Nottingham Forest legend worried about Ange Postecoglou decision
by Brian Dick · NottinghamshireLiveDes Walker fears Ange Postecoglou will not be given enough time to implement his preferred style at Nottingham Forest.
The Reds legend, who joined as a youngster in 1980 and stayed until 1992 only to return for three more years in 2002, believes Evangelos Marinakis has made a 'brave' decision by getting rid of Nuno Espirito Santo.
He reckons the new head coach will need 'a long while' to completely switch from Nuno's counter-attacking style to the more possession-based, progressive approach for which he is famed.
And the former England defender says fans' patience will be key to how much time the Australian is given.
Appearing on The Overlap - and asked about Nuno's depature, Walker didn't hold back: "It's a shame really because they've stabilised themselves, they've come up, they've been in a wilderness for such a long time," he said.
"It's difficult to come up out that division and the chairman's done fantastic really because he's put his money where his mouth is. He's backed the team and they stabilised last year
"Obviously Nuno - a fantastic job last year and whether he could keep that up this year remained to be seen.
"To sack him is brave. I say it's brave because Forest fans have got the smell of success and once you've got that smell of success, then if it don't happen they can be very, very critical, that's any fan.
"And you've got such a contrast in managers, in styles, that next 2-3 weeks will be so interesting to see how they contrast that.
"You've got one that just played purely off the break and with less possession probably than most teams.
"Then Postecoglou's come in and if you watch his recent record, he's got a completely different style.
"So I'll be interested to see because it takes a while to change from one style to another, a long while to be fair.
"Whether he can do it, whether the crowd will stick with you that long, I don't think so because they will just look at Nuno's record, that's all they'll do.
"As a team I think Forest, when the crowd are negative, they're poor and that's been over the last 20 years that I've seen [that]
"They've got themselves in good positions, and as soon as the crowd were negative...
"The crowd have been probably the best crowd in the last three years in the division, in the Premier League. I've never seen Forest fans like it.
"Honestly, we won loads of things. I've gotta be truthful and got boos at times cause they didn't think we won by enough goals.
"But at the moment, the momentum was with the whole football club and the whole was going like that and you look at it now, if it plateaus, that's not good enough.
"Every manager needs time to adjust. I don't think he'll get time."
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