INTERESTING Nuno Espirito Santo Tactic
Wins over Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham have put Nottingham Forest on the Premier League map.
And not only them. The team currently sits as 3rd in the Premier League and that is thanks to one man.
A man who proved himself as a manager once, was given a greater opportunity only just to be kicked out after a short time, forced to prove himself once again.
Welcome to a world where Nottingham Forest dominates again, this time under Nuno Esipirito Santo’s guidance.
Nottingham Forest is a club that dominated English football in the 1970s and 1980s, especially under the guidance of Brian Clough.
Brian Clough was no stranger to success back then, winning the Football League title with Derby County in the 1971-1972 season.
Forest were 13th in English football's second tier when Clough joined.
Peter Taylor rejoined Brian Clough as assistant manager in 1975 and assessed their squad and made a few changes, bringing their team to Football League standards.
The duo achieved its first success at Nottingham Forest in the 1976-1977 season after winning the Football League title, seven points ahead of Liverpool.
But the real success for the club came in 1979, with Nottingham Forest winning the European Cup – Champions League today – against Malmo, 1-0.
And in 1980, the club retained the European trophy, winning against Hamburg SV at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Present day Nottingham Forest is far from European glory, but not as far from domestic glory. And this is not an exaggeration. The team is currently 3rd in the Premier League, having the same number of points as Arsenal, who are 2nd.
Nuno Espírito Santo was born in São Tomé, Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe, and started his football career with Vitória Guimarães. After a meeting with the then Porto nightclub owner Jorge Mendes, Espírito Santo became the agent's first client in 1996.
Mendes brokered a $1 million transfer the following January to La Liga's Deportivo La Coruña, although Espírito Santo spent three of his six seasons at the club out on loan, backing up Jacques Songo'o and José Francisco Molina when he was part of the team.
He was the preferred goalkeeper for the winning campaign in the Copa del Rey in the latter season, although Javier Irureta played Molina in the final victory over Real Madrid.
In 2002, Nuno Espirito Santo was transferred to FC Porto, a club managed at the time by a special one…Jose Mourinho.
During a 2003 Taça de Portugal match against Varzim, he was allowed by Mourinho to convert a penalty kick, scoring the club's last goal in a 7–0 home win.
In May 2004, Nuno Espírito Santo was an unused substitute for the final as Porto won the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League.
After leaving FC Porto, the Portuguese moved clubs and he eventually started his coaching career at Malaga, in June 2010, as a goalkeeping coach.
In November, he signed with Panathinaikos. In 2012, Nuno Espirito Santo became manager of Rio Ave and in his first match in charge, the team lost 1-0 against Maritimo.
In his second season, the Portuguese manager led the club to their first qualification to the UEFA Europa League, after reaching both the Portuguese Cup and Portuguese League Cup finals.
In July 2014, Nuno Espirito Santo moved clubs and signed with Valencia, in Spain. He managed to guide the team to a fourth-place finish in his first season at the club.
In June 2016, he signed with FC Porto, but after an unsuccessful season, in 2017 he signed with Wolverhampton.
And it was this move that put Nuno Espirito Santo on the world stage of football. He led the club to Premier League promotion after six seasons of absence, managing to guide the club to 10 points earned in their first 4 matches in the English top division.
The club finished 7th that season, the club’s highest Premier League ranking at the time. The club also qualified for European football, reaching the UEFA Europa League.
After another 2 successful seasons in charge of Wolverhampton, Nuno Espirito Santo moved to Tottenham. But this was the club that really hit the Portuguese manager’s reputation. After the team’s fifth loss in seven matches, the club dismissed Espirito Santo.
In December 2023, though, the Portuguese restarted his managerial career after joining Nottingham Forest. After securing the club’s survival in the Premier League, the manager led the team to exceed the expectations, currently sitting 3rd in the league.
As tactics, Nuno Espirito Santo seems to be using a 4-2-3-1 formation at Nottingham Forest, sitting deep when out of possession, but pushing up quite high when attacking.
The team seems to be brave in attack, taking advantage of skillful players and a tall and strong striker.
In the game, I only managed to simulate one season using this tactic and Nottingham Forest finished 13th in the league, after struggling a bit. Not as shinning as in real life, but this is your chance to replicate real life success.
In goal, we have a sweeper keeper on defend duty. The keeper is expected to provide a passing option, but his focus remains defending the goal.
The back four is made of two central defenders on defend duty, one full back on support and one wing back on support.
In game, the full back will go up the pitch only when required and the role was chosen to balance the defensive shape of the team. The player used here is told to get further up the pitch and tackle harder to make sure that both attack and defend are covered.
Take fewer risks as player instructions for both central defenders and the left sided one is asked to stay wider, to cover for the wing back going up the pitch in attack.
The left sided player seems to be pushing up the pitch, thus the wing back role was preferred. The player is told to dribble more, to aid his attacking game when needed.
The two defensive midfielders are a ball winning midfielder on defend duty and a Segundo volante on attack. The duo must cover space defensively and attacking, so the roles are trying to emulate that.
However, different other combinations, depending on your squad, may be used here.
The Segundo volante is told to use more direct passes and tackle harder.
And the front four are one winger on support on the right side, an attacking midfielder on support, an inverted winger on support and an advanced forward on attack.
The winger has no special instructions, as he needs to cover his flank. But the cut inside with ball player instruction could be added if your player is fit for it.
The attacking midfielder is told to roam from position, as the player in this position seems to be dropping deep to get the ball, going up in attack overlapping the striker or going wide if one of the wingers left that position.
As mentality, I chose positive.
In possession, fairly wide attacking width and play out of defence. Shorter passing directness and a standard tempo. Play for set pieces and be more disciplined was used to make sure that the team keeps the tactical shape.
In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the center backs through short kicks.
And out of possession a high press and a standard defensive line. Trigger press is slightly more often and get stuck in. The get stuck in instruction asks the players to try to recover the ball more aggressively.
If you have an aggressive player in your squad, either tick this off or ask the respective player to ease off tackles.
What Nuno Espirito Santo achieved so far with Nottingham Forest is like what he managed to do while leading Wolverhampton. This performance might suggest that he is a top manager in the world of football and I hope the team manages to qualify for Europe this season.
