Aaron Jaffe
Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo has assured fans that there is no change in mentality from his side and there are ‘no favourites’ ahead of Monday night’s FA Cup tie against Ipswich Town.
Forest beat Ipswich at the City Ground back in November, courtesy of a Chris Wood spot-kick after Jota Silva was fouled in the penalty area by Sammie Szmodics.
The Reds earned their spot in Round 5 of the FA Cup after scraping past League One side Exeter City on penalties. There were some nervy moments as an experimental Forest side were found out by the Grecian’s talisman Josh Magennis twice, but Mats Selz came to the rescue in the shootout to maintain their place in the tournament.
Ipswich were much more convincing, firing four past Frank Lampard’s Coventry City at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Despite the 15-place gap in the Premier League table, Nuno is adamant that the Tractor Boys will provide a difficult challenge, with the winner of the tie rewarded with a trip to face Brighton & Hove Albion.
“[It is a] tough game. Ipswich are a good team. We just looked back at the fixture that we had here in the Premier League and how hard it was. We’ve been looking at them. As a team they have energy, they have good players and they are very intense. So, the expectation is that it is a very tough match.”
When asked whether he believed his side were favourites due to their form in the league, Nuno denied viewing it in that manner.
“No, that’s not the way we look at it. We have to play the game. There are no favourites in a football match. There are two teams that will go against each other in a fair way to see who achieves what they proposed.”
Coming off the back of a gruelling goalless draw with Arsenal, Nuno remained silent about any injuries or concerns he faces ahead of Monday night’s game.
Anthony Elanga and Nicolas Dominguez were withdrawn around the hour mark, but neither showed any signs of injury, more a change of system to try to beat the league contenders.
“We have players to assess. It was a very intense game. A lot of contact, today it is about recovering, assessing the players and seeing how they are.”
Fans are unsure whether Nuno will decide to risk fielding a different group of players like he did last time out against Exeter, with appearances for the likes of Carlos Miguel, Harry Toffolo and Taiwo Awoniyi, or whether he will turn to his trusted options such as Mats Selz, Murillo and Chris Wood.
“I think it is a good opportunity for some players due to the schedule also, but like I said, let’s assess and try to make a good decision for the game.”
Regardless of what happens, Nuno will be hoping for no further injury concerns given that Forest have been allotted the lunchtime kick-off on Saturday morning against Manchester City at the City Ground.
Aaron Jaffe
Featured image courtesy of @fancycrave via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @officialnffc via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of @officialnffc via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
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