Nottingham Forest disaster reflects poorly on all involved

Postecoglou was hoping to follow in Clough’s footsteps, but not this way.

The forest turned out to be his own Cursed United moment: An idealistic coach, still scarred from his last job, determined to make dramatic tactical changes in the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

He was taking over a team that had been extremely successful the previous season, from a coach admired by players and fans alike, and a manager who wanted immediate success… He was faced with no pre-season, no transfer window and a tough list of back-to-back fixtures, leaving no meaningful time on the training ground to speed up the process.

There is a movie in this too.

Frankly, this was a recipe for disaster from the very beginning. But Postecoglou does not shy away from such challenges. He is actually running towards them; As he had said just a few days ago, he was picking fights with older kids in the schoolyard, knowing that he would lose. It’s his nature. That’s what makes him such an intriguing figure. In this situation, he could not silence his inner voice, his ego was provoking him to overcome this impossible task.

He was unlucky in his defense. Saturday night’s (AEDT) 3-0 defeat against Chelsea summed up his entire career: Forest played well, dominated parts of the game and created good opportunities but failed to capitalize on them and caved in when Chelsea applied pressure at the other end.

Critics will point out Postecoglou’s poor defensive set-piece performance, but most of the goals conceded by Forest (including against Chelsea) had nothing to do with the way he set them up, but rather the way the players reacted too haphazardly in the moment. These lapses in concentration cannot be corrected by tactics.

Such is life when you choose to enter a situation where there is no margin for error.

Owner Evangelos Marinakis is a scary enough man, but the ominous sight of his empty chair at the City Ground, midway through the second half, had seen enough was a sign of impending doom. Eighteen minutes after the final whistle, Postecoglou was put out of his misery, thus ending the second shortest managerial reign in Premier League history.

It’s easy to say all this in hindsight now, but Postecoglou has never truly recovered from his sacking at Tottenham Hotspur just a few months ago.

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He dropped a series of truth bombs in his press conference before the Chelsea game, defending his record at Spurs and offering an alternative perspective on his managerial career now valid in England.

This was brutally described as a five-minute “rant”; a small example of the unfair treatment he received because he was calm, collected and completely in the right.

He had the right to defend himself. If he had said these to a journalist while drinking coffee in civilian clothes, no one would have had a problem.

But in Forest colors the day before a decisive match? Many fans were understandably frustrated, feeling like they were stuck in an on-again, off-again relationship with someone who was still hung up on their ex.

Postecoglou is generally very good at taking his supporters along for the ride; This time he didn’t try at all. And to be honest there wasn’t much point because the fans didn’t want him in the first place.

So where to from here? The problem is that Postecoglou’s personal brand in England has been tarnished. One day he will want to right these wrongs, but in order to return to the Premier League he will probably have to go elsewhere in Europe and prove himself again first.

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But the first thing he had to do was do absolutely nothing, which is what he had to do after Spurs. He needs to calm down and let time do its thing. Go be an expert and remind people you’re actually pretty smart, just like he did before the Brisbane Roar. Or maybe you can just go dark and slip off the radar for a while. Let the dust settle and let people forget the bad things and remember the good things again.

Then look within yourself.