Hughton cannot be blamed for all of Forest’s problems

SIX games into the Championship season and Nottingham Forest already find themselves in a precarious position.

Nothing is decided a month into the season, but there is no escaping the fact the Reds are on a decidedly slippery slope, desperately searching for a foothold after their worst start to a campaign for 108 years.

They are in a rut. They need to get out of it quickly, otherwise there is a long, hard slog ahead in which they will be fighting to keep their heads above water.

A year that was supposed to see them at least improve on last term, if not challenge for a top-six place, is in danger of descending into freefall.

Chris Hughton, as manager, is the man feeling the heat at the moment but not all the issues come back to him.

Here is a look at what has gone wrong at the City Ground.

■■Transfer policy

There is no magic formula when it comes to making the right signings. At any club, some will work out and others won’t. Nobody gets it right all the time.

But, in recent windows, the Reds have had more misses than hits – some more high-profile than others.

Twelve months ago they brought in 14 new players to a squad that had finished just outside of the play-off places. That group required a few tweaks, rather than major surgery.

Of those who came in, only Loic Mbe Soh, Scott Mckenna, Jack Colback, Cafu and Lyle Taylor are part of Hughton’s current crop. The rest have either returned to parent clubs, gone on loan elsewhere or departed permanently.

That is a high turnover.

In fairness, Forest have admitted they got it wrong that summer and they are trying to change their transfer philosophy – something new CEO Dane Murphy concedes will take “two or three” windows to fully implement.

Even with a new recruitment setup in place, it will take time.

Big wages and bloated contracts which had been dished out in the past have a long-term legacy. The need to cut costs this summer is a testament to that.

In what was already going to be a difficult market, the club had to be particularly mindful of how they went about their business.

■■Managerial turnover

It is not just a constant stream of players who have come and gone through the City Ground doors. The Reds have worked their way through a fair share of managers, too.

Hughton is the fifth head coach to have occupied the dugout during

Evangelos Marinakis’ time as owner since he bought the club in 2017.

In the past decade, 12 managers have been in charge.

The never-ending spinning of the roulette wheel takes its toll.

Dispensing with a manager then leads to more transfer changes as they look to make their mark on the dressing room. Any chance of finding some stability goes out the window.

Results are everything. They’re what managers are judged on. That’s why Hughton finds himself on thin ice. But the cycle of change can have an effect.

■■Who are ya?

One of the biggest criticisms of Forest at the moment is that they seem to lack a clear identity.

To some degree, that comes with the territory when you’re struggling for results. You’re trying to get points any which way you can.

Hughton’s team have shown glimpses of what they are capable of. Lewis Grabban’s goal on Sunday was a prime example. It was wellworked and expertly executed.

The problem is those moments are not happening enough. That then puts pressure on the back line.

The Reds defence coped with the physical threat of Cardiff in the first half, but it’s a lot to ask for them to do that for 90 minutes, particularly as the visitors began to lay siege.

The manager has spoken about wanting to be more expansive, once he had the personnel at his disposal. Thus far, though, the team hasn’t clicked.

Again, the change in transfer strategy can eventually feed down into how the team play – if it’s done right.

Forest have pursued a much younger profile of signing in the window. In almost all of the media interviews done so far, players have spoken about the young, hungry group in the changing room.

The challenge is to get them to gel quickly.

Despite the busy end to the window, Hughton hasn’t yet been able to work with all of his new arrivals, with Mohamed Drager and Braian Ojeda self-isolating and not expected to be available until after this weekend.

That has only added to the obstacles the manager has had to deal with in the early weeks of the campaign. They are not excuses for poor form, but they haven’t helped.

■■Goals, goals, goals (or not)

The Reds have struggled for some time now with finding the back of the net on a regular basis and with creating chances.

They tried to bring in a striker during the summer but didn’t manage

to get any deal over the line.

While not ruling out dipping into the free agent market, Hughton didn’t give the impression anything would happen on that front any time soon.

Forest have needed more goal threat for some time. In January, they brought in Glenn Murray to try to help, but that was only ever going to be a short-term fix.

Some decent business looks to have been done in the window just gone and some attacking players were added – Hughton regularly makes the point that there are a lot of attack-minded players on the pitch.

But will not bringing in another out-and-out forward come back to bite?

In the meantime, the task is to get the best out of those in the squad; find a way to get them putting the opposition under pressure for longer spells.

It isn’t all down to the strikers. Forest do have talented attack-minded players on their books – such as Philip Zinckernagel, Alex Mighten, Brennan Johnson, Joao Carvalho and Joe Lolley.

New full-backs Max Lowe and Djed Spence also showed they can offer a good outlet, when they made their debuts against Cardiff.

Hughton says “small margins” have been deciding matches. Such nuances don’t count in the Championship table, though.

There has been no shortage of effort from those on the pitch. On Sunday, plenty of players bust a gut to get involved, be it putting bodies on the line defensively or racing forward. They didn’t look like a team not playing for their manager.

It is Hughton, though, who will bear the brunt if the ship does not turn.