Zach Abbott - Coming of Age?
One of Forest's own made a fantastic impression in the Europa League on Thursday night, and finally in a position more suited to his talents.
When the line up for Forest’s 2nd leg against Midtjylland was announced in the late afternoon on Thursday, I must admit I was pretty worried about the task ahead of Zach Abbott - it looked like he would have very little defensive support in front of him, against a side that would surely test him physically.
As it turned out, the 19-year old had very little to do defensively, but dealt with everything that came his way with confidence and assurance. For me in previous appearances, it’s not just that it didn’t look like he belonged, it didn’t look like he felt he belonged either.
His performance felt like the true arrival of a young player in the first-team squad - and it’s not a surprise that perhaps it took him being used in his favoured position for the first time since August 2024.
We can see from Abbott’s action map that he only had one defensive action in his own box in the entire 120 minutes of the match - that shows up how well Forest defended in general, but also is a result of the calmness & composure shown by the back 3.
In these few clips above, Abbott shows a composure and reading of the game that I don’t think we’d seen before in his senior appearances. He’s confident in his actions, showing particularly good positioning on a couple of occasions to either clear up after a team mate makes an intervention, or by waiting for an attacker to take a touch before putting himself between man and ball.
In general he just looked more comfortable - and for me this is largely because he wasn’t ‘stuck’ at right back and was able to make most of his defensive actions away from the touchline.
It was Abbott’s distribution on the night though that I thought was most impressive. In Denmark he wasn’t tasked with providing the width on the right, therefore he had much better options & angles for passes. These clips in the second video show a player who has been given the freedom to not always take the easy option on the ball.
Difference In Messaging From The Dugout
One of the reasons why I think the performance as a whole by the vastly-changed side on Thursday was so positive, is because of the messaging coming from the coaching staff. 6 of the starters played in that terrible night in Braga back in January, but on Thursday they all looked like completely different players.
Pereira is clearly working hard with individual players, including those who joined in the summer and haven’t had the positive impact that we all hoped for. But what’s clear from the performance - and the public comments from Pereira - is that these players know that they will be rewarded with further opportunity if they impress.
They also know that if they aren’t up to standard in training, then they won’t be included - this is exactly what happened already under Pereira with both Morato & Lucca, both of whom had good outings in Denmark. This is the opposite to the feeling around the club under Dyche, at least outwardly anyway, where players outside of the first eleven felt like spare bodies used out of necessity rather than their manager actually backing them.
For those of you with a spare 8 minutes, you can watch all of Zach Abbott’s actions in the 3rd video above. There’s a couple of things that stuck out to me during the game that showed how much he’s grown and how much more settled he looked:
There were long periods of the game where Abbott saw no action whatsoever. A throw-in after 50 seconds was the last time he touched the ball for almost 10 minutes. From the 53rd minute to the 79th minute, he only had 3 actions. Despite that, he never lost concentration, this is a great sign.
From memory, in most of Abbott’s starts for the senior side he has always looked like he’s been running on empty late in the second half, pulling up with cramp for example and having to be brought off. This time around he played the full 120 minutes with no sign of struggle. Yes, the lack of work he had to get through defensively helps in this regard, but this is another big positive for me.
What Does The Future Hold?
I’ve said previously that I’m unsure on whether Abbott could have a long-term future at Forest. In a bit of self reflection perhaps I’ve been a little blinded by his poor performances out of position at right back - he clearly doesn’t have the attributes to play as a full back in the modern game for example. His appearance on Thursday was very promising and encouraging in his favoured position.
He is still young, only 19, and still has a lot of growing to do physically. I’m not convinced at this point he has the physicality to play as a centre back at a high level - I do think playing on the right of a back 3 is the best chance he has of playing at the top level. I’m not sure he’ll ever be a centre back that is going to bully attackers, nor will be one that can dominate with athleticism either.
His biggest issue though really is going to be the competition he’ll face in and around the squad. As things stand now in a fully fit squad, Abbott is behind Jair Cunha & probably Nicolo Savona as a right-sided centre back. Should Forest stay up, they’ll likely be some shuffling of the pack defensively but I don’t see either of those two players leaving.
Abbott’s best chance for me to make a positive, long-term impact at Forest, would be if Forest do end up getting relegated. Murillo is likely off in the summer regardless, I can’t see Milenkovic or Morato staying - that essentially leaves Abbott, Jair Cunha & Tyler Bindon as the only options.
Ideally, Forest can retain their Premier League status and Abbott can go out on loan next season to a Championship side that isn’t battling relegation - he’s had a great education at Forest but for him to take the next step in his career and for us to truly see what he’s capable of, he needs some consistent first-team football.