NOTTINGHAM FOREST fans were left checking the date after being left baffled by Ange Postecoglou’s line-up to face Chelsea.
Forest host the Blues at the City Ground for Saturday’s early kick-off.
However, members of the home support were forced to “pinch themselves” after under-pressure Postecoglou, 60, named a radically different starting XI.
Postecoglou, without a win in any of his first seven games as Forest boss, made five changes to the starting XI from their last clash – a 2-0 loss at Newcastle – before the international break.
That included dropping prolific frontman Chris Wood to the bench in favour of Taiwo Awoniyi, while Dan Ndoye and top scorer Igor Jesus also joined Wood on the bench.
In addition, expensive summer signings in Omari Hutchinson, Arnaud Kalimuendo, James McAtee and Dilane Bakwa – who between them cost £124million – were all missing from the squad.
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One stunned fan said on social media: “Pinch myself……. No, this isn’t a nightmare. Check diary……. Nope, not April Fools Day. That’s it then.
Postecoglou was a secret Derby fan all along.”
A second said: “Has he left our 3 big money summer signings at home?”
A third added: “We spent £160m on attackers this summer and not a single one starts, whilst the one we tried to get rid of does.”
Another said: “Feels like someone is playing a video game picking this team. Hutchinson, Kalimuendo and Bakwa had two weeks of training with Ange then didn’t make the bench. Can’t be good for their progress. I’d be shocked if we get a point today but want to be shocked. COYR!!!”
A fifth wrote: “Ange has officially lost his mind.”
Another added: “I had to think about this. Awoniyi in ahead of Wood and Jesus, five at the back, none of your new attacking players. If this works Ange is a genius. Come on you reds!”
‘Nuno to Ange like reversing polarity of the planet’ – Martin Lipton
By Martin Lipton
IF the Nottingham Forest players are still feeling dizzy, you wouldn’t blame them.
They have spent the last 21 months playing risk-averse, counter-attack Nuno-ball.
Suddenly, overnight, they have now discovered the approach is defence-averse, “it’s who we are mate”, Ange-ball.
It feels like the footballing equivalent of reversing the polarity of the planet.
A total culture and attitude shift in the space of a few hours.
And given so much of Forest’s success is down to the strategy deployed by Nuno Espirito Santo, who galvanised his players into believing they added up to far more than the sum of their collective parts, even Evangelos Marinakis might accept it’s a roll of the dice.
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