Why Nuno Espirito Santo was such a flop for Tottenham before leading Nottingham Forest on Leicester-like title charge
ALMOST exactly 50 years ago, in early January 1975, Nottingham Forest’s greatest manager walked into the City Ground as boss for the first time.
And while Nuno Espirito Santo has little in common with Brian Clough except the same job title, the Portuguese has Forest fans dreaming of a return to the biggest European stage after more than four decades.
Monday’s win at Wolves, a classic example of how this Forest side are arguably the most adept counter-attacking side in the Premier, drew them level on points with second-placed Arsenal.
There is a bitter irony for Tottenham supporters that the man sacked because he did not live up to their expectations of how the game should be played is now staring down at Ange Postecoglou’s side – with the Aussie under persistent criticism for being far too open.
Yet that explains the biggest secret of Nuno’s Forest success.
Unlike Postecoglou, who increasingly appears a hostage to his own philosophy, Nuno is unrepentant about the cautious, counter-attacking approach that will never be acceptable for more than a few weeks in N17.
At Wolves, remember, he took the Molineux side out of the Championship and up to successive seventh-placed finishes – their best since 1980.
He did it in exactly the same way as he is working the magic at Forest, not too dissimilar to the manner in which Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester stunned the Prem in 2016.
Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses. Keep it simple. Make sure everyone is willing to sacrifice themselves for the common good. And don’t give a stuff what the media think of you.
Ranieri’s side never changed or adapted. They were exactly the same every week. And nobody took them seriously until it was too late to stop the train reaching its unlikely destination.
Forest's eerie Leicester comparisons
Nottingham Forest are remarkably similar to Leicester City during their title winning campaign in 2015/16
- Leicester sat one place behind Arsenal in the league table after 20 games in 2015/16
- Nottingham Forest sit one place behind Arsenal in the league table after 20 games this season
- Leicester had 40 points after 20 games in 2015/16
- Nottingham Forest have 40 points after 20 games this season
- Leicester narrowly avoided relegation the season prior to their title success
- Nottingham Forest narrowly avoided relegation last season
- Both teams had a surprise package in-form striker. Although Jamie Vardy had managed 15 goals by this point in the season, and Chris Wood has scored 12
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The truth is that Nuno cares not for criticism. Because he knows what works for him, with the right set of players
Yet that only works if the fans are prepared to buy into it, too.
At Spurs, where the supporters had felt bored and patronised by Nuno’s managerial mentor, Jose Mourinho, the very last thing they wanted was more of the same.
Nuno, of course, was on the bench as reserve goalkeeper when Mourinho’s Porto won the Champions League in 2004. The “Special One’s” philosophy runs through his very core.
Where Pep Guardiola will not be satisfied until his side has the ball for the entire game, Mourinho is the very opposite, explaining: “Many believe the team with more possession is dominant.
“But a team without the ball can be dominant, in control of the game.
“For some coaches, possession is more a matter of PR and image. The fundamental thing is that the team that scores more goals is the one that wins.”
True. But sometimes, some teams, require more than that.
To be fair to Nuno, he was handicapped, horribly, by his best player starting the season with a gripe against the world after Harry Kane’s planned move to Manchester City fell through.
Yet Nuno failed to get Kane to want to play for him. And it did not take long for that to be the mood of the entire squad.
He was not a natural fit for Tottenham. And no matter how successful he is now, he never would have been.
Forest are a different kettle of fish, although there are few parallels to be drawn with the Clough era.
Certainly, while he wasn’t scared of a pound note, Clough would never have dreamed of a spell managing in Saudi Arabia – although Nuno, having won the title with Al-Ittihad, was sacked after 18 months in the desert after a fall-out with star striker Karim Benzema.
Indeed, had it come to a choice between Clough and even his biggest star, you’d put your money on the manager surviving. Different times.
Clough not only talked a good game. He played one, too, a spine of experience and quality, with a world-class keeper in Peter Shilton at one end and Britain’s first £1m player, Trevor Francis, at the other.
A side that did the horrible parts of the game well but was also about expressing themselves on the ball.
You don’t play John Robertson if the game-plan is all about running power.
This incarnation of Forest, by contrast, is very different.
An old-fashioned centre-forward in journeyman Kiwi Chris Wood, young English talents Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson, plus a collection of discards and bargain signings with the entire squad having cost around £330m.
And a team that has, under Nuno, a pragmatic and clear style.
You do not need the ball to win. Defend for your lives. Make yourselves hard to hurt. And break at pace.
Despite averaging just 39.5 per cent possession so far, the LOWEST figure in the entire Prem, Forest have been doing that, superbly, all season.
The only team to beat Liverpool – at Anfield to boot. Wins over Manchester United and – much, to his pleasure, surely – Postecoglou’s Spurs. And a draw at Chelsea.
Critically, too, Forest have demonstrated an ability to beat teams who do not attack in numbers, still sitting back to sucker them in and then take their opportunities.
The defending of Serbian Nikola Milenkovic – a player hewn from the same solid oak as Nemanja Vidic and Branislav Ivanovic – Brazilian Murillo and London-born Chelsea youth product Ola Aina has been physical, imposing and brilliant.
It has allowed the midfield to press tight and force turnovers, allowing pace out wide in Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi to stretch opponents and create the space for Gibbs-White and Anderson to create, while Wood is having the season of his life.
Mirroring Clough in winning the title is unlikely, this season at least.
But with a top five place likely to be enough for Champions League football next term, playing for the biggest prize in football for the first time in 45 years is more than feasible.
Nuno will never be a modern-day Clough. They are few in number. He is, though, making memories that the current generation of City Ground fans will always remember.