The seeds of Glasnerball

A 2-1 win away at Aston Villa was just the headline — four new signings starting the match and a dominance in midfield suggest the Oliver Glasner effect is underway

A certain Elliot Anderson put in a player of the match performance yesterday in the Manchester derby. Man City, down to 10 men, won with a controversial Erling Haaland goal but it was the former Nottingham Forest player that won the plaudits.

That kind of performance is no surprise to Forest fans and you have to wonder how Anderson would've fitted into Oliver Glasner's side, especially as the 23-year-old has had endless comparisons with Crystal Palace's Adam Wharton.

As it is, James McAtee and Xaver Schlager are filling those midfield positions quite nicely for the Reds, both instrumental in the 2-1 win at Villa Park on Saturday. The former effectively a new signing, given his few appearances last season, and the latter one of a handful of arrivals at the City Ground this summer.

With Anderson's £116m fee burning a hole in their pockets, Forest could've got excited and really splashed the cash in the transfer window. But with Glasner's counsel, the club had by all accounts a very sensible summer.

The aforementioned Schlager and Steven Benda on free contracts, and then £45m on Liam Delap, £34m on Ousmane Diomande and £22m for Daniel Muñoz does add up. But moving players on has trimmed the squad substantially, saving money and giving Glasner the tools to do his job.

What is significant is that four of those new signings started on Saturday, proving that we bought Premier League-ready players — rather than just potential, with good data sets. The now-departed Edu oversaw last summer's signings, which saw the expensive additions of Dilane Bakwa, Omari Hutchinson and Arnaud Kalimuendo among others, as well as misfit loanees Douglas Luiz and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

A focus on quality over quantity, for a change, now means Glasner has a tight-knit squad of 21 outfield players and the understanding, spirit and togetherness is already proving itself. Saturday's game against Coventry already presents questions — namely who makes the first XI, given the performances in recent matches.

Sterner opposition is still to come, but the international break could be arriving at a good time for Forest to really gel and further their development — the switch to a 3-4-2-1 formation has seemed fairly comfortable and we await the full fruition of Glasnerball.