Ange Postecoglou: Nottingham Forest boss ‘expects’ talks with owner

Something had to change.

Forest had looked so vulnerable defensively that Postecoglou’s side even conceded on a counter-attack from their own corner kick in a 3-2 defeat by Midtjylland at the City Ground on Thursday.

It was a night where a section of fans turned on their manager.

A shift to a more pragmatic approach brought back memories of what proved to be Postecoglou’s finest hour – Tottenham’s Europa League final win against Manchester United in May, when the usually front-footed Australian went back to basics.

Fast forward a few months, and this time three of the four changes Postecoglou made to his side were at the back – as he handed captain Ryan Yates and fellow defenders Nicolo Savona and Jair Cunha their first league starts of the season.

And the visitors defended resolutely for large periods as Newcastle struggled to fire.

Indeed, aside from one save to claw away Joelinton’s header, goalkeeper Matz Sels had little to do against his former side in the first 50 minutes with centre-back Morato among those to make huge blocks.

That did not go unnoticed by Danny Murphy, who is a pundit on Sunday’s Match of the Day.

“I actually think [Postecoglou] set them up in the right way because they have been conceding a lot of goals,” said the ex-England midfielder.

“It was actually quite a pragmatic performance, and they were not run ragged. They were maybe too defensive at times, but they were nice and compact, worked hard and were in the game at half-time.”

However, once Bruno Guimaraes opened the scoring with a curling effort, leaving Postecoglou staring into the distance as he shook his head on the touchline, Forest never looked like getting back into this game.

Newcastle ended with18 shots, 33 touches in the box and eight corners. Woltemade hit the crossbar. And Sels made big saves to deny Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Harvey Barnes late on before Woltemade doubled his side’s lead from the spot.

Forest, by contrast, had an xG of just 0.29.