Nottingham Forest have made a decent start to the 2024/25 campaign, winning once and drawing twice to sit unbeaten after three games.
After a transfer window that proved much more stable than the other two summers as a Premier League club, things could be on the up.
Nuno Espirito Santo now has at least two players for every position across the pitch and there have already been some eye-catching individual performances.
One of those has been Ibrahim Sangare. He’s been like a new signing this season – 12 months on from his signing from PSV – but some fans just can’t seem to take to him and that really is quite ridiculous.
Ibrahim Sangare signs for Nottingham Forest
Last season was a tough one for Sangare. After signing for Forest with four games of the season already played, he was thrust straight into Premier League action.
Although he wasn’t horrific, it’s not unfair to say that he didn’t really showcase anything that suggested he was a player who had cost £30 million.
There were a number of factors that hampered his season. In December, Sangare turned in a brilliant performance against Newcastle but then days later headed off to the African Cup of Nations.
During his time in the Ivory Coast, Sangare became very ill with malaria and unfortunately lost a lot of weight.
By the time he returned to Forest, Espirito Santo had got a settled team together and that meant that when he did play he looked off the pace and somewhat rusty.
His lowest point came when he was hooked at half-time during a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace. Forest fans had booed him throughout the first half following an erratic performance.
Sangare enjoys pre-season and sound start to the season
Thankfully for Forest, Sangare was able to spend the summer relaxing and getting himself back to peak fitness ahead of the new campaign.
The first friendly against Chesterfield saw Sangare score his first Forest goal and his performance during the second half was strong.
It’s been evident so far this season that Espirito Santo has earmarked Sangare for a big season – and his Premier League performances have been good so far.
No player in the entire league has made more tackles than the 15 that Sangare has produced in the three matches so far.
Furthermore, there are other statistics that showcase exactly how useful Sangare is proving.
The Other 14 have posted some statistics from the season so far on X and they list the best players when it comes to ground duel success rate.
It’s something that Sangare has bizarrely been questioned, with some believing that Ryan Yates is better at being a bit of a nuisance to the opposition.
It would seem, however, that Sangare has won 19 ground diels with a success ratio of 67.9%, the joint highest in the league with Mateo Kovacic of Manchester City.
For context – and for the cynics – the 26-year-old has a better win ratio than Moises Caicedo who cost Chelsea £115 million, Ryan Gravenberch of Liverpool and Manchester United starlet Kobbie Mainoo.
Forest fans need to get off the back of Sangare
Whether it’s because fans can’t grasp the concept of Sangare playing ahead of the golden boy Yates or not, fans have a duty to support Sangare.
He’s not the sort of player who will be scoring hat-tricks for fun or taking players on with ease – but he will do the unfashionable stuff all day long.
Some fans have claimed that Sangare needs to be dropped. That in itself is mindboggling considering the statistics prove he’s doing the job that Espirito Santo is asking of him right now.
One criticism is that he loses possession a lot. However, Who Scored showcases that he’s only below Murillo, Morgan Gibbs-White and Ola Aina when it comes to accurate short passes.
It is something that perhaps can be improved upon and when it does go wrong for Sangare on the passing front, it’s normally because he’s trying to be positive and make a probing pass to get Forest going higher up the pitch.
One real criticism of Sangare is the number of needless cards he gets. He can be cynical at times but this is just a minor blemish that should sort itself out the more he gets used to the Premier League.
Supporters are being far too critical of Sangare this season. The Forest man is doing just fine and with the statistics he’s showing at the minutes, he’s slowly becoming the player, the Reds thought they’d signed 12 months ago.
