Chris Hughton will still be the Nottingham Forest manager for Wolves but the pressure is building

By Callum Castel-Nuovo

Chris Hughton is under pressure to push Nottingham Forest back up the Championship table after a pointless first 4 games of the 2021/22 season.

Losses to Coventry, Bournemouth, Blackburn and most recently Stoke have left many fans calling for the Nottingham Forest manager to be axed from his role at the City Ground.

Nottingham Forest find themselves bottom of the Championship table overall as well as bottom of the xG table and 23rd for shots on target, shots in the box and touches in the box.

But this form is not necessarily new to Chris Hughton‘s Nottingham Forest as the club is continuing on from 6 winless games at the back end of the 2020/21 season, leaving Nottingham Forest winless in their last 10 league games.

Fans‘ frustration continues to build as a lack of identity within the team is becoming clearer leaving fans to question whether the side intends to be counter attacking, all out attacking, possession based or a pressing unit.

This lack of identity also runs through the choice of substitutions or lack of. On the back end of last season fans found themselves frustrated with Hughton’s tendency to avoid taking advantage of the numerous substitutions available to the team, though even with a summer to build a squad, Hughton is still making questionable substitutions.

After Bournemouth’s David Brooks was sent off against Nottingham Forest, Hughton opted for like-for-like substitutions at the top end of the field whilst the defence and midfield was struggling to get the ball up to the forwards, creating no chances for the subs. It wasn’t until the 83rd minute that Hughton swapped defensive midfielder Jack Colback for attacking midfielder João Carvalho, to which at this point it was too late.

It is no secret that Chris Hughton has been the man to get Championship clubs into the top 6 or even the promise land. His 55.71% win rate at Newcastle, 41.94% at Birmingham City and 43.79% at Brighton showed for a glamorous CV but the 29.2% win rate at Nottingham Forest is not proving to be popular over a 48 game period.

Rumours of Chris Wilder, Eddie Howe, John Terry and Steve Cooper begin to get louder around the City Ground, but Chris Hughton will be the man to lead Nottingham Forest out against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday.