Nottingham Forest are in a troubling position in the Premier League after their first eight outings and are currently rock bottom of the league table after suffering their fifth defeat in a row at the King Power Stadium on Monday night.

The powers at The City Ground worked hard to improve the team over the summer, spending an ambitious £150m on 22 new signings to give Forest the best chance of staying up this season, however, it isn't working out as planned at the moment.

Indeed, there are still 30 fixtures and opportunities to turn the tide on their current trajectory but there will be many decisions that Evangelos Marinakis may be regretful of if the club can't find a way to turn their fortunes around in the top flight by next summer.

Believe it or not, Forest did not manage to sign all of their transfer targets this summer and one player who could have saved Steve Cooper a lot of heartache over the last few weeks is Djibril Sow.

The Garibaldi made a £17m bid to sign the Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder in August, however, Sow decided to stay in the Bundesliga, seemingly not interested in a move to the newly-promoted Premier League side.

The "combative" 25-year-old - as dubbed by journalist Sam Smith - is already showing Cooper exactly what he is missing this season and it is clear he'd have been far more effective than Remo Freuler if he had made the move to Nottingham instead.

Sow has been outperforming the Forest midfielder in a host of attributes already this season, completing far more passes for starters (290 v 90).

Yet, it's in a defensive sense where he would have offered a great deal more protection for a Forest side who have regularly been under the cosh this term. The Frankfurt brute has produced more blocks (9 v 2), has a better tackle success rate (50% v 33%), is more successful in his pressures (33% v 15.4%) and has more aerial duel success (66.7% v 33.3%).

Though the former Forest target may have been a better signing, having Freuler and Sow in the team together could've been a sure-fire transfer masterclass for Marinakis, largely due to their experience playing together for Switzerland.

The pair have won their last three games together in the Nations League beating Portugal, Spain and the Czech Republic, with both Sow and Freuler featuring in the midfield for every game. It proves that they are clearly relied upon to work together and can inspire positive results from the centre of the pitch against some of the best nations in world football.

With that being said, missing out on Sow will surely haunt Cooper and Marinakis especially if he joins another Premier League club in January, as Crystal Palace are keen on completing a deal for the midfielder in a few months' time.