Who would have imagined that we would ever be living in a world where Keylor Navas is sharing a dressing room with Jonjo Shelvey? Where Jesse Lingard is a team-mate of Serge Aurier? Where Joe Worrall could be forging a centre-back partnership with a La Liga-winning Brazil international?
Nottingham Forest’s squad may, on paper at least, resemble a random mash-up of varying talent. Of EFL stalwarts and Champions League regulars. Frankenstein’s football team.
But it’s to Steve Cooper’s endless credit that, after a difficult start to the current campaign, the Forest boss is making sense of all the madness. Forest have lost just one of their last seven Premier League games.
They are up to 13th; three points off Chelsea, four off Liverpool. And, after taking their tally of signings to a remarkable 28 since beating Huddersfield Town in May’s play-off final, Cooper’s desire to construct a squad with more depth than a Stanley Kubrik script appears to have been realised.
“We want to make sure we have the right depth for every position,” the ex-England U17 coach said in September. “I don’t want any player thinking they are definitely going to play in the next game. I want them to feel that they’ve got to train really well to get a place in the team.”
Another flurry of new signings at Nottingham Forest
Following a flurry of deadline day additions, integral performers like Willy Boly, Ryan Yates and Dean Henderson – once he returns from injury – will know that any dip in form could see their place in Cooper’s XI snatched away. Competition for places, the Forest boss insists, can only be a good thing.
Suddenly, Henderson faces a battle with a three-time Champions League-winning Real Madrid icon. Keylor Navas, Nottingham Forest’s most high-profile arrival since promotion, joining from Paris Saint-Germain. While now 36 years of age, Navas remains one of the most talented shot-stoppers in the game; labelled ‘one of the best in the world’ by former PSG boss Mauricio Pochettino back in 2021.
Further experience arrives in the shape of Shelvey (30) and Felipe (33). Chris Wood, 31, joins from Newcastle alongside Shelvey, and brings with him a wealth of top-flight nous. Felipe, meanwhile, won La Liga under Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid. He also has league winners’ medals from his time at Corinthians and FC Porto.
Experience and exuberance
Nottingham Forest, per Football365, had the Premier League’s fourth-youngest XI on average until recently. Navas, Shelvey, Felipe and Wood should supplement the promise and exuberance of Brennan Johnson, Neco Williams and Morgan Gibbs-White, giving Forest a rock-solid spine with the nous and know-how to adapt to high-pressure situations.
A midfield partnership of Shelvey and £18 million signing Danilo, meanwhile, looks particularly well-balanced on paper. The industry, energy and defensive awareness of Danilo giving freedom for the mercurial Shelvey to do his ball-playing bit. Felipe, meanwhile, could forge an impenetrable understanding with Boly or Worrall. No one in Simeone’s squad averaged more than his 4.1 clearances per game in Atletico’s 2020/21 title-winning campaign (WhoScored).
There is a real versatility and adaptability to Forest’s squad these days too. In attack, Cooper can flit between the power and link-play of Wood or Taiwo Awoniyi, to the speed and technical-ability of Brennan Johnson. Their midfield has ball-players and ball-winners; distributors and destroyers in equal measure.
There is creativity in Gibbs-White, Lingard and the increasingly-impressive Gustavo Scarpa. But also defensive resilience in the shape of Danilo, Worrall, Boly and Felipe.
Whether all these additions will be enough to keep the relegation wolf from barking at Forest’s door remains to be seen. But after constructing a deep, adaptable and high-quality squad, and with one of the Premier League’s most influential managers running things from the sidelines, an immediate return to the Championship now feels very much avoidable.
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