First international break of the season.
Time to take a step back, take a deep breath and look at how the team is shaping up in the early stages.
Sabri Lamouchi spoke about how he has found his first month of competitive football at Nottingham Forest and how the players have really helped him through the first bunch of games.
“I am happy. I have to congratulate the players for this crazy month. We have a lot of things to do. We can improve, we can play much better, but the character will be really important this year in this league. It has been a crazy month with many games, but the players have never complained. They are focused. This league is just incredible, but this is just the beginning,”
And this is where I need to congratulate him. He has spoken before about how hard the Championship is, calling it ‘the marathon league’, but he has taken to this league incredibly well, and even at this early stage, I think it’s safe to say that the board made the right call in sacking Martin O’Neill and bringing in Lamouchi.
When he was first appointed, I said that I felt this would be a good appointment based off his track record, but I have to say I have been blown away with just how well he has adjusted into this division. Not only have the results been incredibly impressive, with just the one loss so far (and that loss came via a couple of mistakes by Aro Muric), but the performances as well have been delightful as well.
The best example being Forest’s first goal in the victory over Fulham a couple of weeks ago, the way that everyone knows their role and can execute it perfectly and with such pace has been brilliant to watch. I don’t think we’re quite ready to start coining it ‘Lamouchi-ball’ just yet, but maybe wait a couple of months and see where we’re at.
So what about you? How would you assess the Frenchman’s first month in charge? Is he everything you expected him to be? Or are there still areas he needs to work on?
