Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest boss Oliver Glasner, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "Well, it was the game I expected.

"The one situation that will decide and one set-piece will decide. It was a game with very rare chances. Really disappointed, but this is what we have to expect today.

"It felt like in the second half that we controlled the game better. Moments where they didn't play in our half, we played more in their half.

"At the end, after the throw-in, then two mistakes, a free-kick and anything can happen. We all know how well Stach takes free-kicks."

On Forest's defence: "This was positive. I just think we had a few situations when we played quick and we created some half chances. What we need to improve. Together for a few weeks, but def we are very stable. Still a lot of work to do."

On transfer business: "No, to be honest, I didn't talk to anyone today. We wanted to start with a win. Now we have to deal with a defeat at home. We will face Leeds again here, and we can show we can learn from this game."

Listen to more from Oliver Glasner on BBC Sounds

Did you know?

• Nottingham Forest have lost their opening match of a league season in six of their last eight campaigns (W1 D1), while they've only won one of their last 12 home league matches (D7 L4).

• Only Ibrahim Sangaré (10) recorded more line-breaking passes for both sets of players than Murillo (9), while the Brazilian recorded the joint-most in the final third (5).

Image source, Getty Images

After running through four managers last season, Nottingham Forest will hope for the turbulence to be finally behind them.

They have turned to former Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner to bring more stability and better results, after Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vitor Pereira were all sacked at various stages of the 2025-26 campaign.

However, this opening defeat suggests there is still plenty of work ahead to reach there.

Club owner Evangelos Marinakis termed Glasner "a winner" while announcing him as the new manager in the summer.

The pressure will be on the Austrian, who won the the FA Cup, Conference League and Community Shield with the Eagles, to make immediate improvements to a side that finished 16th last campaign.

Forest lined up in Glasner's preferred back three set up on Saturday with Nikola Milenkovic, Murillo and Jair Cunha making up their backline.

Ivory Coast defender Ousmane Diomande was denied a Forest debut by Anton Stach's late winner but he will be expected to solidify Glasner's defence this season.

In midfield too, experienced Austria international Xaver Schlager featured for just the final 16 minutes with Ibrahim Sangare and James McAtee partnering to fill the hole left by Elliot Anderson, who joined Manchester City.

Forest will be expected to strengthen further before the transfer deadline passes but Glasner will know there will be little patience if results do not improve.

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Have your say on Nottingham Forest's performance

What did you make of Leeds United's display?

Reaction and analysis to follow - and come back on Monday for a selection of your replies.

There are five games in the Premier League on Saturday as the opening weekend continues, and BBC Sport will bring you every moment.

• Hull City v Man Utd (12:30)

• Everton v Crystal Palace - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

• Ipswich v Sunderland - listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2

• Nottingham Forest v Leeds

• Brentford v Tottenham (17:30) - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

Kick-off times 15:00 BST unless stated.

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What a strange season Nottingham Forest had last time, going through four managers and all with differing styles.

They were 'knee-jerk Nottingham Forest' but they stayed up and got to the Europa League semi-finals.

Now? Well Oliver Glasner is in charge and they have got Chris Wood back from injury, which is great news for them - his experience and goals will be crucial.

Of course they are going to miss Elliot Anderson in midfield but holding on to Morgan Gibbs-White was a big deal, and Callum Hudson-Odoi too.

I was delighted for Leeds boss Daniel Farke that he proved people wrong by keeping them up last year.

There will be high hopes they can stay out of trouble this time after signing Harry Wilson, who was so good for Fulham, and James Trafford is an excellent buy too.

I am covering this game for BBC Radio 5 Live but it is almost impossible to predict. Glasner usually went with a 3-4-3 shape at Crystal Palace but has gone on record saying he works with what he has got, so I am not sure how they will line up for this game.

It will be very interesting to see how Forest start, and how Glasner fares. Will he still be there in September?

Sutton's prediction: 1-1

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Matthew Hobbs
BBC Sport journalist

Nottingham Forest begin Premier League life under Oliver Glasner against a Leeds United side looking to kick on after finishing in the relative comfort of 14th place last season.

BBC Sport examines some of the key themes ahead of their meeting at the City Ground.

Glasner's arrival after winning the FA Cup and Europa Conference League with Crystal Palace is something of a coup for a club that struggled in the league last season despite boasting a talented squad.

Something of a rebuild is required after the influential Elliott Anderson departed for Manchester City and while Forest more than tripled the £35m fee paid to Newcastle United in 2024, they may take some time to adapt to losing the England international.

Forest have brought in experienced Austria international Xaver Schlager as Anderson's replacement, alongside Ivory Coast defender Ousmane Diomande. In another boost, Morgan Gibbs-White appears to be staying put.

