anything. Which may even be partly true. But, equally, cut through the noise and the turnover of players, forget the owner’s histrionics and there is something remarkably straightforward about Forest’s style of play.

Amid the blizzard of signings there have been some obvious gems, notably Nikola Milenkovic, signed from Fiorentina for £13m, and Murillo, signed from Corinthians for £10.5m. In Chris Wood, they have a big, strong, traditional-style centre‑forward, good with his back to goal and currently enjoying a run of exceptional form. The plan was probably to have the more mobile Taiwo Awoniyi in that role, but Wood’s eight league goals so far this season are a reminder of the benefits of having an effective plan B.

None of this is especially complicated. They don’t press high; they sit deep, letting their central midfielders drop towards the back four, creating the space that can be exploited by the wide men. The logic of the pioneers of modern pressing, Arrigo Sacchi and Johan Cruyff, was that you kept the team compact because that reduced the amount you had to run and meant passes tended to be short and therefore relatively easy to complete.

However, a big centre-forward thrives on direct play, in effect allowing the midfield to remain deeper and retain a compact shape at the back. There is a danger he could be isolated, but the pace and dynamism of the three more advanced midfielders negate that.

Forest have had the third-lowest possession in the league this season – but it works. Or at least, works for them. A club with a more heightened sense of self-worth might insist on having more of the ball, on something more sophisticated, but simplicity has its own charm. Nuno took Wolves to promotion and then to two seventh-place finishes in the Premier League and, although there was a downturn in his fourth season, leading to his departure, they still finished 13th.

Perhaps he was not right for Spurs; a lot of managers aren’t. Spurs should not necessarily feel regret. But that did not mean Nuno was right for nobody. He kept Forest up last season despite their points deduction and, having found a workable system, is reaping the benefits now. Everything in football is contingent, and in the context of Forest, Nuno is back on his steed and, in his understated, diffident way, charging again.