Nottingham Forest sit 15th in the Premier League table ahead of tomorrow's home game with Sunderland, having won just one of their first five league matches.
The East Midlands club battled relegation in their first two seasons after promotion, finishing 16th and 17th, but shocked everyone by climbing to seventh last season, nearly making the Champions League.
The new campaign has started in more difficult fashion, with Nuno Espirito Santo replaced as manager by Ange Postecoglou a fortnight ago.
Nottingham Forest are going through a change of style
Forest legend Stan Collymore previously voiced his concerns about the decision to change managers, having been highly impressed with the job that Espirito Santo did at the City Ground.
“Nuno was nine out of 10 for Forest, he made good players superb, saw a gap in the Premier League style, and exploited it and some,” the former striker said.
“Along with that, he was an honest, communicative and much-needed leadership figure at Forest, so I think the timing and reasoning (for his departure) was awful.”
Postecoglou arrived with a very different style of football, promoting a brand of high-pressing football, rather than the low-block, counter-attacking game that the club previously had success with.
Forest lost their opening two matches under the Australian, falling to a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, before a 3-2 loss at Championship side Swansea City in the Carabao Cup.
They halted that trend with a 1-1 draw at Burnley last week, before a significantly more encouraging result on their Europa League debut at Real Betis, when they led before being pegged back for a 2-2 draw.
Forest will face the extra test of juggling European fixtures with their Premier League schedule this term, so it was a little concerning that they already found themselves in the lower reaches of the table before the league stage of the Europa League had even begun.
Tomorrow's game against Sunderland will be their first taste of a Premier League match immediately after a European game, but Collymore thinks that they won’t be battling the drop this season.
“I don’t think they’ll be in a relegation battle,” he told FourFourTwo, speaking in association with NewBettingOffers.co.uk.
“The squad's too good, but they will have more space in behind the defence. That was the problem he had at Spurs, keeping them out at the other end.”
Tottenham conceded 65 league goals last season, the fourth highest figure in the top flight, and 19 more than Forest.
Under Espirito Santo, that defensive record was key to the club’s push up the table. How their defence fares in the weeks ahead could shape Nottingham Forest’s season.
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