With time left in the transfer window to strengthen further, perhaps what the club needs most of all is stability in the dugout.

A merry-go-round of four managers last season was a key factor in Forest's difficult league campaign. They finished 16th after amassing 44 points having finished seventh with 65 the previous season.

The drop-off was the third biggest negative differential in any club's points tally after Liverpool and relegated Wolves.

Each of the last six permanent Forest managers has lost their first Premier League game in charge, since Dave Bassett led them to a 1-0 win away at Spurs in March 1997.

Glasner, though, may be the man to buck this trend - he's won his first league game at four of his five previous clubs.

Leeds United finished eight points clear of the bottom three in 2025-26 and their supporters may also be aiming higher this season after boss Daniel Farke's backing in the transfer market.

James Trafford has arrived for a fee which could rise to a record £45m for a British goalkeeper along with winger Harry Wilson, who scored 10 goals and provided seven assists for Fulham last season, and Bosnia-Herzegovina centre-back Tarik Muharemovic.

Farke can take much of the credit for re-establishing Leeds at the highest level after switching to a back three in December.

Based on results since the change in formation was made, Leeds would have finished seventh in the Premier League table across the remainder of last season.

The improvement in form was also influenced by striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He scored 14 league goals, his second-most in a top-flight campaign after 16 in 2020-21.

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

Nottingham Forest's 16th-place finish was disappointing after being seventh the season before, but the club can't have too many complaints as they had the 15th-best expected goal difference in what was a very turbulent campaign.

While just 11 sides scored more goals, only Wolves, Crystal Palace and Fulham had a worse shot-conversion rate than Forest.

However, it was nothing to do with their finishing but more the fact that only Burnley and Tottenham created worse chances in front of goal.

Just five sides faced more shots and only the relegated sides were more open in terms of xG, but only seven sides conceded fewer goals.

That was largely thanks to keeper Matz Sels, who was one of the best shotstoppers in the league in terms of goals prevented (3.6).

New manager Oliver Glasner will therefore hope to improve Forest's creativity around the box while tightening things up at the back.

Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town are thought to be among a number of clubs considering a move for Chelsea's English striker Liam Delap, 23. (Independent), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Friday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

In the Premier League last season, 13 of the 20 teams finished with between 40 and 60 points - the most in an English top-flight campaign since 2003-04 (also 13).

Was the Premier League so competitive in 2025-26 because the quality of the 'lesser' teams got better or the top teams got worse? It is hard to know for sure.

Given how savvy clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are, the vast amounts of money that enable even bottom-half sides to sign the best talent from abroad and the Premier League's current dominance of the Europa League and Conference League, it would seem to be the former.

However, the fact that promoted play-off winners Sunderland were able to finish above 13 teams in their first season back suggests the league was maybe not as strong as we think.

What we do know is that whether because they got worse or their opponents got better, four of the sides that finished in the top seven in 2024-25 - champions Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest - took 79 points fewer between them last season.

While Forest's decline was perhaps expected given their incredible seventh-place finish in 2024-25 and their journey to the Europa League semi-finals last season, the others were far more surprising.

Sunderland and Leeds smashed the recent run of promoted sides struggling to compete by taking 64 more points than the teams they replaced in the top flight.

As a result, this season will be a bit of an upside-down one in that Bournemouth, Brighton and Sunderland have European campaigns to navigate while Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle do not.

Will we therefore see a bounce-back to the more 'traditional' order in 2026-27 or are we truly entering a new, fiercely-competitive era of the Premier League?

Read more on the Premier League's competitiveness

Millie Sian
BBC Sport journalist

Nottingham Forest boss Oliver Glasner has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League opener against Leeds United at the City Ground (kick-off 15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Ryan Yates and Nicolo Savona have been ruled out but he will still have the pick of "23 other fit on-field players" for his matchday squad.

• On Savona's road to recovery after undergoing surgery in March: "We did think he would be further on than he is right now. He had a minor set-back with his knee, so he is back working in the gym again." The defender should be back on grass in a couple of weeks.

• Glasner is "very ready" to take charge of his first competitive match as head coach: "The players are fit and looking good. We've changed a few things in the way we want to play but the players have adapted really well. We aren't at 100% right now, it just isn't possible, but we feel we are on a good track."

• On what he is expecting "very good" Leeds United to bring: "They play very physically, they are top at set pieces, they were second in running distance and they won the most balls under pressure last season."

• The two pre-season friendlies at home have shown the fans' "passion and support" for the team. Glasner added: "I've learned that fans don't expect you to win every single game, but they do expect you to fight for every single ball. If we do that, the City Ground will be our fortress."

• Glasner is still expecting one or two more incomings before the end of the transfer window.

