A busy summer of recruitment at Nottingham Forest has only made the dressing room stronger, according to Yuri Ribeiro.
New head coach Sabri Lamouchi made a raft of new signings following his pre-season arrival, with Ribeiro one of those, coming from Portuguese giants Benfica along with Alfa Semedo.
Prior to Wednesday night’s home defeat to Hull City, Forest had only lost twice in the opening weeks of the new Championship campaign, and the 22-year-old admits he’s been impressed with what he’s seen so far at the City Ground, which has been reflected in results.
“We have had a good start and the fans are incredible,” he said.
“The team is a great team with very high-quality players and I have been very impressed with everything. Now, we just need to keep working harder every day.
“It is good, everyone seems very happy here.
“The team is together, the fans are the same, everyone wants to get to the same objective and the focus is always on the next game and playing to a high level,” Ribeiro told Forest Review.”
Playing in England is Ribeiro’s first taste of football outside of his home country, but having joined a club with a strong Portuguese influence, the settling in period has been made much easier, even if the Championship is somewhat different to what he’s used to.
“It is very different to playing in Portugal but the first few weeks I could see that all of the players are working together to win.
“It is easy, of course,” said Ribeiro, who can count on having the likes of Tobias Figueiredo, Joao Carvalho and Tiago Silva among the Portuguese ranks.
“Because they are from the same country but the group is the most important thing. We have a really good group, everyone gets along and we are all working towards victory.”
Forest’s new head coach has become an instant with the Forest supporters on the terraces, and so too with the playing squad, as he explains.
“I have been very impressed with him and his work every day. With each game and each session, we are improving and we have to keep working towards those victories.”
“We are happy but we have to keep our focus on the next games, not the ones we have already played.
“The future is the most important and we have to look forward.”
