Nottingham Forest made 22 new signings over the summer transfer window in an ambitious effort to bolster and strengthen the squad ahead of their Premier League return after 23 years away from the top flight.
Jesse Lingard, Morgan Gibbs-White, Emmanuel Dennis, Neco Williams, Renan Lodi and Willy Boly are just a few of the players who made the move to The City Ground to contribute to the challenge of retaining Forest’s top-flight status over the season ahead, but it hasn’t been plain sailing so far.
Steve Cooper will feel the pressure upon returning to club football on Monday evening as they travel to the King Power Stadium to take on the only team below them in the Premier League table, Leicester City.
So far Forest have only picked up four points over their first seven outings and have conceded the third most goals in the entire league (17), proving that their defensive play isn’t yet up to scratch to fend off the quality attacking threats they have come up against.
As a result, in hindsight focusing on strengthening the defensive set-up with high-quality defenders should have been more of a priority during their £150m summer splurge, and there is one player that Evangelos Marinakis missed out on that could’ve provided Forest with just that.
Levi Colwill was one of the targets Forest were keen to snap up over the transfer window following his impressive season on loan with their play-off final opponents Huddersfield Town, and there is no doubt that the Chelsea youngster would’ve given Forest a solid and reliable output in the backline.
The 19-year-old, who was hailed a “rising talent” by The Athletic’s Simon Johnson, was the fourth highest rated player (7.10) in the entire Huddersfield squad last season, proving his versatility in both defensive and attacking play over his Championship loan.
Over 29 appearances, Colwill scored two goals and delivered one assist, made 1.3 interceptions, 1.8 tackles and 4.1 clearances per game, as well as winning the majority of his duels (65%) and completing 76% of his dribbles.
The talented centre-back has now joined Brighton and Hove Albion on loan after Forest missed out on securing his signature, but he could have been a really important player for Forest this season, especially after Moussa Niakhate’s injury blow.
With that being said, not putting more effort and ambition into strengthening the defence could be a decision that comes back to bite Forest over the season ahead but Cooper will now need to work with the current crop of defenders at the club to improve their current form.