Credit: Imago

Oliver Walton

Mon 25 May 2026 10:45, UK

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Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira should only be planning to use Jair Cunha as a centre-back from now on after he struggled at right-back against Bournemouth.

Pereira’s side ended a turbulent campaign with a 1-1 draw against the Cherries at the City Ground on Sunday.

Morgan Gibbs-White’s 15th league goal of the season was cancelled out by Marcus Tavernier’s second half strike as Forest finished 16th in the Premier League.

Brazilian defender Cunha did not cover himself in glory for Tavernier’s goal as he was thrust into an unfamiliar right-back role to close out the season.

While Cunha played on the right side of defence in Forest’s last match of the campaign, Pereira must make it clear that the 21-year-old’s long-term future is at centre-back.

Jair Cunha proved that he is not a right back against the Cherries

Cunha was handed a second start of the campaign at right back on Sunday, with his previous five league starts coming at centre-back.

The 21-year-old struggled in his first appearance on the right of the backline in their 4-0 Europa League loss to Aston Villa, and so it would have been a surprise to many to see Pereira’s experiment revisited against Bournemouth.

He struggled to deal with his compatriot, Rayan, throughout, and committed an error leading to a goal as he failed to tackle Adrien Truffert and got up very slowly before he assisted Tavernier’s equaliser.

Cunha has already impressed at centre-back this season, so forcing him into the team at right-back only seems likely to dampen his spirit if Pereira continues his experiment into next season.

Ola Aina praise proves that Cunha can be key to Forest in 2026-27

Cunha should certainly not be written off by City Ground chiefs this summer, even though sources have told Football Insider that Evangelos Marinakis will give Pereira a “big budget” for transfers.

He was only featuring at right-back in the absence of first-choice star Aina, who previously heaped praise on Cunha ahead of their European clash against Villa last month.

After being asked about Cunha, Aina said: “He’s been wicked, hasn’t he? I think he has been. Obviously, at the start of the season, he wasn’t playing as much, so maybe people didn’t see how good he is.

But we see him every day in training. If he keeps his head down, like I think he will do, he’ll go a long way.”

Cunha should obviously be included in the Reds’ plans for next season, but at centre-back rather than right-back.