Oliver Glasner’s Nottingham Forest count cost of VAR as home woes deepen | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 home defeat to Coventry City before the international break brought a late VAR flashpoint and a sharper focus on fragile psychology under Oliver Glasner.

According to Nottingham Post, the head coach swerved the controversy and instead highlighted lingering scars from last season’s turbulence, stressing the need for time and stability.

Igor Jesus thought he had levelled in the 88th minute, only for VAR to send referee Jarred Gillet to the monitor and rule a foul on Caleb Yirenkyi. The equaliser was chalked off and Coventry saw out the win amid loud boos for the officials.

Forest laboured in attack. Glasner threw on Jesus and Chris Wood to join Liam Delap and moved away from his usual back three, yet the hosts mustered only three shots on target from 24 attempts, with an xG of 1.15 to Coventry’s 0.67.

It is the first time in the club’s history they have failed to score in their opening three home league games of a season, taking one point in that run, with a Carabao Cup loss to Leeds United added to the malaise.

Since beating Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 on 14 December last year, Forest have just one league home win, against relegated Burnley in April. Among ever-present Premier League teams since last season began, only Spurs have fewer home wins, three, and points, 16, than Forest’s four and 21.

Glasner felt pre-match nerves were evident and that his players rushed decisions against a newly promoted side who had lost all four prior fixtures. The next four visitors are Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Brighton and Hove Albion.

Forest now pause for three weeks. Those not on international duty get a week off before resuming at the Nigel Doughty Academy, with a friendly planned, ahead of a trip to Crystal Palace. Glasner said switching off would be hard and reiterated that both their football and psychology need stabilising.

Source: Nottingham Post

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”