The team led by the African manager from São Tomé and Príncipe are fifth in the table after winning 2-3 against Manchester United last weekend.
During his pre-match press conference, he said that the last game was good, a fantastic result and a memorable moment for the club as they won at Old Trafford since 1994.
For the manager, there are lots of things to work on from the match.
“We were quite lucky in the moments that we scored,” he said.
“This made a big difference in the momentum of the game and after that, we held onto the advantage to make the game well.”
After 15 games into the Premier League season, the manager thinks they have to stay focused and look for improvement as every game is difficult. Their mentality is to go day by day and not worry about anything else.
“The challenge is to perform, to compete, to do everything that you can say and maintain the standards that we want.”
The Reds’ manager did not share any fresh news about the team he will select to face Aston Villa.
Chris Wood, Nottingham Forest’s record Premier League top scorer
The New Zealander scored ten goals this season. This makes a total of 25 goals since he became a Nottingham Forest player. His last goal was a penalty in the last match.
“(Wood) is at his peak and hope it continues.
“He is at his best moment.”
For Nuno age is not a crucial factor and in football, everything is possible, especially now that squads are getting younger and younger because there is a tendency to look for the next start.
“Sometimes you do not realise that a 33-year-old can perform as good or better (than a younger player) because of the knowledge he acquired during his career,” he said.
“I have a big admiration and respect for him”
Unai Emery and Nuno started facing each other in Spain more than ten years ago. The Red’s coach said that Emery is a good manager and he demonstrates it on the team he manages.
“He shows they are a good team in the way they manage times of the game, their possession, the way they defend, the way they affect the quality and talent of the players.”
“He’s very good at what he does.”
Nuno said that Aston Villa will be a challenge because they have been together for some time now. Also, they are defensively very disciplined and organised which will be a big challenge for Forest this Saturday.
European football
The coach answered that they see Aston Villa as their opponents after being asked if the Villans are a symbol of what can be achieved in terms of getting into European football.
“We have our own journey.
“I think we have an ambition to grow and improve. We are creating something. I truly believe we will build something nice that can allow us to compete.”
“I want everybody healthy”
Statistics from a BBC article showed that Nottingham Forest is the second least affected team by injuries with six players injured. West Ham United F.C. is the team at the bottom of the table with five players unavailable.
Nuno seemed surprised when he was asked about his opinion on the statistics. He recognised that he did not know this and would check the information.
“Every player's absence, even if they are not involved regularly, is very important because it disturbs everything.
“When you build the squad and you put all the pieces together, one of them out makes a change,” he said.
Having coaching staff of sports science may be the reason for the statistics mentioned above. For the African manager having this back-up makes a difference for the team as they are better prepared for the matches. The coach mentioned that they can see the impact of data on making decisions, a lot of which are about prevention.
“Healthy players” was Nuno’s answer about what he asked to Santa during the clubs Christmas party.
