Oliver Glasner has been at Nottingham Forest for only three days but already his in-tray is filling up.
The Austrian has five weeks to reconfigure his team’s tactics, establish who he can rely on and – crucially – identify his principal centre forward for the campaign ahead.
Glasner cut a relaxed figure when he was introduced to the media at the City Ground on Thursday, cracking jokes about his first date with his wife, but he knows the honeymoon period will be brief.
Daily Mail Sport looks at the main challenges facing Glasner as he tries to ensure his team hit the ground running when they face Leeds on August 22.
Oliver Glasner cut a relaxed figure at the City Ground on Thursday, cracking jokes about his first date with his wife, but he knows the honeymoon period will be brief
The Austrian has had huge success with a 3-4-2-1 system and it would be a surprise if he deviated from it significantly at Nottingham Forest
The missing pieces
At Crystal Palace, Glasner had huge success with a 3-4-2-1 system that proved hugely effective on the counter-attack – though breaking down defensive teams was often a problem.
He insists he has yet to decide between a back three and a back four and was at pains to say he does not want to create ‘Palace Two’ at Forest. Yet given the success he had in south London, it would be a surprise to see Forest line up radically differently.
Glasner intends to play with two No 10s behind a lone front man. Expect one of these to be Morgan Gibbs-White – assuming the Forest captain stays – with the other spot up for grabs. Forest are pursuing Tottenham midfielder Lucas Bergvall strongly.
Glasner namechecked Omari Hutchinson and James McAtee in his opening remarks, referencing Hutchinson’s ability to cut inside and shoot on his left foot. As long as Hutchinson has a decent pre-season, we can expect him to figure strongly in the early weeks of the new campaign.
Yet where Hutchinson improved as the season progressed, McAtee struggled throughout and made only 13 starts – two in the league. Just because McAtee is praised by the manager on July 16, that does not guarantee he will be at Forest when the summer window closes.
Perhaps, though, Glasner could be the coach to bring the best from McAtee, who is talented but suffers in the ultra-athletic modern game. If he has mentioned McAtee, it is because Glasner believes he can improve him.
Morgan Gibbs-White will almost certainly be one of Glasner’s No10s behind the striker
Elliot Anderson was sold to Manchester City for £116million and Glasner accepts he cannot replace him with one player only. Xaver Schlager is set to join on a free transfer after leaving RB Leipzig and may line up alongside Ibrahim Sangare in the middle of the park, with the Ivory Coast star set to sign a new deal.
While there are plenty of defensive options, right back and No9 are key.
There is an acceptance at Forest that due to his injury record, Ola Aina needs a proven alternative, while Chris Wood turns 35 in December. Forest will be prepared to invest significantly in both areas, and Glasner sidestepped questions about whether he would target Palace players. Daniel Munoz and Jean-Philippe Mateta would certainly help this squad, though.
Glasner’s bold approach
Since Steve Cooper transformed Forest in 2021, leading them from the bottom of the Championship to promotion later that season, all managers have followed him in leaning heavily into Forest’s history.
The club won consecutive European Cups in 1979 and 1980 under Brian Clough, and memories of those days are on display across the City Ground. It would have been easy for Glasner to celebrate that as his predecessors did. He chose not to.
‘It’s a club with huge history but if we all lived as we did 46 years ago, we would fail,’ he said. ‘It’s good to have a great history but great history doesn’t tell anything about the future.
‘We want to make a step forward. Now is our fifth year in the Premier League and it doesn’t make sense talking about the European Cup trophies. Let’s get consistency into Forest in every way.’
It was a bold step and proves Glasner is not here to toe the line. Having won four major trophies (three with Palace and one with Frankfurt) Glasner has huge confidence in his own ability and is not afraid to show it.
Nor will he be afraid to put pressure on the ownership, or to make his feelings known if he is not given what he believes he needs. Indeed, there were plenty of clashes like these during his two-and-a-half years at Palace.
Unlike his predecessors, Glasner did not pay lip service to Forest’s European Cup wins under Brian Clough
‘It’s important we stick to what we tell each other as it builds trust and we all want to feel that,’ said Glasner. ‘It’s like friendships or relationships. If someone tells you something and doesn’t stick to their word, you don’t trust them anymore.’
Evangelos Marinakis does not mind the odd forthright back-and-forth with a manager and with Glasner, he will surely have his fair share.
Aiming high
Marinakis is the most ambitious owner in the Premier League, bar none. He believes Forest can break into the wealthy elite and become Champions League regulars. As Glasner acknowledged: ‘He is one of the few people I’ve met who are more ambitious than I am and that’s quite difficult. We will challenge each other with our ambition.’
It is very easy in July to talk about stability and consistency. It is a little more difficult if a club invests heavily and are 14th in the table at Christmas. Glasner pointed out that Forest’s league finishes had not always reflected their transfer spending and it is now for him to put that right.
In theory, Glasner’s brief will be to turn Forest into a club who compete regularly in the top half of the table and eventually push for Europe. In practice, he will be expected to hit the ground running.
Talented centre back Murillo will stay at the City Ground unless Forest receive an offer wildly above his market value
Unless they receive offers wildly above their market values, Forest have no plans to sell Gibbs-White, Neco Williams or Murillo. In return, Marinakis will expect no struggles in the bottom half of the table.
Glasner will not worry about these tasks. He has already chosen a difficult route by opting for Forest, who are disliked intensely by Palace these days after the Eagles were demoted to the Conference League a year ago due to UEFA rules, allowing Forest to step into the Europa League. He does not worry, he insists, about whether he’ll become Forest’s fifth managerial casualty in a relatively short time, after Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vitor Pereira.
One word of advice, though, Oliver: get a couple of wins on the board early.
