Nottingham Forest advisor Mark Clattenburg has lifted the lid on what he tells Nuno Espirito Santo in the lead-up to games.
The former Premier League referee has now been in the job at the City Ground for a number of weeks.
And he has now provided some insight as to what exactly he has been working on behind the scenes in the build-up to Premier League match days.
What Clattenburg tells Nuno before games
It was an appointment which caused a lot of controversy from people across the league as the former referee joined Forest.
He has certainly had his work cut out since joining the club with a number of refereeing decisions going against Forest in recent weeks.
Clattenburg was even seen in the stands following the defeat to Liverpool which ended in controversial fashion.
Speaking to Jamie Martin, Clattenburg has provided an insight as to what he provides Nuno Espirito Santo ahead of a game.
He said: “It would be more details for example, statistically I would look at if the referee’s issuing more yellow cards for descent, time wasting. So you’ve got to look at a lot of other stuff, has the referee made mistakes in previous matches for Nottingham Forest? Has he sent off any players from Nottingham Forest in the past? Because what we don’t want to do is for that player to have another problem with the same referee.
“So what I’m trying to do is look at all of the reports of that referee from all season, the KMI reports, any mistakes that he’s made, so we can have a full picture about this referee before he goes into the game.”
What Neco Williams said about Brighton VAR controversy
It was not just against Liverpool where Forest left the game feeling aggrieved. The defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion also threw up a poor decision.
Forest lost the game narrowly against Roberto De Zerbi’s men, but Nuno and his side felt they should have been playing against 10 men.
A reckless challenge from Jakub Moder on Neco Williams saw the Brighton man only awarded a yellow card.
The Polish midfielder clearly caught Williams on the ankle in a dangerous fashion, but the yellow card was not upgraeded to a red.
Speaking on the matter, Williams admitted he was amazed to see the Brighton midfielder remain on the pitch.
He said: “For me, it was a red card. I don’t really know VAR haven’t seen that as a serious, serious foul. But we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We got to put that behind us now and move forward and it is frustrating. I don’t want to sit here and make excuses. But most of these decisions now that have been going against us.”
Although there is nothing Clattenburg can do about decisions like the one against Brighton, he can inform players on how they can use the laws to their advantage.
And perhaps Forest will need to do just that if they are to remain afloat this season as they currently sit slumped in the bottom three.
The post 'Before he goes into the game'... Mark Clattenburg shares what he tells Nuno before Nottingham Forest play appeared first on Nottingham Forest News.