Oliver Glasner believes that operating with a slimmed-down squad will bring big benefits to Nottingham Forest this season.
Forest enjoyed a fairly quiet window with just five players arriving through the door at the City Ground as Glasner trimmed his roster. With no European football and the club already out of the Carabao Cup, it means a schedule of purely Premier League football awaits Forest from now until the New Year.
And speaking ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s visit this weekend, the Austrian has been outlining the reasons why a slim group of players can be a good thing.
“I’ve been in football now for many years and most of those years I’ve always had European football, and always had between 50 and 60 games a season,” he said. “And I would say that I probably managed with 16 on-field players who played more than 25 per cent of the minutes, so the number 17 already played less than 25 per cent.
“So when you go down to (player) number 20, you are at about eight or nine per cent of the total minutes. And I always say, with all respect, why cannot an academy player play for this seven or eight per cent of the minutes? Why run an academy if you don’t trust your academy players who can play five minutes here, ten minutes there, 12 minutes there?
“And that’s why I’m not a big fan of having a squad of 30 players. When we’re talking, for me, it’s how many, let’s say, starters you can have. How big is the drop between, let’s say, maybe the top 10, 12, 14 and the 18. That’s the most important thing. But I guess if you have, or I really believe if you have 16, 17, 18 players who can always start and the level stays the same, you don’t have a big problem.”
Both sides are searching for their maiden league win on Saturday and on the eve of the game Spurs have announced the surprise omission of Richarlison from their squad list submitted to the Premier League.
That is set to pave the way for an exit abroad with the Saudi and Turkish transfer windows still open. It is a stark change in fortunes for a player who was Spurs’ top scorer in the league last season (11 goals) and who helped them avoid an ignominious relegation from the top flight
Tottenham have endured a wretched start to this season already, despite lavishing hundreds of millions of pounds on a hard reset. Defeats to Brentford and Newcastle have already piled the pressure on them, even at this early stage of the campaign.
Before the elongated international break that straddles September and October, Spurs have this trip to the East Midlands and then back-to-back home games against Everton and Aston Villa. Bedding in the new arrivals – such as Omar Marmoush, Mykhailo Mudryk and Savio – and, crucially, sealing that first Premier League win is imperative before that first stoppage of the season arrives.
