REDS HAVE TO BE HARDER TO PLAY AGAINST: HUGHTON
NEW boss Chris Hughton hopes to be able to combine “attractive football” with winning football at Nottingham Forest.
But he says his priority must be getting the Reds’ season up and running, after a poor start to the campaign.
A run of four straight defeats in the League, plus a Carabao Cup exit, cost Sabri Lamouchi his job as head coach last week.
Hughton’s first game in charge comes on Saturday, away to Blackburn Rovers, following the international break.
And he is keen to focus on ensuring the team claim their first points before implementing his style of play.
“Sometimes you come into a club and you certainly have an idea of the way you want to play,” he said.
“But some of that has to be around the players that we’ve got.
“Every manager wants to play attractive football but there’s lots of different ways you can do that.
“Generally, attractive football can be winning football.
“The most important thing at this moment is getting points on the board and making us harder to play against.
“What we have seen from this team is one which has fared very well over the last season.
“Apart from a very disappointing end to the season, there were far more pluses than negatives.
“It’s about getting points first, then making clear decisions on the players we’ve got and a way of playing.”
Hughton took his first training session last Wednesday but says it is too soon if this is a group struggling for confidence.
Forest have brought in 13 new players so far this summer, strengthening a squad which fell at the final hurdle in the race for the play-offs last term.
“The only reason why I would use the word confidence is because I think you’re searching for something,” Hughton said.
“The honest answer is, I don’t know.
“I’ve walked into a group at training which is a good group and which has trained well.
“I don’t see a lack of confidence but it’s only been a few training sessions – no games. It’s difficult to comment.
“But I think it’s just searching for something to explain a disappointing start to the season.”