Postecoglou promises rapid change after getting a brutal welcome back

The revolution starts on Wednesday. In Swansea. In the Carabao Cup. Nottingham Forest’s new manager Ange Postecoglou watched a predictable 3-0 defeat at Arsenal sail by and then promised immediate change in South Wales in midweek.

After a lugubrious start to his post-match briefing, Postecoglou remembered he needed to boost morale and switched tones when he was asked how long it would take to remake Forest in his image. Weeks or months? “No, mate, it won’t be months, it won’t be weeks – it’ll be Wednesday. I can’t afford to waste time,” he said. “This is not a project. This club had a strong season last year and needs to be stronger this year.

“My job is to get us to where I want us as quickly as possible. On Wednesday we’ll start seeing some real principles embedded. It won’t take long. I’m not going to let it take long to make sure we turn around.”

Swansea City have been warned. And Postecoglou has heaped pressure on himself by promising such a quick reinvention, a change of style some Forest fans may feel isn’t necessary, given how well Nuno Espírito Santo did before falling out with the club’s owner. This defeat began with Arsenal using Forest as a practice wall as they endeavour to improve their attacking play. Goals from Martín Zubimendi (two) and Viktor Gyökeres and auspicious performances from Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze raised Arsenal’s sights while setting out the cost of what Postecoglou called “a very disruptive week for [my] players”.

An ex-Spurs manager was never going to elicit much sympathy here, so when Arsenal’s third goal went in, the home crowd sang: “Are you Tottenham in disguise?”

In his all-blue casual weekend wear, Postecoglou stood in his classic fact-finding stance: hands in pockets, eyes roaming to assess the task he took on 95 days after being sacked four and a half miles up the road.

For the second consecutive match Forest lost 3-0 to a London club, first with Nuno, then with Postecoglou. The buccaneering spirit of last season has yet to re-emerge. It’s way too soon to call it a full Forest fire but Postecoglou has inherited a mood of uncertainty and instability at one of the league’s fastest-rising clubs.

They returned from international week with one full training session to assess where Douglas Luiz, Dilane Bakwa, Arnaud Kalimuendo, Omari Hutchinson, James McAtee and Jair Cunha might fit in. Postecoglou took charge on Tuesday. Nobody rewrites a playing style in four days.

The only change he made to the side that lost 3-0 to West Ham was forced: Ola Aina’s hamstring injury opening the gate for Morato, who was hounded by Madueke on Arsenal’s right. Watching all this, Postecoglou said he would now start “pinning down some of the principles of how we want to play”.

Appointed 13 hours after Nuno’s exit, and with £180m of summer signings to sort through, he arrived with analysts obsessing over a likely tactical reinvention – from low line to high line, from “backing off to pressing hard”, as one put it; from going direct to passing through the lines.

Usually this indicates a confused identity. Successful clubs don’t generally change their core ideas with each new manager. It throws players off track. Sometimes, though, the cost of having a headstrong owner is that a manager who is performing well (in this case Nuno) leaves for reasons that have little to do with results.

Evangelos Marinakis, Forest’s undeniably headstrong owner, might call Postecoglou an upgrade, because three months ago he was hugging the Europa League trophy. His only ­victory since has been of the moral kind: the easing out at Spurs of the man who sacked him, Daniel Levy.

With Spurs last season Postecoglou finished 27 points behind Forest. He was one place off relegation in 17th, after 22 defeats in 38 games and 65 goals conceded. Tottenham’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United in the Europa League final preserved Postecoglou’s impressive trophy-winning record without dispelling the sense that his position there had become untenable.

The Europa League win, which Spurs prioritised as their league campaign succumbed to farce, came 30 years after his coaching career began at South Melbourne. That measure of his coaching ability is the one Forest fans will cling to. And at least he has Elliot Anderson, 22, a roaming, intelligent midfielder with constructive instincts. “We didn’t have a lot of the ball today, but every time he was on it, I thought he was unbelievable,” said Postecoglou. “I’m really excited to work with him. He’s still a young man. I’ve only had 48 hours with him but already I can see he’s very ambitious, wants to win, and be the best.”

A coach brought in to “win trophies”, Postecoglou has a more immediate job than that. Nuno passed a vital dressing room test. He improved the team, gave them shape and a shared identity and purpose. Recently promoted sides crave those certainties. Now Postecoglou is constructing a new path to the orchard.

It may work. Either way it will take time. But uncertainty tends not to help when Arsenal are coming at you.

Photo credit: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images