If football management were gambling, Oliver Glasner has just done the equivalent of walking into one of Nottingham’s top casinos and chucking everything on red.
Not satisfied with hammering his Forest players publicly after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Brentford, Glasner then had the squad running on the banks of the River Trent for their customary Sunday recovery session. The social media footage has to be seen to be believed – Premier League footballers jogging through an overgrown field, filmed by a baffled dog-walker.
Even if Forest were doing well and their players were easy to manage, these would still be risky moves. Instead, Glasner’s side are 19th in the table and he is trying to handle a notoriously restless dressing room.
Forest are believed to pay Glasner more than £10million a year and until now owner Evangelos Marinakis has been patient. But in the Premier League most fans are sceptical when club officials talk about long-term projects and three-year plans. Only three of the current 20 managers have lasted three years in their current job.
Any manager who loses regularly is under pressure, particularly at a club who sacked three managers last season and another in the summer. Glasner has lost six of 10 as Forest boss and won only once. Forget the spin: results alone mean Glasner is under the pump.
If there are no signs of a reaction against Manchester City on Saturday, it promises to be an uncomfortable November international break.
If there are no signs of a Nottingham Forest reaction against Man City on Saturday, it promises to be an uncomfortable November international break for Oliver Glasner
What made Glasner explode
There was not one single moment that broke Glasner’s patience but the 30th minute at Brentford on Saturday probably contributed heavily.
Forest centre back Murillo, who has regressed alarmingly this season, watched idly as Bees goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher launched the ball way over his head and into the path of Dango Ouattara. Ouattara then breezed past Murillo before Nikola Milenkovic turned the cross into his own net. Glasner was unhappy with the shape Murillo was in when he returned for pre-season training and was furious at such slack work.
It was not the first time Forest had been exposed like this, either. Jay Dasilva’s winner for Coventry at the City Ground in September came from a similar diagonal pass from keeper Carl Rushworth, though that time Daniel Munoz – one of Glasner’s pupils – was at fault. Again, slack. Again, sloppy.
Daily Mail Sport understands Glasner does not see enough seriousness in his squad. This group of players get on well but nonetheless, there is a view that poor results do not hurt them enough. Is it really time for laughing and joking around the training ground when you have taken one point from a possible 15?
Most of this squad have never won a European trophy, or one in Europe’s top five leagues. Glasner has three. Some around him believe there are Forest players who carry themselves like superstars when they do not deserve to.
It is thought Glasner is also frustrated with himself. Looking back, perhaps he wishes he had started with a bang, because the 52-year-old was alarmed at the physical data from previous seasons.
In 2024-25, Forest covered fewer kilometres than any other team, and last season only Liverpool and Chelsea covered fewer. In 2024-25, only Arsenal made fewer sprints; last season, only Everton were below Forest. Glasner’s Palace sides were never lower than 12th in those four categories.
When Glasner has been outspoken in the past, it has usually worked. At Wolfsburg and Frankfurt, performances improved. At Crystal Palace last season, Glasner let rip at his bosses after a game at Sunderland last January and most expected him to be sacked. Instead, he left in the summer after delivering the Conference League. The dynamic at Forest is very different though – and Glasner may soon understand why.
Glasner was unhappy with the shape Murillo (left) was in when he returned for pre-season training and was furious at the Brazilian’s slack work at Brentford
A complicated dressing room
Player power was a major factor in Ange Postecoglou and Sean Dyche’s sackings last season. When players believe they can go above the manager’s head and vent to those in charge, they will. This is the danger for Glasner.
Daily Mail Sport understands there are players who love neither the new style – Glasner is a committed three-at-the-back man and many of the squad feel more comfortable in a back-four – nor the Austrian’s strict approach. He is very different from the avuncular Vitor Pereira, whose easy charm and light-touch approach united the squad post-Dyche and kept Forest in the top flight.
