Video: Montanier on Fulham and finding a balance
Nottingham Forest manager Philippe Montanier says the Reds ‘have to react’ against Fulham at the City Ground tonight (Tuesday September 27) following three straight defeats in all competitions.
Forest have not won a game in September and lost to a 90th minute winner from Kieran Lee on Saturday (September 24) as Sheffield Wednesday picked up all three points at Hillsborough against the Reds.
Montanier is expecting to host a fired up Fulham following their performance at the weekend.
Fulham will be very motivated
He said: “Fulham will be a tough game because although they lost their last game at home [4-0 to Bristol City], I think they will be very motivated to get points at the City Ground.
“After our defeats we need to react and to win points as well.
“We do need to do better with the ball in defence but we will still be focused when we go forward.”
We need to find the balance between attack and defence
Montanier thinks that Forest have showed promising signs despite crashing out of the EFL Cup to Arsenal and having picked up two points in the last four league games.
He said: “We cannot forget to attack well when we have the ball.
“We have showed intelligent signs with the ball but we need to find the balance between attack and defence.
“We can improve our level with the ball even though we are scoring goals; the best defence can be to have possession of the ball.”
Nottingham Forest v Fulham record
Played: 94
Won: 30
Drawn: 27
Lost: 37
Nottingham Forest doubled Fulham in the Sky Bet Championship last season and scored three goals in each game.
Forest visited Craven Cottage on April 23 and secured a 3-1 win thanks to a goal from Robert Tesche and a brace from Henri Lansbury; Matt Smith scored for the home side.
On December 5 2015 at the City Ground, Forest won 3-0 as Matt Mills netted a brace with Chris O’Grady also scoring to give the Reds all three points.
Cloud cover is expected for the match with temperatures peaking at 16 degrees Celsius.
