Visit of Chelsea potentially 'crucial' for Postecoglou

Saturday's visit of Chelsea appears crucial to Ange Postecoglou's future at Nottingham Forest.

After seven winless games to open his reign, having replaced Nuno Espirito Santo last month, the pressure remains on the Australian.

Sources close to the squad feel Postecoglou could get Chelsea and Thursday's Europa League visit of Porto, but only if the result against the Blues on Saturday is positive and the fans do not turn.

Ultimately, it will be the decision of owner Evangelos Marinakis, who has been considering Sean Dyche as Postecoglou's replacement just five weeks after appointing the former Tottenham boss.

Should Forest supporters snap again, like they did after FC Midtjylland went 3-1 up in the Europa League last month - chanting "you're getting sacked in the morning" towards their own head coach - then a way back for Postecoglou would appear remote.

Postecoglou has said he did not expect it to be love at first sight with the fans but, so far, it is a tense relationship and you sense some chocolates and a bunch of flowers are not going to repair things.

The international break arguably came at a bad time for Postecoglou, who will be desperate for more time on the training pitches with his Forest squad.

He had six games in his first 23 days, limiting the time to implement his style of high pressure and pressing, which is vastly different to the compact and direct counter-attacking nature of predecessor Nuno's team.

Postecoglou has been without 12 players who have gone away with their countries, including Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson with England.

During the break, Chis Wood became New Zealand's joint most capped player with Ivan Vicelich, with 88 appearances.

But, despite positive noises from All Whites coach Darren Bazeley, Wood came off after an hour of the 1-1 draw in Norway on Tuesday with a knee problem.

The striker will be assessed by Forest ahead of the weekend.