Nottingham Forest made 22 signings over the summer, building an almost entirely new squad upon their return to the Premier League after 23 years away from the top flight, but it hasn't been the best start for the Tricky Trees.

Steve Cooper's newly-constructed side have struggled to pick up points over their first seven league outings with just four points leaving them 19th in the table after losing their last four games on the bounce.

The Garibaldi will be hoping that an extended break throughout September, as well as playing the last game of this round of fixtures on Monday against Leicester City, will see them come back refreshed and should have given them enough time to rebuild their confidence to make a fresh start.

Evangelos Marinakis certainly showed his ambition with the huge amount of transfer business delivered over the summer, but there was one player that Forest missed out on that could've been a real force in the centre of the pitch.

Tiémoué Bakayoko was a transfer target that the powers at The City Ground were in talks with during the transfer window. However, the club failed to secure his signature, before he made a loan move back to AC Milan from his parent club Chelsea, and it could be a decision Marinakis will regret.

The 28-year-old midfielder - who was hailed a "monster" - has many attributes that saw him outperform Nottingham Forest's Remo Freuler last season. As a result, it appears he could have been a better prospect than the 30-year-old Swiss ace.

Despite only making 14 appearances for Milan, Bakayoko boasted a better pass completion rate (88.5% v 85.8%), won more aerial duels (70.8% v 54%) and has also ranked higher than Freuler amongst his positional peers in the top five European leagues too over the last 12 months.

The £93k-per-week ace ranked in the top 5% for tackles, pressures and aerial duels won, whilst Freuler ranked in the bottom 35% for aerial duels and the top 40% for pressures and tackles.

With that being said, in terms of getting better defensive performances out of his team, Cooper could have had a much more reliable player in Bakayoko, but will now have to hope that Freuler can up his game in the centre of the pitch when Forest return to action on Monday.