There is an oddity at the heart of the Liam Delap Nottingham Forest story so far: the club-record striker’s most valuable contributions have come from making chances rather than taking them. Opta’s tracking of Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur – Delap’s first start for the Reds – had his average position deeper than both Morgan Gibbs-White and Dan Ndoye, the two No.10s who are supposed to be playing off him. After successive blanks at the City Ground, that is the number Oliver Glasner has to move.
Where Delap actually played against Spurs
On the edge of the centre circle, mostly. According to the Opta data reported by the Nottingham Post, Gibbs-White and Ndoye spent the afternoon marginally ahead of the man they were meant to be feeding – an inversion of how Glasner’s 3-4-2-1 is drawn up.
That is not automatically a criticism of the striker. A centre-forward who drops in to receive is doing something Glasner’s system asks for, and Delap is good at it: strong enough to hold a centre-half off, tidy enough to turn and release a runner. The problem is arithmetic. A No.9 who touches the ball 40 yards from goal is not in the box when the cross arrives, and Forest have now gone two home matches without scoring.
The impact that does not show up in the goal column
It nearly did. Delap’s pass in the first half against Spurs released Gibbs-White clean through, only for the Forest talisman to be denied by Antonin Kinský. The flag went up, but replays suggested the call was tight enough that a goal would have gone to a VAR check – and Forest supporters have had quite enough of those already after Neco Williams’s disallowed effort in the same match.
A week earlier at Anfield, it was Delap’s quick throw-in that set up the move from which Williams won the penalty in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool. Two league appearances, two direct contributions to Forest scoring situations, no goal of his own. For a striker signed to end a goal problem that dogged the club last season, the ledger is encouraging and incomplete at the same time.
Why Forest paid the money
Because of what happened at Portman Road, not Stamford Bridge. Delap scored 12 goals in a relegation season for Ipswich Town, which is the campaign that made him a wanted man – Forest looked at him then, and so did Glasner, then still at Crystal Palace. Chelsea won that race, and the move did not take: one goal in 28 league games.
He arrives on Trentside, then, with something to prove, and his head coach has noticed. Glasner has spoken about the “hunger” the 23-year-old brought with him. Our profile of the club-record No.19 sets out the fee – reported at £45m by the Nottingham Post, with other outlets putting the package nearer £50m – and what Forest believe they have bought.
Liam Delap Nottingham Forest: what has to change at Villa Park
The fix is unlikely to be a change of striker. Chris Wood, Igor Jesus and Arnaud Kalimuendo all offer Glasner a different kind of No.9, but Delap is the club-record signing, he is 23, and he has started one league match.
The likelier adjustment is around him: Gibbs-White and Ndoye pushing higher and wider so Delap has a reason to stay in the penalty area, and more early service into the channels rather than into his feet at halfway. Away from home, that ought to come more naturally. Forest travel to Aston Villa at Villa Park at 3pm on Saturday after the September international break, chasing a first win of 2026/27 with two points from three games, and Villa Park tends to invite the sort of transitional football in which a runner beats a receiver.
Two points from three is not a crisis. Two home games without a goal is the beginning of a pattern, and Forest have spent a club-record fee on the man whose job is to break it. Getting Delap 12 yards further forward would be a start.
Fixtures and confirmed line-ups are published by the Premier League, with team news via the official Nottingham Forest website.