• He explained: "I'm very confident we will get in two more high-quality players. We won't do business just to add numbers. We already know which players we want to bring in, now it is about getting the deals done. We do have other options with the same profile, though, if those deals can't be done."

• Glasner said they will be of a similar profile to Xaver Schlager and Ousmane Diomande, explaining he wants two players with "Champions League experience and many caps for their countries that have played at the highest level".

• European football chat "makes no sense" at the moment, with Glasner adding: "It also doesn't align with how I am as a person. I'm always very humble, I'm not a loud speaker, and I'm fine with admitting every team is doing a good job at being ambitious and so far we are the team spending the least."

• In his opinion, the fans will be "realistic with their expectations as long as they are being told the truth" - and, importantly, he added that his team do have "big goals" for the next few seasons.

Hit play above to hear more from Glasner, speaking to BBC Radio Nottingham, or listen on BBC Sounds here

Listen to BBC Radio 5 Live commentary of Nottingham Forest v Leeds United from 15:00 BST

Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Got a question about Forest? Get in touch here and we'll seek answers from our experts

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, PA Media

With Oliver Glasner's arrival, perhaps the expectation was it would trigger another Nottingham Forest overhaul.

It has been relatively quiet so far, with Glasner hoping patience will pay off.

Forest's main signings - Xaver Schlager and Ousmane Diomande - add extra quality and depth, while Schlager played under Glasner at Wolfsburg and is a player the head coach knows and can immediately trust.

Goalkeeper Steven Benda joins as third choice to offer extra cover, but because there has not been a marquee signing to replace Elliot Anderson, there can be a view Forest have fallen short in the window so far.

That should not be the case, with Forest always looking for quality over quantity and Glasner said on Sunday that two or three deals were in the pipeline.

Glasner also dismissed a suggestion on Forest were short on numbers in midfield, pointing to James McAtee and Morgan Gibbs-White as options who could comfortably drop back.

The expensive nature of the market, the World Cup holding deals up and Forest looking to be more precise naturally means transfers have been slower. Add to that clubs know Forest have money to spend.

Any team would be weaker without England's Anderson, who was outstanding for Forest after joining from Newcastle two years ago, but while there are still gaps to fill it should not be panic stations.

What have you made of Forest's summer transfers so far? And what do you expect to happen at Forest before the end of the transfer window?

Send us your comments

Last season: 16th.

This season: 8th.

How did a squad with Nottingham Forest's obvious quality end up fighting relegation last season?

Easy - have four managers.

After Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vitor Pereira comes the ambitious appointment of Oliver Glasner.

Glasner is demanding and will have an even more demanding owner in Evangelos Marinakis, but Forest will surely use the £116m from the sale of Elliot Anderson to back their new manager.

Expect plenty of activity before the deadline, with Ivory Coast defender Ousmane Diomande already in for £34m from Sporting.

Morgan Gibbs-White has stayed and will be a key figure again.

The Glasner era - like all other managerial eras at Forest - will not be dull.

• Read more of Phil's predictions

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

Teams in the bottom half of the Premier League in 2025-26 finished with more points than they had in years, meaning that judging them simply by their position in the table is perhaps a little harsh.

Everton may have been underwhelmed with their 13th-place finish but it was the most points a team in that position had finished with since the Toffees themselves in 1999-2000.

The points of the four places below them were all the highest they have been in the Premier League for 23 years and West Ham can consider themselves unlucky to have gone down with the highest points total for an 18th-placed side since 2010-11.

However, competition has come at a cost.

One place where the Premier League has become less competitive - because it has become more fiercely-contested overall - is at the very bottom.

While it is almost expected for one side to be cut adrift long before the end of the season, nowadays two sides are getting left behind.

The average points tally of the second-bottom side in a 38-game season is 31, meaning teams that finish there have usually competed in a relegation battle for most of the season before ultimately falling short.

After the Premier League was reduced to 20 teams in 1995-96, only two 19th-placed sides failed to reach 30 points in the first 21 seasons. But in the past decade, seven of the 10 sides to finish in that position have failed to do so.

In the past two seasons, promoted sides Ipswich and Burnley have both finished there with just 22 points - the fewest ever taken by a second-bottom side.

Relegation battles are now mostly a fight to see who takes the final spot in the bottom three, with the other two accounted for long before the final day - often by promoted sides.

But inspired by the survival of Sunderland and Leeds, promoted trio Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City will all be hoping they have what it takes to match the competitiveness of the Premier League this season.

Read more on the Premier League's competitive numbers

A new episode of Shut Up and Show More Football is available on BBC Sounds and this week's special guest is former Nottingham Forest midfielder Jack Colback.

