Nottingham Forest have now been able to do something even better than the Champions League winners Real Madrid this season.
A turbulent campaign for Nottingham Forest is now in the books with Nuno Espirito Santo‘s side securing Premier League football for next term.
It did not come without its difficulties, though. Forest only just avoided the drop having finished 17 in the table following their four-point deduction for their FFP breaches.
The 2023/24 campaign provided Forest with a number of things that the club will want to forget in a hurry with the owner even threatening legal action if the club had been relegated.
Evangelos Marinakis saw his club narrowly avoid relegation with victory on the final day confirming their spot in the Premier League for next season.
However, Forest ended the campaign having achieved something which even Real Madrid were unable to match.
What Nottingham Forest were able to do which Real Madrid couldn’t match
Clearly, it was a season which did not offer a lot for the Forest fans to cheer about with a points deduction and VAR controversy marring the campaign.
Forest constantly found themselves at the centre of the frustrations when it came to the decisions being made by the officials.
Despite this, Forest’s players were able to remain focused and secured themselves a spot in next season’s Premier League where they will do it all over again from August.
But there is some positives to take from the season with Forest outperforming this season’s Champions League winners in one specific metric.
Out of the top 10 performing clubs when it comes to counter attacking across Europe, Forest ended the campaign as the sixth most effective.
Paris Saint-Germain were able to end the campaign as Europe’s best counter-attacking side with an xG of 10.79.
And Forest came in at sixth with an xG of 7.59 which was marginally better than that of Real Madrid who returned 7.44.
Nuno’s men were also able to pip the likes of RB Leipzig and Vfb Stuttgart in establishing themselves as one of the best counter attacking sides in Europe.
Forest may need to show more next season after promoted clubs confirmed
Forest may enter the summer considering themselves somewhat fortunate to have stayed up this season.
There is no doubt that there will be frustrations over the points deduction and some of the VAR decisions which went against them.
However, there is certainly an argument to be made that Forest survived due to how poor the likes of Burnley and Sheffield United were.
Next season, this may not be the case with two established top flight clubs in Leicester City and Southampton making an instant return to the Premier League.
These two sides have bigger budgets than the likes of Burnley and the Blades and could well require Forest to step up their game next season if they are to prevail against the drop.
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