Nottingham Forest squad numbers for the 2026/27 campaign are settled, and after one of the busiest summers in the club’s recent history there is plenty for supporters to get their heads around. Four new faces have arrived, several familiar ones have gone, and Oliver Glasner has a first-team list that looks meaningfully different to the one that finished last season.
Below is the full breakdown of who wears what at the City Ground this season, position by position, plus the players still on the books but out on loan.
Nottingham Forest squad numbers 2026/27: goalkeepers
- 12 – John Victor
- 26 – Matz Sels
- 33 – Steven Benda
Sels remains the senior man in the No 26 shirt he has made his own since arriving in Nottingham, with John Victor the established alternative. The new addition is Benda, signed on a free transfer from Fulham this summer to add experienced cover after the departures of Angus Gunn and Stefan Ortega. Three senior keepers is a sensible number for a Premier League season; there is no No 1 shirt in use, which is not unusual in modern squad-building.
Defenders
- 2 – Ousmane Diomande
- 3 – Neco Williams
- 4 – Morato
- 5 – Murillo
- 23 – Jair Cunha
- 25 – Luca Netz
- 31 – Nikola Milenković
- 32 – Tyler Bindon
- 34 – Ola Aina
- 37 – Nicolò Savona
- 44 – Zach Abbott
This is where the summer’s biggest structural change shows up. Diomande, signed from Sporting CP for a reported £34.3m, takes the No 2 shirt — an interesting choice for a centre-back, and a hint at how comfortable he is being asked to defend wide spaces in a back three.
Murillo in No 5 and Milenković in No 31 remain the spine, with Morato and the young Brazilian Jair Cunha behind them. Out wide, Neco Williams, Ola Aina and Nicolò Savona are the options on the right and Luca Netz on the left — which is precisely why a right-sided defender has been at the top of Forest’s shopping list in the closing days of the window, with the club having at least one more signing expected.
Academy graduate Zach Abbott holds No 44 and Tyler Bindon No 32. David Carmo (Olympiacos) and Omar Richards (Aris) both left this summer, as did the released Willy Boly.
Midfielders
- 6 – Ibrahim Sangaré
- 8 – Nicolás Domínguez
- 10 – Morgan Gibbs-White
- 21 – Xaver Schlager
- 22 – Ryan Yates (captain)
- 24 – James McAtee
The most significant absence from this list needs no introduction: Elliot Anderson’s roughly £116m move to Manchester City took Forest’s most progressive midfielder out of the building and reshaped the department overnight.
Gibbs-White keeps the No 10 and remains the creative heartbeat of the side, operating in the pockets behind the striker in Glasner’s system. The armband, though, belongs to Ryan Yates in No 22 — confirmed as captain in pre-season, and the obvious appointment for a squad that needed a familiar voice during a period of upheaval. Gibbs-White has worn it at times too.
Xaver Schlager, a free transfer from RB Leipzig, takes No 21 and offers exactly the running power a double pivot demands. Sangaré in No 6, Domínguez in No 8 and James McAtee in No 24 complete a group that is short on numbers by design — and a group Forest have been trying to add to before the deadline.
Forwards
- 7 – Callum Hudson-Odoi
- 9 – Chris Wood
- 11 – Igor Jesus
- 14 – Dan Ndoye
- 15 – Arnaud Kalimuendo
- 19 – Liam Delap
- 20 – Omari Hutchinson
Chris Wood retains the No 9, which is worth noting given the arrival of a club-record striker. Liam Delap, signed from Chelsea for an initial £45m, wears 19 rather than taking the shirt off the New Zealander — a small detail, but one that reflects Glasner’s view that these are different players doing different jobs rather than direct rivals.
“We have a top, top striker in the box with Chris Wood, who is a proven Premier League goalscorer. We have the more playing No.9 with Igor [Jesus],” the head coach explained, speaking to reporters including Nottinghamshire Live. “When Taiwo [Awoniyi] left, the ones who made the runs in behind, we were missing it. Liam is the perfect fit.”
Awoniyi’s time in the No 9 ended with his £9m move to Coventry City, and Wood has the shirt this season. Elsewhere, Callum Hudson-Odoi keeps the No 7, Igor Jesus No 11, Dan Ndoye No 14 and Arnaud Kalimuendo No 15 after returning to the fold. Omari Hutchinson holds No 20. Jota Silva’s permanent departure to Olympiacos freed up further space in the forward line.
Out on loan (still registered)
- 29 – Dilane Bakwa (Lille)
- Eric da Silva Moreira (Excelsior)
- Cuiabano
All three remain Forest players and could return to the numbering next summer. Bakwa’s move to Ligue 1 was one of several pieces of business done to trim the squad before the deadline.
What the numbers tell you about Glasner’s Forest
Read the list as a whole and the shape of the rebuild is fairly clear. There is real depth at centre-back — a requirement in a back three — and genuine competition at centre-forward, where Wood, Igor Jesus, Delap and Kalimuendo give the head coach four distinct profiles. Midfield is the thinner area, which is exactly what you would expect after a nine-figure sale, and right wing-back is the position Forest have been most active in trying to reinforce in the final week of the window.
It is also a young list in places. Abbott, Bindon and Jair Cunha are all squad members with room to grow, and the high numbers they carry are a reminder that Forest’s academy pathway is a live one.
Squad numbers can still change late in a window if a new signing arrives, so this list reflects the position as things stand. For the wider context on how the head coach wants his side to play, our profile of who Oliver Glasner is and what he does is a good place to start, and you can follow everything else across our Nottingham Forest coverage.