Colback, who was part of the Reds' Premier League promotion-winning team in 2022, will be joining BBC Radio Nottingham's commentary team for some of this season's fixtures, including Saturday's season opener against Leeds United.

Speaking about Forest's ambitions for the 2026-27 season, Colback said: "From the owner's point of view, he will be very ambitious. Bringing in Oliver Glasner just shows how much he wants to move this club forward.

"The league positions nowadays can be a bit confusing because you can be not far from finishing eighth or 17th at times.

"European football, as good as it was, felt like a bit of a hindrance for them. It was amazing for the fans to get to the semi-final, but it was difficult for them to keep their league form up.

"I do think there should be optimism this season. The owner will certainly want to be up there competing for Europe again."

Listen below or on BBC Sounds here - and don't forget to subscribe to get each episode into your My Sounds feed.

Explore all Nottingham Forest content on BBC Sounds

Fancy testing your football prediction skills? With the new season under way, BBC Sport has just the thing to keep you entertained every week.

After the success of our World Cup Predictor game, we've rebranded it for the club season as Match of the Day Predictor.

It's simple to play - just predict the outcome of the six fixtures we've selected from across domestic and European competitions every week.

And don't worry if you've joined late - players can join at any time, get involved with the latest round and start building a streak.

Once you've submitted your predictions, you'll also be able to see what others think the outcome of the match will be.

Read more about it here

You can find the predictor in the navigation bar at the top of this page, or click here to play

Colin Fray
BBC Radio Nottingham reporter

Image source, Getty Images

There is great love for Taiwo Awoniyi.

He has done a lot of work off the field with Nottingham Forest - and of course a lot of good work on the field as well.

Since he has been at the club, he has done everything with a massive smile on his face. That is what has endeared him to the Nottingham public.

He obviously had some real problems while he was at the club as well, none more so than at the back end of the 2024-25 season when he collided with the goalpost in a game against Leicester City at the City Ground.

It was then he had to be put into an induced coma as he recovered from a ruptured intestine - but there were lots of other injury problems as well.

Yet, whenever Forest needed him and needed a goal, he was on the pitch and able to deliver in those crucial moments, such as the day they secured Premier League survival against Arsenal.

But that wasn't the only goal he scored in that fight against relegation, he got a couple against Southampton in that run as well.

He scored twice against Chelsea, twice at Stamford Bridge in big games. One of those braces was in the 2025-26 season and those goals were huge in terms of Forest staying up.

He has this knack of being in the right place at the right time.

He scored 23 goals in 103 appearances for the club. Forest secured him as their first signing after promotion to the Premier League for £17m four years ago - and he has delivered those memories.

Owner Evangelos Marinakis has led the tributes to him - and he goes to Coventry City with everybody's blessing.

There is a hope that he has a fabulous season with them, apart from when he faces Forest.

Subscribe to BBC Radio Nottingham's Shut Up And Show More Football podcast on BBC Sounds.

Image source, NOTTINGHAM FOREST FC

Nottingham Forest have announced a new front-of-shirt sponsor for the 2026-27 season, with owner Evangelos Marinakis stating the deal is "another important step in the continued growth of our club".

Marex will become the club's principle partner, global markets partner and exclusive provider of foreign exchange and other financial services - and their branding will appear on the front of all men's and women's kits.

"Marex is an ambitious, global business with a strong reputation for excellence and performance," Marinakis said after announcing the multi-year partnership.

"Those qualities reflect our own ambitions for Nottingham Forest. We look forward to working together and building a successful relationship."

The club added that information will be circulated "in due course" for supporters wishing to have the new sponsor branding printed on their already purchased shirts.

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

Last season, the Premier League was arguably more competitive than it has been for years.

While the 65 points between champions Arsenal and bottom side Wolves was around the average for a 38-game season (63), a real revolution took place in mid-table.

Since the league was reduced to 20 teams in 1995-96, the gap between the top four and the bottom three – between what has often been the Champions League and the Championship – had been increasing as the seasons went by, with the 'bigger' clubs profiting from their European adventures and the extra money they earned by regularly finishing higher in the table.

But last season, the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' of the Premier League dropped from 44 points in 2024-25 to just 26 points – the smallest distance for 23 years (since 25 points in 2002-03).

The European places were more attainable than they had been for years. Despite taking a point fewer than when they finished seventh the season before, Aston Villa clinched Champions League qualification by finishing two places higher.

While Liverpool took the 'bonus' Champions League place by finishing fifth, their points total of 60 was the lowest by a side finishing there for 19 years and would have put them ninth in 2024-25.

Bournemouth and Sunderland also took full advantage of needing fewer points than normal by qualifying for European competition for the first time ever and for over half a century respectively.

Read more on the Premier League's competitive numbers