Forest (A) Saturday 3pm
It's the Cheik Kouyate derby on Saturday.
We're 8th in the away table this season, with 17 points from our 12 away games so far. Forest have lost half of their home matches, and - like us - haven't won in the league since December, when they - like us - beat Man Utd at home. Nuno came in in December to replace Steve Cooper, and won his second and third games in charge, and the only win since then came in a third round replay against Blackpool, deep into extra time.
The dangermen are undoubtedly Taiwo Awoniyi and Morgan Gibbs-White. Awoniyi has 5 goals this season, but missed a chunk with a groin injury which also forced him out of ACON. He's back now, and has one goal in four since returning. He's scored both times he's played against us. Gibbs-White - the one player I would sign for West Ham if it was up to me - has 2 goals and 4 assists, and pretty much everything goes through him. He's not had a brilliant season, but he's the type to hurt opposition out of nothing.
Forest will be without Chris Wood - who had been in decent form recently - but he's the only certain absentee. Gonzalo Montiel has been injured, but is expected back, whilst Ibrahim Sangare, Olo Aina, Willy Boly and Serge Aurier should return after ACON.
For us, it's still question marks over Michail Antonio and Lucas Paqueta. Both are listed as having potential return dates of this weekend on Premier Injuries dot com, but we'll see.
I don't know if we'll get changes to the side that got murdered by Arsenal. Part of me thinks Moyes will put them out there to try and regain some honour.
Areola; Coufal Zouma Aguerd Emerson; Alvarez Soucek Ward-Prowse; Kudus Bowen Johnson
We're 8th in the away table this season, with 17 points from our 12 away games so far. Forest have lost half of their home matches, and - like us - haven't won in the league since December, when they - like us - beat Man Utd at home. Nuno came in in December to replace Steve Cooper, and won his second and third games in charge, and the only win since then came in a third round replay against Blackpool, deep into extra time.
The dangermen are undoubtedly Taiwo Awoniyi and Morgan Gibbs-White. Awoniyi has 5 goals this season, but missed a chunk with a groin injury which also forced him out of ACON. He's back now, and has one goal in four since returning. He's scored both times he's played against us. Gibbs-White - the one player I would sign for West Ham if it was up to me - has 2 goals and 4 assists, and pretty much everything goes through him. He's not had a brilliant season, but he's the type to hurt opposition out of nothing.
Forest will be without Chris Wood - who had been in decent form recently - but he's the only certain absentee. Gonzalo Montiel has been injured, but is expected back, whilst Ibrahim Sangare, Olo Aina, Willy Boly and Serge Aurier should return after ACON.
For us, it's still question marks over Michail Antonio and Lucas Paqueta. Both are listed as having potential return dates of this weekend on Premier Injuries dot com, but we'll see.
I don't know if we'll get changes to the side that got murdered by Arsenal. Part of me thinks Moyes will put them out there to try and regain some honour.
Areola; Coufal Zouma Aguerd Emerson; Alvarez Soucek Ward-Prowse; Kudus Bowen Johnson
Comments
CM/DM Orel Mangala who was in the starting XI against us in November us has also gone on loan to Lyon
Only one major signing in January, Belgian GK Matz Sels from RC Strasbourg on deadline day for £5m, he's started both games since and has conceded four goals already
They also loaned 21yo LW/RW/Am Giovanni Reyna from Borussia Dortmund who has made 2 apps as a sub and 18yo Cf Rodrigo Ribeiro from Sporting who got a minute against Bournemouth
They've played 7 EPL matches under Nuno Espirito Santo, W2, D1, L4, and while they've failed to keep a clean sheet in any of them they have managed to score in all of them
Chris Wood was thriving under NES, 5 goals in four games before he injured his hamstring against Arsenal
Awoniyi has scored 5 but three of those were in Forest's first three games, he's only scored 2 in the last 12 appearances, the last against Arsenal after he'd replaced Wood and he didn't manage a shot on goal against Newcastle
Along with Gibbs-White we'll need to pay close attention to Hudson-Odoi who has scored in both the last two games
Best guess
Sels
Williams Niakhate Murillo Aina
Yates Danilo
Elanga Gibbs-White Hudson-Odoi
Awoniyi
Apart from that, his overall play leaves a lot to be desired.
Coufal - Mavropanos - Zouma - Emerson
Phillips - Alvarez - Ward-Prowse
Bowen - Ings - Kudus
On top of that, Forest are quite pacy and like to counter, so there's no way on Earth Zouma should be starting this one.
Although "back on the grass" could mean he's chilling out on skunk
Ibrahim Sangare, Willy Boly and Ola Aina will not be available so the squad will be "basically the same" as against Newcastle
"We are offensively very strong, we are scoring and creating a lot of chances, but we have to improve in the other box. We have to be more aggressive and solve situations because we are conceding goals from our own mistakes."
Starting XI v Newcastle was
Sels
Williams Niakhate Murillo Tavares
Yates Domiguez
Elanga Gibbs-White Hudson-Odoi
Awoniyi
"Lucas Paquetá is not fit and available for tomorrow. he's ben on the grass for a couple of days, but he's not ready yet.
"We've missed Lucas loads. We've had a few players out recently, but I can see other teams who have had similar issues, and that's part of the game.
"Michail Antonio's back available. We need to see exactly how he is, but he's back in the squad.
"Kurt Zouma is fine. The bigger issue was Edson Álvarez who came off with illness last time out, but he's fine as well."
https://www.whufc.com/news/live-david-moyes-pre-nottingham-forest-press-conference
The most concerning thing about this is not that Paqueta isn't available, but the fact that Moyes thinks Zouma is fine, when it's pretty clear that he's been far from it for weeks now.
I agree the doctors and physios know more than you (and maybe even more than me 😂🤣😂), but I think anyone (apart from Moyes it seems) who has been watching us play recently will say that Zouma doesn't look fit enough to play as well as he needs to.
It's a bit like doctors saying Mo Farah can still run 10,000m. Yes, I'm sure he could, but he wouldn't be in contention for an Olympic medal in Paris this year because he's not in that kind of shape any more. Likewise, Zouma can probably get through 90 minutes, but that doesn't mean that he'll be able to play very well.
Subs: Fabiański (GK), Johnson, Ogbonna, Mavropanos, Cresswell, Souček, Cornet, Mubama, Ings
Zouma starts 😭😭😭. Antonio back as well.
Felipe preferred to Moussa Niakhate at CB and Danilo in for Yates at CM
Really can't see us keeping a clean sheet, so we'd better score a few.