Oliver Glasner Insists Forest Deserve More After Five Defeats in Eight Games

• Nottingham Forest have lost five of their opening eight games in all competitions and sit in the Premier League relegation zone.
• Oliver Glasner says the start “feels unfair” and that he does not want to be “complaining and feeling as victims.”
• Forest have not scored a Premier League goal at the City Ground this season and have gone eight hours and 26 minutes without a home goal.

A Manager With a History of Slow Starts Takes Over a Club With a History of Short Reigns

“It feels unfair but I don’t want to be complaining and feeling as victims.” That was Oliver Glasner’s verdict on a start to the season that has left Nottingham Forest in the Premier League relegation zone after three straight defeats and five losses in their first eight games in all competitions.

It is not where anyone at the City Ground expected to be when the club appointed Glasner in the summer after his exit from Crystal Palace. The results have been tight. Forest wasted golden chances before losing at Palace, then nearly hung on for a battling point against champions Arsenal last Sunday, losing 1-0. There is belief inside the club that progress is being made. It has to show up on the pitch, and soon.

Slow starts are nothing new for Glasner

The 52-year-old was hired to take Forest to the next level after lifting the FA Cup, the Community Shield and the Conference League with Palace. He is impatient to repeat that success and says owner Evangelos Marinakis is the only person he has met with more ambition than him. Glasner has also said he is not a magician, and he has already spoken to Marinakis about slow starts in the past.

The record backs him up. He won just one of his first six games at Palace after replacing Roy Hodgson in February 2024. In his first full season there, 2024-25, he did not win any of his first eight games. That campaign ended with Palace beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final to land the club’s first major trophy after a 119-year wait.

Forest and short reigns

Patience is a harder sell at Forest. Ange Postecoglou’s 39-day reign ended just over a year ago after six defeats and no wins in eight games. Sean Dyche lasted a little over 100 days. Vitor Pereira took the club to the Europa League semi-finals and secured top-flight survival, yet he was sacked two minutes before a termination clause expired in June.

Glasner has reiterated the need for a strategy and consistency. Internally there is confidence that Forest are on the right track, and he has impressed with his methods and personality.

Who plays, and who does not

A preferred line-up is starting to form. Neco Williams, Matz Sels, Dan Ndoye, Murillo and James McAtee have started every league game, and Morgan Gibbs-White would have joined them on Sunday but for a muscle injury.

Others have waited. Club captain Ryan Yates has not played a minute. Ibrahim Sangare has made one start, even after signing a new three-year contract in the summer. Callum Hudson-Odoi has seen his playing time limited, and Ola Aina has lost his place to new wing-back Daniel Munoz.

Murillo spoke up for the manager after the Arsenal defeat. “We have a good manager and I think we are still getting his ideas,” the defender said. “We changed everything in our system this season. It is difficult but after three or four months we keep improving and I think we are close to reaching our best.”

The goals problem

The sharpest worry is at the other end. Forest have yet to score in the Premier League at the City Ground this season, and they have netted just eight league goals at home in 2026. Four of those came against a weak Burnley side in April. Over their last 17 home games, going back to November, they have won two, and the Europa League wins over Ferencvaros, Porto and Aston Villa hid the problem for a while.

Overall this season Forest have scored five times. Their xG figure is -6.20, which BBC Sport lists as the worst in the division. They have had 120 shots, the third-highest total in the league behind Manchester United and Brighton, but only 25 were on target. Against Arsenal they had 14 shots and two on target. Liam Delap, the £50m striker signed this summer, saw a close-range effort saved by Walter Benitez against Palace and was denied by an Ezri Konsa block in injury time against Arsenal. Forest’s conversion rate of 4.17% is the lowest in the league after Spurs, who sit on 6.06%.

Glasner pointed to missed chances. “Every team in the Premier League has the quality to come back into a game to score a goal,” he said. “When you play the champions, you don’t have seven, eight or nine moments like we had at Palace. You have two or three or four, and if you don’t take it, you have always the chance to lose the game.”

What Glasner wants next

He has no wish to dwell on the past. “We are the only ones who can change it,” he said, and he has told his players that in tough moments they need to “stick together and stay positive.”

Inside the club the belief in Glasner remains. It now has to translate into results on the pitch.