As I watched the play off final back in May, and saw Nottingham Forest beat the odds and seal a famous return to the big time, I started to imagine how the side would get on, competing in the toughest, and most expensive league in the world.

The summer break came and went, and as the signings started to tumble through the doors of the famous City Ground, I started to sit up and think “Nottingham Forest could create a magical season this year”. It would never be easy, nowadays teams often come up and go straight back down, they can hardly ever master the topflight straight away, needing a few seasons to find their footing and gain some consistency. Fulham and Norwich come to mind, two teams who have swapped places across the Championship and Premier League over the past few seasons.

You almost must open the wallet from the get-go, financing a squad that is strong enough, just to make sure you make a Premier League game competitive each weekend. Forest started the ‘guide to Premier League survival’ in the best possible way, spending money on quality and saying to the rest of the league, we are here to have a go.

23 new faces do seem a lot, and I was the first to think is this too many? How long will it take them to gel. I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of the transition phase when Steve Cooper’s men visited my club Burton Albion in a pre-season friendly in early July. Most players featured, and on paper they sounded strong names on the team sheet. Dean Henderson, Neco Williams, Taiwo Awoniyi, all have some sort of topflight experience.

As the season got under way, I really did feel this could be a magical season for Forest, like the one Sheffield United had in their first season back in the topflight. A manager who had revitalized a club in such a short space of time and signed some extreme quality. Everything on paper seemed destined for easy survival, maybe even a strong mid-table finish. The question on my mind was, could Cooper get this team structured well enough and quick enough to start the season well?

Home games were always going to be massive for the reds this year. A full City Ground every other week is an intimidating place for opposition players to come, and that opening home win proved a few things, the squad assembled does have quality, and the home faithful would be a massive boost between winning a game 1-0, and losing 2-1, it needed the players to step up.

As we are almost three months into the campaign, in all honesty, it’s been often painful to watch Forest at times this season. With so much expectation of the quality on the pitch, the players are yet to show that consistently. Home defeats back-to-back against fellow promoted sides Fulham and Bournemouth did get me thinking, was it too much of an ask to task Cooper Into fitting all these new players in a system that works? The talent is there on the pitch, the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White, Brennan Johnson and Jesse Lingard have all showcased how good they are, but none of them have seemed to click, aside each other, in wearing red.

Steve Cooper has been known to chop and change the team each week, 3 to 4 changes are an average for him, sometimes seeing the number crop up towards as many as six. I know when you’re struggling, you scramble for any sort of change and from experience, changing the team each week unnecessarily doesn’t work. He needs to settle the squad down, if you lose it’s not the end of the world, improved performances is key, keep the team the same and go again next week. Maybe the Welsh man feels, all these new players have been brought in, everyone should get a game?

The problems so far this season haven’t just been mounting on the pitch but off it as well. With many expecting Cooper to get the sack before the Aston Villa game, we all witnessed something that is a rare occurrence at the City Ground. Steve Cooper was rewarded with a new contract. I was so pleased to hear this news, he pulled off the unthinkable last season, and had so much thrown at him already and its only October, it would have been so harsh to get rid of him, and in some cases could have made the situation for Forest even more difficult, trying to bring a new manager in with a huge squad and no confidence.

With Cooper getting the new deal, something else was always going to happen. And indeed, it did, harsh, but probably fair, getting rid of Head of Recruitment George Syrianos and Head scout Andy Scott, I feel that was the message sent out saying, we got it wrong.

After another difficult watch on Tuesday, as the reds hung on to a point on the south coast at Brighton. Looking on, it’s clear that goals are going to be a struggle, maybe Forest have brought too much attacking quality and finding the right blend is still the answer, only time will tell? Defensively they have looked a lot sounder in recent games. Dean Henderson probably deserving the freedom of Nottingham after his performance at the AMEX, saves a plenty with Brighton having 25 shots, somehow the game finishing 0-0.

It’s not going to get any easier for Forest, Liverpool to come at the City Ground on Saturday, followed by a trip to top of the table Arsenal, Steve Cooper and his men may regret not picking anything up from ‘winnable games’ they have already lost this season, it could now be a long and difficult couple of weeks ahead.

*Article provided by Dan Dodd (Football Correspondent).

*Main image @NFFC Morgan Gibbs-White is still yet to score for Forest.