Morgan Gibbs-White

Gibbs-White operates between the lines rather than out wide, picking up the ball in pockets of space that a deeper midfielder cannot reach and a striker rarely drops into. What separates him from a conventional playmaker is his appetite for the run into the box once the pass has already been played. He arrives a fraction after the defence expects his involvement in the move to be finished.

That dual threat, creating and then finishing, has made him the focal point of the entire Forest attack. It brings its own problem, because opponents increasingly set out to stop him specifically. They double up around him in central areas and dare somebody else to beat them instead, which raises a fair question about the supporting cast around him. How Forest solve that problem may well decide how far the team eventually goes.