Nottingham Forest go to Portman Road on Friday night sitting in the relegation zone, three straight defeats into a run that nobody at the City Ground saw coming. Oliver Glasner's reading of it is that his team have been better than the table says, and that complaining about it would be a waste of everyone's time.
"It feels unfair but I don't want to be complaining and feeling as victims," he said. Forest wasted good chances before losing at Crystal Palace and came close to holding champions Arsenal on Sunday. Close has produced nothing.
A slow start he has had before
The internal view at Forest is that Glasner is the right appointment and that his methods and personality have landed well. The owner, Evangelos Marinakis, is the only person the 52-year-old says he has met with more ambition than himself, and Glasner has already talked to him about the one pattern that keeps repeating in his career.
He won one of his first six games at Palace after replacing Roy Hodgson in February 2024. He then went eight games without a win at the start of his first full season there. That campaign finished with Palace beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final to end a 119-year wait for a major trophy. He arrived at Forest with that, a Community Shield and a Conference League behind him.
Forest's recent history argues for patience and against it at the same time. Ange Postecoglou lasted 39 days. Sean Dyche managed a little over 100. Vitor Pereira took them to a Europa League semi-final and kept them up, then was sacked in June, two minutes before a termination clause expired.
The real problem is in front of goal
Forest have not scored a Premier League goal at the City Ground this season. That is not a new affliction either: eight league goals at home across the whole of 2026, four of them against a weak Burnley side in April, and two wins in 17 home league games since November. The barren run at home now stands at eight hours and 26 minutes.
The shot numbers make it stranger. Forest have taken 120 shots this season, the third most in the division behind Manchester United's 138 and Brighton's 125. Only 25 have hit the target. Five have gone in. Their xG difference of -6.20 is the worst in the league, and a conversion rate of 4.17% is the lowest of any side now that Spurs have climbed to 6.06% following Monday's win over Coventry.
Rory Delap, a £50m signing in the summer, had a close-range effort saved by Walter Benitez at Palace and was denied by an Ezri Konsa block in injury time against Arsenal. Glasner praised him in both games. "Every team in the Premier League has the quality to come back into a game to score a goal," the manager 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."
A settled XI, and the players outside it
One thing has become clear: Glasner knows his team. Neco Williams, Matz Sels, Dan Ndoye, Murillo and James McAtee have started every league game, and Morgan Gibbs-White would have made it six but for a muscle injury on Sunday. Club captain Ryan Yates has not played a minute. Ibrahim Sangare has one start despite signing a new three-year deal in the summer. Callum Hudson-Odoi's minutes have been limited and Ola Aina has lost his place to wing-back Daniel Munoz.
Murillo, at least, is buying in. "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 defender said after the Arsenal defeat.
Ipswich are a bad opponent to meet in this mood, and a good one. Forest will have chances at Portman Road. Our prediction, and it is ours rather than anybody else's: Ipswich 1-1 Nottingham Forest, with Forest leaving wondering how they did not take all three.
Fixture: Ipswich Town v Nottingham Forest, Premier League, Portman Road, Friday 23 October 2026, 20:00 BST. Forest are in the relegation zone after three consecutive defeats. Statistics and quotes as reported by BBC Sport. The scoreline prediction is this site's own.
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