The Independent
·29 de dezembro de 2024
The Independent
·29 de dezembro de 2024
Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo insists his side have not achieved anything yet despite the 2-0 victory over Everton lifting them to their highest league position in over 30 years.
Chris Wood’s 11th league goal of the campaign set them on their way to a fifth successive victory and Morgan Gibbs-White capped another impressive performance with a second after the break to move Forest up to second as their dream season continued.
But Nuno refused to get carried away, saying: “We are enjoying it, we are especially enjoying because our fans are enjoying with us.
“Nothing changes, we cannot change. We have to realise we didn’t achieve anything.
“We are competing in a very tough league and the next one (game) will be even tougher than this one and it’s going to be until the end like that.
“I’m very happy, especially happy because we competed very well, we performed very well in a tough place to come.
“Everton are so aggressive, so direct and it was about trying to control when we didn’t have the ball, squeezing and not letting Everton play as comfortable.
“I think overall we performed really well. We scored a beautiful goal, were dominant in the boxes, we didn’t allow too many chances and could have scored more – a little bit more composure in the final moments would help. Immensely proud.”
While Forest showed no ill-effects from losing centre-back Murillo in the warm-up, prompting a late reshuffle, Everton boss Sean Dyche was astonished to see his previously well-organised side abandon their game-plan from the off.
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Morgan Gibbs-White celebrates scoring Forest’s second goal (Peter Byrne/PA) (PA Wire)
“In the first half our players did the opposite of what we told them, which is frustrating as a manager,” said Dyche, whose side have won just one of the last 10 and sit just three points above the bottom three.
“It was a poor (first) goal from us definitely, which is unusual for us, and they did the basics better than us in the first half.
“I thought they did what they have done to a lot of teams this season, played counter-attack football very well. It’s not a slight on them.
“They scored one good goal, poor from us, (but) the second goal is farcical from us, you can’t give away goals – especially against a side in this form who are renowned to be difficult to break down.
“They are hard to open up when they are in front and I think they have a player in form in Chris Wood, who I know well, who was excellent.”