The Media Review: Nottingham Forest

Nil-nil draws present a challenge but also an opportunity for football writers. With no goals to celebrate or to explain away, they are free to develop wider themes or focus on some quirk of the 90 minutes away from those vital seconds when the net billows and bulges.

New Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi is a useful hook on which to hang a report. Not only is he a new character in the Premier League’s colourful cast, he is a lively presence in the technical area and a thoughtful speaker in the post-match press conference.

And, sadly for Albion and their fans, there has been a mismatch so far between his reputation for producing exciting and winning football and the results. The style has been largely as advertised but the scores have been a let-down.

That has been visibly true for the Italian and his staff as well as for the supporters, as Tom Allnutt noticed in his report in The Times. “Roberto De Zerbi twisted on his heels and pulled the bottom of his black gilet up to his chin,” he wrote. “It was one of the first of Brighton & Hove Albion’s 19 shots against Nottingham Forest but he knew that for his team, who have now gone three games without a goal, every chance really does count.

“Leandro Trossard hit the crossbar but that was far from Brighton’s best opportunity as Pascal Gross, Danny Welbeck, Adam Lallana and even their central defender Adam Webster had opportunities to turn a dominant performance into a victory.

“But there was also a festering sense of inevitability at the Amex Stadium, where the exasperation of the crowd and the skittishness of the Brighton players gradually took hold. The only thing left was for Forest to nick a winner but, instead, they settled for a point, only the second they have gained in their past eight matches. When the final whistle blew, there were boos from some of the home fans.

“Both managers came into this game needing a victory. After beginning his Brighton tenure with a wild 3-3 draw away at Liverpool, De Zerbi had overseen back-to-back defeats by Tottenham Hotspur and Brentford. De Zerbi has insisted he is not thinking about the January transfer window yet but it cannot have been lost on the Italian that the club’s four strikers, including Welbeck, have not scored a single goal yet this term.”

The Daily Telegraph’s report also commented on the head coach’s body language but began: “When Roberto De Zerbi was appointed Brighton head coach, the promise was of more goals at both ends - but the Italian reckoned without his new team’s almost uncanny ability to avoid the back of the net, last night’s draw with struggling Nottingham Forest a scarcely believable masterclass in how not to turn superiority into goals.

“Brighton were hoping to record their hundredth victory in the top flight but may now have to wait a while, with a trip to Manchester City on Saturday, followed by a visit from Chelsea and Graham Potter, the coach that De Zerbi replaced. 

“The first half followed the pattern of so many Brighton’s home games, although perhaps in more extreme form than usual: 67 percent of the possession, all the shots – 12 in total, four on target – and nothing to show for it.

“Moises Caicedo’s control let him down as he tried to convert Pascal Gross’s cut back. And Leandro Trossard forced a leaping save from Henderson with a shot from 20 yards that needed to be hit less centrally to cause real difficulty. Solly March wanted too many touches when the ball was there to be hit - Brighton being Brighton.

“When Forest forced their sole corner after 78 minutes, De Zerbi turned away, probably fearing the worst. It did not materialise, but by now he has surely realised the sort of frustration he has let himself in for. ‘Brighton have chosen the way,’ he mused philosophically. ‘The result is the last step’.”

Ditto Isabelle Barker of The Sun – fast becoming one of this column’s favourite writers – but she began by referring back to the visitors’ Twitter faux pas before their defeat away to Wolves at the weekend. “Nottingham Forest’s social media team should mock up an image of seagulls pecking aimlessly at a tree,” she wrote. “Brighton poked and prodded at Dean Henderson and his heroic defence but they just could not find a breakthrough.

“Leandro Trossard, oozing confidence under new boss Robert de Zerbi, pulled all the strings but he was let down by Brighton's flapping forwards. The likes of Danny Welbeck and Adam Lallana wasted a host of golden chances to leave new boss Roberto De Zerbi awaiting his first win.

“Brighton just didn’t stop building and hero Henderson was being peppered in goal. Trossard whipped a saucy cross into the box but neither Lallana or Danny Welbeck could make the crucial touch.

“De Zerbi had ants in his pants, darting up and down the touchline and even nearly lobbing a water bottle at the floor as his players continued to fire blanks.”

Kieran Gill of The Daily Mail has seen plenty of games at the Amex along the lines of Tuesday’s, writing that “Brighton are sick of hearing about ‘expected goals’. They know they should be scoring more than they are and yet they cannot seem to escape these evenings of disappointment.

“Manager Roberto De Zerbi is awaiting his first win as Brighton boss after four failed attempts. It’ll take some doing if it is to come on Saturday, when they face Manchester City away.

“The first half followed a theme that is familiar to Brighton fans – all attack and no finish. Leandro Trossard came closest to opening the scoring, showing some nice feet to lose Serge Aurier before forcing Henderson into a one-handed save.

“The loudest cheer from Forest’s fans had come when Johnson successfully blocked a Brighton clearance by the corner flag. In their defence, the away end had been given little else to celebrate, so they made their own fun.”

Kieran was not the only writer find Forest wanting in their approach to the game, but Nick Ames of The Guardian did not find much to enjoy in the Albion display either. “This was a frustrating, sapping 95 minutes of football,” he wrote. “For long periods Nottingham Forest played like the disjointed, slung-together set of players they inescapably are but it did not cost them. On the contrary they looked more comfortable as the game progressed against an increasingly exasperated Brighton and fought admirably to earn a point that takes them off the bottom of the table.

“The robustness of their defending rendered the fact they barely mounted an attack of note irrelevant. If Forest rode their luck for spells of the first half they spent long stretches of the second untroubled, running the clock down expertly and playing on the audible nerves of a home crowd that has seen this all before.

“Brighton’s old impotence has made an unwelcome return lately and, when Pascal Gross was thwarted by the best of several saves from Dean Henderson with nine minutes left, Roberto De Zerbi’s chances of a first win evaporated.

“Their lack of a decisive touch was a theme that surfaced for patches of Graham Potter’s reign but must have been the last thing De Zerbi feared when overseeing a 3-3 draw at Anfield on his debut. Three subsequent outings have brought blanks; the solace for their head coach came in a performance he was reluctant to fault.

“Forest did not manage a touch inside Brighton’s box until Brennan Johnson, who had at least offered the boisterous away support a morsel with his enthusiastic pressing, outpaced Webster just before the hour then sliced his shot out for a throw-in. It was as exciting as their display got, summing up their attacking performance and cohesion on the ball.”

In The i paper, Press Association man Ed Elliott wrote that Albion’s “Italian boss cut an increasingly frustrated figure on the touchline as a series of chances to break the mini drought came and went.

“Forest boss Steven Daniel Cooper, as he was named on the official team sheet, would no doubt have been relieved to reach the break at 0-0, particularly as his side had lost each of their five matches this term when conceding first.

“Forest were fairly comfortable in their quest to secure a stalemate but still had to survive a scare when Henderson underlined his international credentials with an outstanding, diving stop from Gross’ goal-bound effort.

“The first-class intervention led to a smattering of boos from home supporters at full-time as Brighton remain without a victory since Graham Potter’s departure to Chelsea.”

Never mind – he’ll be back at the Amex on Saturday week. Is that an omen?