Others are surprised Glasner has not made it a priority to bring the dressing room’s strongest characters onside. Along with Morgan Gibbs-White, both Ola Aina and Callum Hudson-Odoi are powerful voices in the squad and alienating any of them is dangerous. Equally, Ibrahim Sangare and Nico Dominguez are well-respected, and both have been left on the fringes like Aina and Hudson-Odoi.
While Gibbs-White is clearly Forest’s best player, he can be a complex character. If the skipper is not ‘having’ a Forest manager, his position becomes vulnerable.
It was a turbulent summer for Gibbs-White, who was frustrated no Champions League club came in for him and ultimately changed agents. He was also left out of England’s World Cup squad. Some believe that Glasner’s rigid tactical framework does not bring the best from Gibbs-White, who likes to roam across the front line and drop deep when he wishes. While Pereira understood this, Glasner does not operate like that.
At times this season, Gibbs-White’s body language has been striking. Team-mates who make mistakes feel his anger but the 26-year-old has only one goal (a penalty) and two assists this term.
Gibbs-White watched team-mate Elliot Anderson leave Forest for City last summer and perhaps questioned why he was not on the same path to the Champions League.
It is tempting to wonder about some of the advice Gibbs-White has received from those around him, though. Because if Gibbs-White is wondering why he is still playing for a bottom-half Premier League club, it is never a bad idea to look in the mirror.
Callum Hudson-Odoi is a powerful voice in the dressing room and Glasner would do well not to isolate him
If Morgan Gibbs-White is wondering why he is still playing for a bottom-half Premier League club, it is never a bad idea to look in the mirror
Where does Marinakis stand?
Marinakis did not make Glasner the highest-paid manager in Forest’s history just to show him the door at the first sign of trouble. When the pair held talks, Glasner is thought to have stressed the need for time to make his vision work.
Neither man suffers fools and it is easy to imagine that Marinakis would have approved of parts of Glasner’s outburst. That does not give Glasner a free pass, because Marinakis factored in player feeling when dismissing Postecoglou and Dyche.
If the Glasner experiment fails, George Syrianos will come under scrutiny. Forest’s chief football officer has more power at the club than at any other time and he pushed hard for Glasner, whom he has known for some time through links to German football.
It is believed the pair had some contact over possible transfer business during Glasner’s time at Palace, and Glasner would likely have welcomed the chance to work with Syrianos at Selhurst Park.
In December 2023, Syrianos wanted Glasner to replace Steve Cooper but Marinakis chose Nuno Espirito Santo instead. Marinakis’ son, Miltiadis, is at the training ground regularly and will report back to his father. These are testing times for Glasner and his champion.
Dyche has had his say, too. During a poor run of results last season, he gathered the Forest players and staff for their views on what needed to change.
Anticipating their opinions on formations and tactics, Dyche was bewildered when one player queried the decision to move the weekly barber visit from Friday to Thursday. Nevertheless, that player is still at Forest and Dyche lasted less than four months.
Dyche made many mistakes at Forest but his latest posts on Threads felt relevant.
If the Glasner experiment fails, George Syrianos will come under scrutiny. Forest’s chief football officer has more power at the club than ever before and he pushed hard for Glasner
The problem at Forest is that even if the players fail to stand up and be counted, they are rarely the ones to pay the ultimate price
They read: ‘The badge is bigger than all… and yet it seems not nowadays! I can only hope it turns and the culture we were insisting upon is now being assessed and realised as what was and is needed. Oliver is out there saying what I was saying… in his own style.
‘Nottingham Forest are still finding the goals hard to come by – and I had it along with my staff – we scored but nowhere near what the metrics were telling us, so not enough to stay in our job?
‘We had 35 efforts at goal v Wolves and yet a 0-0 result and it culminated in myself and staff being sacked. I hope Oliver is given more time, the fans stay with him and the players stand up and be counted.’
The problem at Forest is that even if the players fail to do so, they are rarely the ones to pay the ultimate price.
