Nottingham Forest currently sit 11th in the Premier League, having won two, drawn three and only lost one of their opening six games.
Nuno Esposito Santo’s side are averaging 40.2% possession, the third worst in the league this season, only scoring six goals’ the fourth worst in the division.
The Reds have had to rely on Chris Wood for three of their six goals, the other three coming from Callum Hudson-Odoi, Morgan Gibbs-White, and Ramon Sosa.
Despite having some really exciting attacking players, such as Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi, and Anthony Elanga, Forest are struggling in attack. However, back in 2022 they nearly signed a midfielder that could have improved just that.
Morgan Gibbs-White's time at Forest
Nottingham Forest signed Gibbs-White two and a bit years ago for a fee of around £25m initially, plus a further £17.5m available in performance-related add-ons.
Since joining the club, the Englishman has made 85 appearances, scoring 12 goals, providing 18 assists, and totalling 7,113 minutes played.
The 24-year-old has started well this season too, scoring one goal in his five games, but also creating plenty of chances for his teammates, which haven’t been converted.
Gibbs-White also earned his first England cap this season, coming from the bench against Ireland in the most recent Nations League games.
But it turns out, Steve Cooper was also interested in another midfielder back in that summer 2022 window, which could have scuppered the plans and development for Gibbs-White.
When Forest wanted to sign Ruslan Malinovskyi
According to reports in Italy at the time, both West Ham and Nottingham Forest were interested in Ruslan Malinovskyi during the summer transfer window of 2022.
Described as an “animal” by Fernando Evangelio in 2020, the 66-cap international is now playing for Genoa and would have no doubt been a useful signing. A better move than Gibbs-White, however? Unlikely.
At the time, Malinovskyi was playing for Atalanta, the club he made his most appearances (143), scoring 30 goals and providing 28 assists, across 7,019 minutes.
Goals
0.16
0.13
Assists
0.12
0.21
xG
0.15
0.19
xAG
0.22
0.24
Progressive Carries
2.73
2.09
Progressive Passes
5.76
4.09
Key Passes
1.62
1.91
Shots Total
2.75
1.72
Passes into Final Third
4.49
2.29
Tackles
1.77
0.83
Interceptions
0.47
0.46
As you can see from the stats, at the time, Malinovskyi was performing at a higher level, making more progressive carries and passes per 90, scoring more goals per 90, taking more shots, and putting in more defensive actions.
A carry is considered progressive if the ball is moved towards the opponent’s goal at least 10 yards from its starting point or is carried into the penalty area.
Gibbs-White did play a host of different positions in that season for Forest, playing 24 games as an attacking midfielder, eight games as a centre-forward, three as a right-winger, three as a left-winger, and one as a deeper midfielder, so this could have affected his metrics too.
Either way, Forest will be happy with their decision, as Gibbs-White is still only 24-years-old and is continuing to go from strength to strength, now valued at £33.5m by Transfermarkt, the highest he has been valued in his career so far.
Meanwhile, Malinovskyi is now 31-years-old, and only valued at £6.7m by Transfermarkt, which shows that even though it could have had a minor gain for Forest at the time in the 2022/23 season, putting their faith in the younger and higher ceiling Gibbs-White was the right decision after all.
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