Cutting down Nottingham Forest would restore Brighton confidence
Is it possible that a club sitting in an unexpected seventh place in the Premier League table need a confidence boost? In the case of Brighton & Hove Albion ahead of the visit of Nottingham Forest to the Amex, the answer to that might well be yes.
Robert De Zerbi awaits his first three points as Seagulls head coach. With games to come against Manchester City (ouch), Chelsea (f**k off Potter) and Wolves and Aston Villa who may both be benefiting from the new manager bounce by the time the Albion face them, the Tricky Trees present the most realistic opportunity for a De Zerbi win between now and the World Cup.
Victory would settle the jitters which some Brighton supporters are beginning to suffer. The heart racing 3-3 draw against Liverpool is beginning to feel like a long time ago, the Albion having failed to score against Spurs and Brentford despite registering 31 shots across 180 minutes.
Forget Potterball with five shots of espresso. There will instead be comparisons to Graham Potter’s xG nightmare of 2020-21 coming thick and fast if Brighton are not more clinical against Forest.
In the cold light of day, panicking after four games of the De Zerbi era when the bloke has a huge task on his plate is madness.
He is trying to introduce a new style of play and rebuild a club whose entire first team coaching staff has been ripped out, at the same time as having to win points in the toughest league in the world. De Zerbi needs time and patience.
Football though is a mad sport that does weird things to the mind. Emotions veer from one extreme to the other. A positive result has fans talking about Europa League football and Googling the best bars and clubs in Tirana on a Thursday night.
A negative result and it is looking down the Premier League table, working out how far away the relegation zone is and then despairing at the prospect of taking time off work for Rotherham away in midweek.
We may be learning about De Zerbi, how he works and how he plays. What we do know is this Brighton squad. History suggests that they go through peaks and troughs; when they are in good form, they fly and the results keep coming. Like the blistering starts to 2020-21 and the current campaign and the impressive finish to last season.
When they are in bad form, then they find it hard to break the pattern. Three months, 11 games without a win between last September and Boxing Day. Six defeats in a row over the Spring.
This is a squad full of confidence players. Which is why, as much as a result is important for De Zerbi, it is even more important for the team.
Three negative results in a row normally leads to seven, eight, nine or 10. For that to happen at the start of a new head coach’s reign when scrutiny and judgement is at its height would be terrible timing indeed.
There are two ways to look at facing Nottingham Forest next from a Brighton point of view. The first is that Forest are bottom of the table, one win to their name and no victory in eight.
The Albion are about to face the worst team in the Premier League at home. If they cannot cut down the Tricky Trees, then who can they beat?
This is Brighton we are talking about though. Failing to cut down the Tricky Trees, the worst team in the Premier League at home is exactly the sort of result the Albion specialise in.
Since the Seagulls won promotion to the Premier League in 2017, they have failed to beat Stoke City, Fulham, Cardiff City, Huddersfield Town, Watford, Sheffield United, West Brom, Fulham again, Norwich City and Burnley at home in the season in which those clubs were relegated.
10 clubs out of 15 picked up points at the Amex in the campaign they wound up in the Championship. Not a great record, is it?
Even a club whose supporters are so short of belief as Forest can come to Sussex with hope. The 1865 Forest Podcast slid into WAB’s Twitter DMs earlier in the week asking for some post-game thoughts “after you beat us on Tuesday night”.
We politely declined initially. Turns out they are quite happy though to have drunken bollocks spouted by someone fresh from six pints and a half time wine (have to go easier on a school night).
We also let them know that struggling sides tend to enjoy their time visiting Sussex by the Sea. Even ones doing as badly as Forest.
The Tricky Trees have found the step up from Championship to Premier League a real struggle. That is hardly a surprise.
Nottingham Forest were bottom of the second tier when Steve Cooper took over from former Brighton boss Chris Hughton, enjoying a remarkable rise over the past 12 months with playoff final success secured largely via a team of loan players.
Subsequently, Forest had to embark on a huge rebuilding in the summer, signing 21 new players to replace the 27 who left the City Ground.
Such upheaval was always likely to result in a slow start. Whilst there were rumours that Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was considering sacking Steve Cooper recently, Tricky Trees fans rallied behind the boss who ended their 23-year Premier League exile via the most unlikely of promotions.
Cooper instead signed a new contract keeping him at the City Ground until 2025. It was a show of refreshing loyalty in the cut throat world of the Premier League, presuming Marinakis does not rip up the deal if Forest continue to struggle.
Fans of most other clubs would hope they do not. They are a welcome addition back in the top flight of English football; a big club with a rich history and the trophy cabinet to prove it but without the arrogance of other once-successful teams.
The Leeds United think they are massive because they were half-decent in the 1970s. Aston Villa believe they have a God-given right to challenge for the top six because they won the European Cup in 1982. Potter and Yves Bissouma were supposed to have jumped at the chance to move to Villa Park, according to Villa fans. Lol.
Forest were league champions and two-time European Champions in the 1970s. And yet their supporters expect nothing from fixtures against #TeamsLikeBrighton. They are good, down-to-earth, proper football fans.
Of course, the hope that Nottingham Forest survive only starts once their visit to Brighton is out of the way. The Albion’s players need a confidence boost. De Zerbi needs a win to gain the confidence of supporters. An important evening of football lies in store.
