Charlie Grace

Wed 10 September 2025 20:02, UK

Nottingham Forest shocked the Premier League by dismissing Nuno Espirito Santo and replacing him with Ange Postecoglou.

Espirito Santo hit the headlines after a row behind the scenes at Nottingham Forest left the Portuguese head coach’s position in doubt.

Football Insider exclusively revealed that Nottingham Forest were prepared to sack Espirito Santo if crisis talks with the 51-year-old were to fall through.

Speculation linking Postecoglou with the Forest job began last week as Bayer Leverkusen and Fenerbahce also both courted the Australian for a move.

Ange Postecoglou signals a change of direction for Nottingham Forest

Postecoglou was dismissed from his role at Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the summer after his side’s Europa League victory in May.

Postecoglou’s style drew many critics from pundits, and ESPN’s Craig Burley has concerns about how the style will translate at the City Ground.

Burley spoke on ESPN FC saying: “It’s a complete sea change, in terms of what you’re going to get from his style.

“Nottingham Forest under Steve Cooper were a team that tried to be hard to beat, and Nuno Espirito Santo continued that but a had a little bit more flair about it, but they still had the hard to beat mantra and their defensive record was excellent.

“They tended to let teams out-posses them but they had some wide guys at the time like Anthony Elanga, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Chris Wood who has had the season and a half of his life.

“That was good enough to get them almost into the Champions League, now the big question was could you keep that going? But what we do know is this is a complete turnaround with what this new manager is going to bring.

“The most recent evidence was Tottenham, but before that Celtic and in Japan and in Australia, it’s hell for leather, it’s open, it’s attacking, and the big question will be, ok we know he’s going to try it but has he got the players to even attempt it?” Burley asked.

Burley continued by saying: “Forest were built on a solid back four, a bit of pace on the counter-attack and a big striker up top who is in the form of his life.

“This is a whole sea change, you’re saying, ‘I want the centre-halves to split and take the ball and the full-backs going on,’ how is it going to work?

“It might be exciting to start with but I can see so many problems ahead when he tries to do it.”

Analysing how Nottingham Forest will go from one extreme to another

Football Insider verdict

Postecoglou’s time at Tottenham was littered with questions over his hyper-attacking style in a league where his team was dominant, like he had in Scotland with Celtic.

Postecoglou’s Spurs side conceded 126 goals in 76 Premier League games across his two seasons with the club, finishing in fifth and 17th, and winning the Europa League to top off his spell.

Meanwhile under Espirito Santo, Forest have conceded 88 goals in 62 games since the former Tottenham and Wolves coach took over in December 2023.

At the other end of the pitch the 138 goals in Postecoglou’s two seasons vastly overpowers the 93 Espirito Santo’s Forest achieved but the control never felt like it was there during a Spurs performance under the Australian.

The appointment of Postecoglou may lead to being a masterstroke by Evangelos Marinakis, or it could work to dispel everything, Espirito Santo did right, to rebuild Forest’s top-half Premier League status.