Former Nottingham Forest winger Paul Anderson says Oliver Glasner “has the personnel” to play his preferred wing-back system, but believes it will “take time” to fully bear its fruits.
“I’ve been coaching for over five years now and I love the formation,” he told BBC Radio Nottingham’s Shut Up And Show More Football podcast.
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“It allows you to outnumber an opposition team anywhere on the pitch. It also gives you the option of having two strikers – one of which can drop into the middle of the pitch and give you the option of four midfielders.
“That way, you can either overload the middle of the pitch or go man-to-man when you’re playing against a back four.
“You’ve got to have the personnel to play it, though. You’ve got to have intelligent players that can drop in and work off each other, and your wing-backs have to be fit.
“It probably would have suited me as a player because I was quite a defensive winger anyway. It would have been hard work, but I would have loved it.”
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Despite the Reds failing to win any of their opening three league matches this season, Anderson did highlight some positives.
“Nottingham Forest have very strong centre-backs at the minute,” he said.
“I’ve been very impressed by Jair Cunha as well, he has been making it hard for Ousmane Diomande to make it into the team, despite the club spending money on him.
“There is always going to be a question mark over Murillo’s fitness, but if he is fit and at 100% then this formation suits him perfectly. The same goes for Nikola Milenkovic – it is perfect for him.
“It also suits the midfield. It is a formation which is going to allow Morgan Gibbs-White and James McAtee more space in there.
“So they definitely have players in the squad who can do a job in this formation, it is just going to take time to come together.”
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