Being good friends with José Mourinho probably helps to provide some healthy perspective, for the challenges facing Aitor Karanka at Nottingham Forest pale almost into insignificance. After a summer facelift at Forest, there are sky-high expectations but also lingering frustrations at their start to the season. In Karanka, assistant to Mourinho across three years, they have a relaxed, studious coach, determined to imprint his stamp on the club, and depending on whether you are a glass half-full (they are unbeaten) or half-empty (they have won one of their first six matches) punter, Forest are either just getting started or struggling.
Karanka knows the state of play; after fighting back to earn a 2-2 draw against Birmingham City at the City Ground on Saturday, he said his players cannot keep fooling themselves and that they must start games better, after also rescuing a draw against Wigan the previous week. Their next, against Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, may provide a welcome distraction.
Asked how far away Forest are from reaching top gear, Karanka admits his team need time. “Hopefully it’s as soon as possible, but the aim is always the following game,” he says. “The expectations are really high, not just here in the city but the expectations of Nottingham Forest are really high. We have a plan, we know the plan and we cannot change every single week if we have lost or not played the best.
“In the way they are training every day, the way they are approaching the games, you can feel the desire to win games in their faces. One day everything will be perfect and we will win a lot of games, for sure.”
It was a summer of sea changes on the banks of the River Trent, with 13 new faces arriving for around £25m, the most high-profile being £13.2m Joao Carvalho, one of the three Portuguese to sign in June. Such investment has stemmed from the backing of the owner, Evangelos Marinakis, the Greek shipping magnate who acquired the club for £50m last year.
With the new signings yet to make a splash, some of Forest’s more unfashionable players have delivered, with substitute Joe Lolley scoring a sublime strike with his first touch against Birmingham and Daryl Murphy making a dent in opposition defences. After re-signing Michael Dawson, their former trainee who left for Tottenham Hotspur almost 14 years ago, they have further beefed up their defence with Sam Byram and Michael Hefele.
For a Karanka team, Forest have been unusually frail at the back, keeping just one clean sheet so far this season. At Middlesbrough, his tactics were accused of being too defensive. Of Dawson, an injury doubt, the Spaniard says: “Michael hasn’t come here just to be on the bench or in the stands, he did a very good pre-season and to have players like him in this moment when we are not winning and performing as everybody was expecting, it is really, really important.”
In attack, they have signed Lewis Grabban, a serial goalscorer in the Championship, plus Hilal Soudani, the Algeria striker, who wears the No 2 shirt and already has as many goals to his name since joining from Dinamo Zagreb, where he played in the Champions League. “It’s normal that he needs time, it’s not the same as the league in Croatia, and intensity is completely different,” Karanka says.
“The three Portuguese need time. When we played against Bournemouth [in pre-season] here, everybody was really pleased with the Portuguese players and I was the first one to say that we have to be careful because this league is completely different. But, they will give us a lot of good things. Knowing we are in August, we have been working for just two months together. And you cannot forget, we are still unbeaten.”
There are reasons to be cheerful, reflected by the 20,000-plus season-ticket sales, but patience might ultimately be key. Karanka is not afraid to be ruthless, though, taking off his captain Ben Watson midway through the second half against Birmingham. “When I have to pick the team, I forget their names, I forget their CVs, I forget everything,” he says.
Over the season, Forest should see the best of graduates of their revered Nigel Doughty Academy, namely Ben Osborn and Matty Cash, though Ben Brereton, the teenage striker, is poised to join Blackburn Rovers on loan with a view to a £7m move in January before the transfer deadline, while Tyler Walker, son of former England international, Des, and Jorge Grant continue to earn their stripes lower down the football pyramid.
Karanka, though, insists there is a pathway for the next generation. “I came through one of the best academies in Spain, in [Athletic] Bilbao, and I know that when you have good young players coming through, you have to take advantage of them. There is still room for players from the academy to play their part here.”
It was for Bilbao that Karanka played against Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle in the Uefa Cup in 1994, vying with Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley. As well as providing Karanka, who recently added his younger brother, David, to his backroom staff, the chance to duel with Rafael Benítez, another managerial pragmatist, on the touchline for the first time, Forest have an opportunity to show their real guise against Newcastle.
“We will fix for sure, because everybody’s working really hard in the training ground. I have always said, ‘the games a reflection of how you are working in the training ground’. We need to know why and where. I am calm and the players are calm because they trust what they are doing. We need to be ourselves. Newcastle is a big game to show we are good team.”
