Henri Lansbury comments on Philippe Montanier’s Nottingham Forest future

Follow us on Google Discover

The Forest midfielder says Montanier cannot yet be judged on his time at the City Ground.

Nottingham Forest midfielder Henri Lansbury has told the club’s official website that it is still too early to judge head coach Philippe Montanier’s reign, and insisted that supporters will soon be seeing a different side under the Frenchman.

Forest have suffered a poor start to the season and life under Montanier, winning just four of their first 15 games of the Championship season.

That form sees them currently stranded just a single point outside the relegation zone, far from where they would have been aiming to be at the start of the campaign.

Admittedly they have been one of the second tier’s great entertainers so far this term. Only three teams have scored more than their tally of 24, but only cut-adrift bottom side Rotherham United have conceded more than the 29 Forest have shipped, a rate of almost two per game.

That has not been a happy formula for success so far, however, and talk has begun to gather pace that Montanier’s job could be under threat after only 18 games.

However, Lansbury has come to his manager’s defence by insisting that a third of a league season is nowhere near enough time to fairly judge his record.

The midfielder told Forest’s website: “It is a long season, the manager is new and we are trying to help him as players understand this league and once he finds his feet we will get a run together. He is a fantastic manager and it is only a matter of time before we set some fireworks off.

“The fans have been fantastic for us through this spell. We haven’t hit the heights we are expected to hit but I think looking at it, we have a new manager with new players and a new team, but we should be doing better than we are.

“You can’t judge a manager in 14 or 15 games, he needs time to get his ideas across and when he does that it will be a different Nottingham Forest.”

It is sensible of Lansbury to call for patience; as he suggested, Forest have shown more than enough glimpses of quality to hint that a change in fortunes could be around the corner.

However, with the East Midlands club perilously close to the relegation zone, another few weeks of inconsistency could get chairman Fawaz Al-Hasawi’s trigger finger twitching.