Nottingham Forest legend Garry Birtles has praised one current player who always keeps things very simple on the pitch.
The man who lifted the European Cup with Forest as a player has been discussing certain aspects of last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Wolves.
In that game, Morgan Gibbs-White and Danilo scored for Forest but two Matheus Cunha goals ensured Wolves left with a point.
Nuno Espirito Santo has tried to keep some continuity with his team selection in recent weeks but Anthony Elanga was injured at the weekend.
Birtles has delivered his verdict on the man who has handed the unenviable task of replacing him during the contest that Forest desperately needed to win.
Garry Birtles raves about Nottingham Forest player who keeps things simple
Well, it was a big afternoon for Giovanni Reyna as he made his first start in the Premier League since joining on loan from Dortmund.
Much like Andrey Santos in the first half of 2023/24, Reyna has found regular minutes hard to come by and he’s been used off the bench.
With Elanga missing this one through injury, the baton was passed to Reyna to try and stake his claim for a place in the team.
Reyna produced a neat and tidy display and it remains to be seen whether or not he’s done enough to keep his place for Sunday.
Birtles told theForest Focus podcast: “It’s always going to be difficult when it’s your first start but he does the simple things well, he didn’t try to be clever.
“The annoying thing for me is I think we flick things in bad areas too much – we try and be clever.
“Use your flicks in the final third keep things simple. We do it in our area, he doesn’t, he’s one, two-touch he does the simple things and gets it to others who can play further up the pitch.
“It was a decent start in a difficult game. He was okay for us.”
Reyna magic can help Forest survive this season
At 21-years-old, Reyna is deemed a wonderkid in the world of football and Forest did extremely well to sign him in January.
However, he is a different sort of player to Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi with those players fitting the mantra of more natural wingers.
With that in mind, Espirito Santo hasn’t always called upon Reyna and instead, he’s been coming on as a number 10 in games.
Given the sporadic nature of outings, Reyna has struggled for consistency and he needs a regular run of games really.
On Saturday, the youngster had a couple of good chances to score but fluffed his lines and that did perhaps show a sign of ring rust.
However, we agree with Birtles that Reyna kept things simple in his maiden Forest start and with more game time he could seriously help the team this season.
The post 'It was a decent start': Garry Birtles hails Nottingham Forest 21-year-old who always 'keeps things simple' appeared first on Nottingham Forest News.