Oliver Glasner: Coaching Analysis

Nottingham Forest have appointed five head coaches in less than a year. The fifth, confirmed on 6 July 2026, is different from the previous four in one important respect: Oliver Glasner arrives having won a European trophy in each of the last two seasons, and as only the third head coach to win both the Europa League and the Conference League.

His Forest work has not started yet. There are no matches to analyse, no patterns to break down, only a squad returning for pre-season and a manager with a very clear way of playing.

So this profile looks at what Forest have actually bought: the coach who won Eintracht Frankfurt the 2022 Europa League and turned Crystal Palace from a mid-table side into serial trophy winners. The method is unusually consistent, which means we can say with confidence what is coming to the City Ground.

The road here

Glasner is Austrian, 50 years old, and built his reputation step by step. Four seasons at LASK brought promotion to the Austrian top flight and, in his final year, a runners-up finish. Wolfsburg came next: seventh and a Europa League place in his first Bundesliga season, fourth and Champions League qualification in his second.

At Eintracht Frankfurt he won the 2022 Europa League, beating Rangers 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 final that went to extra time. That trophy made his name across Europe.

Crystal Palace appointed him in February 2024 with the club 15th. He lifted them to tenth by May, and then the trophies started. On 17 May 2025 Palace beat Manchester City 1-0 at Wembley to win the FA Cup, the first major trophy in the club's history, through Eberechi Eze's first-half volley and a Dean Henderson penalty save. The 2025 Community Shield followed, won against Liverpool.

In October 2025 Palace set a club record of 19 games unbeaten. In January 2026 Glasner confirmed he would leave when the season ended, and he departed with one more piece of silverware: the Conference League, won 1-0 against Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig on 27 May 2026, Jean-Philippe Mateta scoring the only goal. Palace's first European trophy, in Glasner's final match.

Forest, meanwhile, had churned through Nuno Espírito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vítor Pereira inside a single season. Pereira kept them up in 16th and reached a Europa League semi-final, losing to eventual winners Aston Villa, and was still replaced. Glasner inherits a talented, exhausted club that needs one idea held for longer than four months.

How his teams play with the ball

Glasner's shape is a 3-4-2-1 and has been at every stop: three centre-backs, a double pivot, wing-backs for width, two number 10s behind a lone striker.

The wing-backs are the release valve. With the width held by one player on each flank, the two 10s are freed to live in the half-spaces, the corridors between the opposition's centre-backs and full-backs. At Palace, the positioning of players like Ismaila Sarr and Daichi Kamada between the opponent's midfield and defence caused constant confusion about who should pick them up.

The striker makes it function. Mateta's job was to occupy defenders, hold the ball up and run the channels, and the moment Palace broke the opposition midfield line, Mateta or Sarr ran in behind to receive the next pass. Daniel Muñoz's cross for Eze's FA Cup final goal shows the other route: wing-back to the byline, runner arriving in the box.

Above all, Glasner's teams attack in transition. The compact defensive block is not just for stopping goals; winning the ball with the team close together makes the first pass after the regain easier to find, so his sides play controlled, secured counter-attacks rather than hopeful clearances. Win it, connect, break at maximum speed.

How his teams play without the ball

Out of possession the 3-4-2-1 becomes a 5-4-1 in an instant. The wing-backs drop into the back line, the 10s tuck in alongside the pivot, and the team defends in two tight lines of five and four with the striker screening in front.

Glasner's preference is a mid-to-high block rather than a passive one. At Selhurst Park he set his team to force turnovers in the central third of the pitch, exactly the zone from which a transition is most dangerous, and then break with maximum speed the moment the ball was won.

Within the block, he demands aggressive duelling. Defenders step out and compete for every contested ball rather than dropping off, and the two 10s press back as readily as they attack. The five-man back line provides the insurance that makes that aggression affordable.

The result at Palace was a defence that carried the team through cup runs: solid in structure, vicious in the moments after winning the ball. It is a game model built for knockout football, which is precisely what his trophy record shows.

The players he picks

Glasner's system defines his profiles. The striker must be physical and relentless, able to play alone against three defenders; Mateta became one of the most complete lone number 9s in the country under his coaching, dominating opponents physically while making constantly intelligent runs.

The wing-backs must be genuine athletes who defend as a fifth defender and arrive as a winger. Muñoz, whose cross won an FA Cup final, is the template: up and down the same touchline all match.

The 10s are the creative freedom in the machine. Eze, Sarr and Kamada all thrived in those pockets at Palace, players who receive between the lines, carry under pressure and combine around the striker.

At the back he wants centre-backs who defend the box, win their duels and step out into midfield with confidence. The system's compactness protects them from open space, and in return they must dominate their individual battles.

On the training ground

The single most verifiable fact about Glasner's coaching is its portability. Three clubs, three countries, one shape and one set of principles, each installed quickly enough to win within the first two seasons. That does not happen without a precise, repeatable teaching process.

The game model gives away the training priorities. A team that transforms from a 5-4-1 block into a full-speed counter-attack in a heartbeat has rehearsed that exact moment thousands of times: the regain, the first pass, the runs of the striker and the 10s, the wing-backs' sprints.

His in-game management is part of the method too. Palace's breakthrough spells under Glasner repeatedly followed tactical tweaks made mid-match or mid-season, small adjustments to pressing height or the positioning of the 10s rather than wholesale changes.

At Forest, the work starts with pre-season. The squad reached a European semi-final last season, so the raw material is there; the job is installing one clear picture and holding it.

What you can steal for your team

Glasner is the strongest current argument for a game model: one shape, a handful of principles, taught the same way everywhere. If you coach a grassroots team, our guide to writing a game model is the place to start, because clarity beats complexity at every level.

The back-three structure itself transfers well. Our guides to coaching the 3-4-3 and the 5-4-1 cover both sides of Glasner's shape: the attacking structure with wing-backs and two players between the lines, and the compact block it collapses into.

Coach the block as a springboard, not a bunker. Set your team to be hardest to play through in the middle of the pitch, then break the moment you win it. Our guide to coaching a mid-block pairs with the Forcing Wide in a Mid-Block drill, and our guide to attacking transitions covers the breakout. The Overlaps and Underlaps in Transition drill trains the wing-back runs that make the counter unstoppable at any level.

And if you have one dominant striker, build around them the way Glasner built around Mateta: hold-up, channel runs and box arrivals, all coached deliberately.

For complete session plans on back-three football, blocks and transitions, join Coach Notes Pro.