Nottingham Forest‘s poor start under new boss Ange Postecoglou continued on Saturday night, with a 1-0 loss to newly-promoted Sunderland on home turf at the City Ground – and for one star, it appears that his Forest career is already over after he failed to be introduced.
Omar Alderete’s clever header just before half-time put the Black Cats ahead, and Forest couldn’t find their way back into the contest despite boasting the majority of the shots and possession throughout the contest. The result leaves them in sixteenth place in the Premier League table, just two points clear of the relegation zone, having scored five goals and conceded 10 already, with reason to be cautious after such a strong campaign last time out.
Nicolo Savona Wasn’t Introduced Despite Defensive Injury Crisis
Postecoglou threw on a raft of attacking substitutions throughout the contest, with Morgan Gibbs-White coming on at half-time, as well as Igor Jesus, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Omari Hutchinson and Arnaud Kalimuendo all coming on in the attacking positions. However, it was the lack of one defender in the match day squad that has raised potential eyebrows in the form of Nicolo Savona, who wasn’t included by Postecoglou at all in the East Midlands.
Forest notably only had one defender on the bench, with Jair Cunha being the man in question. They are without first-team defensive stars Ola Aina and Murillo, who are both injured and can play on the right-hand side of defence, where Savona typically plays.
However, despite Neco Williams and Nikola Milenkovic being cautioned, Cunha wasn’t brought on – and if the Brazilian wasn’t even introduced in that scenario, you can only imagine just how far down the pecking order Savona is if he’s not being selected in the squad during what appears to be an injury crisis to the backline of their squad.
Savona’s Poor Form Could Already Have Spelled End of Forest Career
Forest signed Savona from Juventus towards the end of the summer transfer window after some strong performances for the Italian outfit, and his arrival came with a lot of promise, given he’s made 40 appearances for the Old Lady and even being called up to the senior Italy squad in last November’s internationals.
However, he wasn’t included in Nuno Espirito Santo’s final home game against West Ham United at the end of August, and only made his debut in the Premier League away at Arsenal, where he came on for Murillo in the first half.
His error led to Viktor Gyokeres scoring just seconds into the second half to put the Gunners 2-0 up, and his only other Forest appearance was in the late Carabao Cup loss to Swansea City, where he picked up a yellow card in the 3-2 defeat, which won’t have helped his chances of first-team football.
By not coming onto the pitch against Real Betis in the Europa League in midweek, and failing to be included in the squad to face Sunderland this weekend, it’s already looking like quite a bleak start for Savona and if he can’t turn Postecoglou’s thoughts around, it could spell the start of a treacherous tenure for him.
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