Nottingham Forest to Give New Signings a Chance Against Swansea City
Nottingham Forest manager Ange Postecoglou has announced that he will be making changes to his squad for the upcoming Carabao Cup third-round clash against Swansea City. This will provide opportunities for the club's new signings to showcase their abilities.
New Signings Set to Feature
Postecoglou confirmed that several new additions, including Oleksandr Zinchenko, Douglas Luiz, Dilane Bakwa, Jair Cunha, and Omari Hutchinson, are set to be involved in the match against Swansea. These players either arrived late in the transfer window or haven't yet had the chance to play for their new club.
Douglas Luiz, who arrived on loan from Juventus, is particularly eager to make his debut. Zinchenko was unavailable to play against his parent club, Arsenal, last weekend. The manager wants to ensure he has the whole squad ready to be competitive with the amount of games on the horizon.
"Tomorrow’s the opportunity. They’ve arrived either late in the window or just haven’t had an opportunity to play. They are good players and they want to show what they can do." - Ange Postecoglou
Balancing the Squad
Postecoglou is aiming to balance the squad ahead of their Premier League fixture against Burnley on Saturday and their return to European competition against Real Betis in Spain next Wednesday. The manager expects the players to be enthausiastic as some are yet to make their mark on the team.
Injury Update: Murillo
Forest will be without defender Murillo, who sustained an injury during the 3-0 defeat against Arsenal. Postecoglou described it as a "quite a bad knock." The club hopes that Murillo will recover in time for the match against Burnley. The club is assessing the injury day by day.
"He was very, very sore on Saturday night, but every day he has improved. I had a chat to him this morning. He wants to be ready for Saturday." - Ange Postecoglou on Murillo's injury.
Swansea City's Perspective
Swansea City boss Alan Sheehan says all three of his deadline-day signings are all in his thinking ahead of Wednesday night's Carabao Cup clash with Nottingham Forest.
Swansea's New Recruits in Contention
Adam Idah came off the bench in the second half of Saturday's 2-2 draw with Hull City, while Ishe Samuels-Smith and Manuel Benson were also among the substitutes on the day. Sheehan admits striker Idah, who signed for an eye-catching £6m on the final day of the summer window "could" start on the night. He also insists he would have no issue in potentially throwing young Samuels-Smith into fray.
Benson, meanwhile, arrives having played just 160 minutes of club football since last August, but did get 81 minutes for Angola in the most recent international break. However, there's still a chance he too could be handed a role against Forest. Marko Stamenic, however, won't be in Sheehan's thoughts on this occasion. The midfielder set to miss out due to the groin injury that kept him out of Saturday's draw with the Tigers. Ricardo Santos and Jay Fulton are also ruled out.
Sheehan Focused on On-Field Matters
Meanwhile, Sheehan says he's not thinking about recent goings-on behind the scenes, with the dust now settled on director of football Richard Montague's exit. As well as Montague, several members of Swansea's scouting department have also left, including head of scouting James Morgan-Snowley. Sheehan will focus on the footballers that he has, and not focus on matters that may be out of his control.
Postecoglou's Carabao Cup Ambitions
Postecoglou wants to make a Carabao Cup Statement as he mentions that he only had one week where he worked with all the players as the players flew in from all over the world for training.