‘I’m not here to be liked’: Glasner defiant as Brentford capitalise on Forest woes
Nottingham Forest were made to pay for a string of missed chances as Brentford won 2-0, their first Premier League win since before the international break
For Oliver Glasner and Nottingham Forest, the future starts now. His post-match press conference lasted 14 frustrated minutes in which, repeatedly banging the desk, he blamed himself for compromising his principles and told players that if they didn’t “buy in” they could “leave”.
“For me, I go home and have breakfast with my family, so it’s not the worst situation,” Glasner said. “Nobody needs to have pity with Oliver Glasner. If I want, I could start in two weeks somewhere else. I won’t do it. But the players, the staff, they remain in the same situation. And it’s the same shit situation than the club had last year. So you need to change and rebuild from the bottom to the top. And this is clear for me. And this is what I will do. And without any compromises, zero, zero.”
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Forest, once again, didn’t play too badly. No side has underperformed their xG as significantly as Forest, who went into the weekend third in Opta’s expected table but third-bottom in real life. Here, they had two-and-a-half times as many chances as Brentford. They could claim a degree of misfortune in that both goals went in off the luckless Nikola Milenkovic, the first an own goal after Murillo had misjudged a long clearance to Dango Ouattara, the second credited to Igor Thiago as he latched on to Jaydon Anthony’s clever low cross. But Glasner was accepting no excuses. “It’s not anger,” he said. “It’s necessary.”
The result, Glasner said, was “disappointing and frustrating. And we have to accept it’s not good enough. If you lose four of the last five games, it’s not good enough. And that’s why it’s for me, it’s now time that we change things, that I change things, and that’s what I will do.”
One player, he revealed, had asked to travel home alone. “I said no, we can go back with the coach. For example, I have no understanding if somebody wants to go home on his own today from London to Nottingham. No, go with the bus like everybody else. No extras, no extras.”
What the change looks like remains to be seen. Glasner was keen to stress that he takes full responsibility and, at times, seemed to have sympathy “They tried,” he said. “You can’t say they’ve had a lack of effort. But again, you feel you’re controlling the game. You create a few good situations, and all of a sudden you’re 1-0 down. It was the fourth goal we conceded from a long ball from a goalkeeper. So it’s lack of awareness, losing then the duel, and we’re 1-0 down.
“It’s not a lack of effort, but there are a few things that are very obvious. We’re talking about the realities. We are outrun by the opposition in every single game. We have to change it. And if you can’t change it, we need different personnel. And if the club doesn’t want to change it, they need a different manager. I’m desperate to change it. Desperate.
• Brentford have scored the opening goal in eight of their last nine Premier League games, and only Manchester City (37) and Arsenal (32) have done so more often in the competition since the start of last season than the Bees (27).
• Nottingham Forest have failed to score in five of their nine Premier League games this season, no side has done so more; that’s despite having more xG than their opponents in seven of those nine matches.
• Since the start of last season, only Erling Haaland (33), João Pedro (20) and Antoine Semenyo (18) have scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League than the 16 of Igor Thiago (pictured). Opta
“I think we see the football is OK. We don’t give them many chances. So we kept them to seven [Opta stats said six] shots here at Brentford. So we are creating enough situations. We have the personnel. But we need to get more out of the players. And this is where I see my responsibility. I felt it was more hugging than now. But if hugging doesn’t work, there’s also an opposite way. And again, I don’t need to be liked. I’m not here to be liked. I’m here to bring success to this club. And that’s what I think. Not what I think. That’s what I will change.”
For his part, Keith Andrews described the win, bafflingly Brentford’s first since they beat Chelsea before the last international break, as their best of the season. “We had to show different traits to some of the other games,” he said. “There was a lot of smart play and leadership from our players.”
Unless morale disintegrates completely, Forest, surely, will be fine. The ball will start running for them. But for now the fates remain against them. And it is that, more than anything, that Glasner needs to change.
