Leicester’s title-winning captain Wes Morgan believes the Premier League’s elite sides should underestimate Nottingham Forest at their peril.
A win for Forest at home against Liverpool this evening would take them to within three points of the league leaders after 21 games played during an impressive season.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side’s unlikely to surge up the table has seen them likened to East Midlands rivals Leicester, who extraordinarily won the Premier League despite 5000-1 odds at the beginning of the campaign.
And Morgan, the defender who lifted that title in 2015-16 and also represented Forest earlier in his playing career, believes staying under the radar alongside the big hitters will play right into the Reds’ hands.
“That’s probably where it’s quite similar with Forest and Leicester. No-one expects you to sustain that push at the top. So you are not really taken seriously,” said Morgan, who is now back at the City Ground as a national scout for the emerging talent recruitment team.
“You go under the radar a little bit, which is great for the players because they’ve not got that pressure.”
“You can do your work without that expectation. Everyone wants that punchline, that headline: Can you win the league? Can you do this?
“They perform better when they haven’t got that pressure; when that expectation is much lower.
“So you’re achieving more and you can just be free in your play and what you want to do.”
Forest are currently third, behind Arsenal on goal difference and four points ahead of fourth-placed Chelsea.
They have won their last seven games, an impressive run which includes six straight Premier League victories ahead of going head to head with the leaders tonight.
COYR. pic.twitter.com/1nby1ZXrZQ
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) January 14, 2025
Can Forest do a Leicester?
If Forest’s fans aren’t already dreaming of winning the title, a win against Liverpool may just force them to start believing.
The 1979 and 1980 European Cup winners have 40 points after 20 games this season, which is as many as the Foxes had when they unbelievably won the title.
Forest’s staunch defence and devastating counter-attacking style are both traits that Jamie Vardy, Rihad Mahrez and Co had in 2015-16 but a key difference may be opposition the two sides are and were up against.
In 2015-16, Claudio Ranieri’s men led from early on in the season, with Arsenal and Tottenham their biggest challengers during a poor year for the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United.
Liverpool have not yet shown many cracks to suggest they will fall away any time soon this time around, which could spell bad news for the Reds.
That said, the team who dealt Arne Slot his only Premier League defeat thus far? Forest at Anfield in September.
