Nottingham Forest mentality, not tactics, is the thing Oliver Glasner believes will take longest to fix at the City Ground. Speaking before Saturday’s 12.30pm trip to Anfield, the Austrian was asked what the biggest job in front of him actually is after back-to-back defeats to Leeds United — and his answer had very little to do with formations.
Nottingham Forest mentality: ‘there is no button you can press’
“This is the biggest part, to be honest,” Glasner said when quizzed on the squad’s state of mind, speaking to reporters including Nottinghamshire Live. “When you have such a difficult, challenging, tricky season then something happens in your head. This is what I think is the biggest part to change and improve. This is probably the part that takes the longest.”
“It is not just talking about the legs and the tactics, it’s a lot of psychology and confidence,” he added. “There is no button you can press.”
It is a line Reds supporters have heard in various forms since Glasner arrived in July, and it is worth taking at face value. This is a group that spent last season scrapping to stay in the Premier League. Habits formed in that kind of campaign do not evaporate because a new head coach has drawn different shapes on a whiteboard in pre-season.
What the first two games told him
Forest have lost twice to Daniel Farke’s Leeds inside four days — 1-0 at home on the opening weekend, then 2-0 in the Carabao Cup second round. Two matches, no goals, and a mood around the City Ground that had been genuinely optimistic in August.
Glasner has not tried to spin it. “Of course, these two results didn’t make it better,” he said. “We all thought because we had a really good pre-season that we are further than where we are, but Premier League football is a bit different.”
Then came the more useful half of the answer. “It was not the start we all wanted but that is life sometimes, things don’t go how you want or probably how you expect them to go,” he said. “But on the other side, it also gives us very important and good feedback on where we are right now. We have to work very hard and improve things to be better and be more competitive, then we will get the results.”
That is a manager treating a bad fortnight as data rather than a crisis, which is roughly what you would want at this stage of a rebuild. The cup exit to Leeds was the low point; Anfield, oddly, may be an easier place to reset.
Team news: Gibbs-White and Yates back, Sangaré out
There was better news on the injury front, and it matters. “Morgan is available and Ryan Yates is available, so that is the good news,” Glasner confirmed. “But Ibrahim Sangare picked up a minor calf injury during Wednesday’s training session so he will miss tomorrow’s game. But the other two will return.”
Morgan Gibbs-White sat out the Carabao Cup tie with a minor knee issue and remains the Reds’ single biggest source of invention. Captain Yates returning alongside him restores the spine. Sangaré’s calf problem is a blow in a fixture where Forest will spend long spells without the ball, but the full picture is in our Nottingham Forest team news round-up.
Anfield as a free hit
Liverpool under new head coach Andoni Iraola are a different proposition to the side Forest faced last season, and Glasner knows the style: “We know his style of play, it’s very intense.” Nobody is demanding three points on Merseyside. What Glasner needs is 90 minutes that look like his Forest — front-foot pressing, a proper threat in behind, and eleven players who believe the plan works.
Liam Delap’s club-record arrival from Chelsea gives him a new focal point to build towards, even if the striker is unlikely to start at Anfield. Confidence, as the head coach says, has no switch. It tends to arrive one good performance at a time. For more on the season ahead, follow our full Nottingham Forest coverage.
