John Curtis criticises Sabri Lamouchi as Nottingham Forest lose to West Brom

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Nottingham Forest lost 2-1 at home to West Bromwich Albion in their Championship opener on Saturday with Aro Muric enduring a nightmare in goal.

Another year, another fresh start at Nottingham Forest.

But the Sabri Lamouchi era hardly got off to the dream start in front of an expectant, sold out City Ground crowd.

Aro Muric, the goalkeeper on loan from Manchester City, endured a nightmare debut between the sticks, spilling Kyle Edwards’ tame effort into his own net before a mishit Matt Phillips cross looped over his head and nestled in the far corner as West Brom snatched a 2-1 win in the East Midlands.

Matty Cash’s eighth minute opener, a thunderbolt from the edge of the box, proved to be little more than a false dawn. Forest have had far too many of those in recent years.

And while it would be unfair to write off Lamouchi after just 90 minutes of football, it’s fair to say an underwhelming display against a far superior West Brom side has taken the shine of what looked like an exciting summer rebuild.

“We started well today but West Brom were so much stronger,” former Nottingham Forest defender John Curtis told HITC.

“For me, (Lamouchi) made strange subs and the team offered very little going forward. He needs to learn about the Championship very quickly. For me he got it all wrong.”

Rafa Mir, Sammy Ameobi and Brennan Johnson all came off the bench against The Baggies but failed to make an impact as two fluke goals consigned the former Ivory Coast and Rennes coach to an opening day defeat.

And Curtis, who played for Forest between 2005 and 2007, is concerned about a lack of quality at full-back and up front. Lamouchi seems determined to turn the energetic Cash into an orthodox right-back while Jack Robinson, a centre-half by trade, failed to offer much going forward.

The usually reliable Lewis Grabban, meanwhile, looked short of service at centre-forward with a lack of cutting edge putting him firmly on the periphery.

“The full-back areas and centre-forward looked weak on Saturday,” Curtis adds.

“The middle of the park looks good and (Joe) Lolley adds creativity (but) I’m not sure the system used suits the players strengths. A few too many square pegs in round holes.”

Life won’t get any easier for Lamouchi. Next up is an away trip to a Leeds United side who looked formidable in their 3-1 win away at Bristol City on Sunday.