I think he has been very successful. Here, we know him from the Premier League, we’ve played against each other quite a lot. You can see straight away the shape, they don’t concede a lot of chances. The other day against Leeds [in the Premier League] it was a very tight game, not a lot of chances and Leeds won because they scored a free-kick in the 90th minute. But probably Forest even had more chances than Leeds until that moment.
We will have to earn every chance. They don’t give you [anything] for free. You have to be very good on the ball, be patient sometimes because they defensively are very solid, [they] are very good. And after they have also very good players up front – like every Premier League team – and we have to control those situations, especially in the transitions because they also have good threats in the counter.
On the midfield discipline…
Obviously we cannot attack with everyone and then leave everyone at the back, but also there is a balance there. I don’t want to tell Ryan Gravenberch, ‘Don’t carry the ball and don’t arrive to the box.’ Because I think we scored against Monaco, the goal we scored, I think the one-two, it was Gravenberch to [Dominik] Szoboszlai and then a pass to Alex [Isak] and he scores and no-one asked me, ‘Why are you leaving Ryan Gravenberch and Szoboszlai there on the edge [of the box] both together?’ No, they said, ‘Incredible goal, lovely goal.’
There is a balance there. There’s recognising the situations from the others also, how we can balance those numbers with other positions. Sometimes you have to accept [it] and I don’t want to keep all the time the players also like, ‘I’m in the opposite half, I have to stay here.’ Like when a full-back goes, the other has to stay there because one has gone, I have to stay here. Depending [on] the situation and depending on where is your opposition, if your opposition is also very low, we have the numbers at the back, [then it’s] probably safer to go. If they are kind of leaving players in behind, we have to be careful. Recognising those situations is the job we have to do now.
On how he can get his players to ‘exert more control’ in games…
I felt we controlled the game, honestly, quite well the other day. Obviously you concede two transitions and you can tell me, ‘No, but you conceded…’ [and] it’s true, but I think we had a meaningful possession. Sometimes you have possession, [but] I felt like we were quite direct in our attack, we stayed most of our game very far. I was feeling during the game, sometimes you feel [it], I was always feeling we are closer to scoring than Newcastle are in most parts of the game. It’s true that you don’t win, you draw 2-2 and you cannot change this, but I felt we did a lot of good things in the first game.
On Jeremy Jacquet’s Premier League debut…
I think overall he played very well, considering it’s his first game [and] also basically 45 minutes of pre-season. It’s true that he finished tired; we had to sub him because I was feeling the last five minutes on the pitch he was tired. You can feel [it], especially with centre-backs. He’s been very confident on the ball, good without the ball and he’s very young, a new signing. For sure he will make some mistakes, we have to accept this, but he’s performing and training very well for me.