Nottingham Forest team news ahead of Saturday’s trip to Anfield is a mixed bag, but it leans decisively towards the good. Oliver Glasner confirmed at his pre-match press conference on Friday that Morgan Gibbs-White and captain Ryan Yates are both available for the 12.30pm kick-off against Liverpool — while Ibrahim Sangaré has been ruled out with a calf problem picked up in training, as reported by Nottinghamshire Live.
What Glasner said on the latest Nottingham Forest team news
The head coach kept it short and clear.
“Morgan is available and Ryan Yates is available, so that is the good news,” Glasner said. “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.”
Gibbs-White sat out Wednesday’s 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Leeds United with a minor knee issue, and there had been an understandable nervousness around how long the Reds’ talisman would be missing. The answer, it turns out, is one game. Yates, meanwhile, has been carrying a knock since the build-up to the opening weekend and now comes back into contention at exactly the moment Glasner needs bodies in midfield.
Sangaré’s calf problem is described as minor, and nothing in the head coach’s language suggests anything more than a short absence. Even so, losing a midfielder of his physical stature for a lunchtime kick-off at Anfield is not ideal timing.
How it reshapes the midfield
With Sangaré out, Glasner’s options in the engine room narrow to Yates, Nicolás Domínguez, Xaver Schlager and James McAtee, with Gibbs-White operating further forward. Schlager, signed on a free from RB Leipzig this summer, has the legs for the sort of contest Anfield tends to become; Yates offers the aggression and set-piece presence that has made him captain.
It is worth remembering how much has changed in that area of the pitch. Elliot Anderson’s £116m move to Manchester City took Forest’s most progressive carrier out of the side in a single afternoon, and Glasner has spent August saying he would like another midfielder before the window shuts. Talks over Corinthians’ Andre have been reported, and the head coach confirmed on Friday that at least one more signing is expected. A minor calf strain three days before a trip to Merseyside is a neat illustration of why depth matters.
Confidence, not just tactics
Glasner was asked about the mentality of a squad that has lost twice at home to the same opponent inside four days, and his answer was strikingly honest.
“This is the biggest part, to be honest,” the Austrian said. “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. There is no button you can press.”
He also refused to pretend the start has been anything other than disappointing. “We all thought because we had a really good pre-season that we are further than where we are, but Premier League football is bit different,” he said. “It was not the start we all wanted but that is life sometimes, things don’t go how you want.”
Anfield has been kind to the Reds
Here is the counterweight to all the gloom: Forest have won on each of their last two visits to Anfield, including a 3-0 result last season that stood out as one of the few genuine highs of an otherwise grim campaign. Liverpool are also mid-transition themselves under new head coach Andoni Iraola, who takes charge of his first home game following a 2-2 draw at Newcastle.
So Glasner travels with his talisman fit, his captain back and a club-record signing in Liam Delap who was bought specifically to run in behind high defensive lines. Anfield, on a Saturday lunchtime, may be a far better fixture for this Forest side than the opening fortnight suggests.
Our full Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest preview has the wider picture, and you can follow every update across our Nottingham Forest coverage.
