Morgan Gibbs-White is the talisman of Nottingham Forest and is currently on international duty with England, but one of his Reds teammates could cause him a major issue this week.
July was dominated by news surrounding the attacking midfielder as Tottenham looked set to sign Gibbs-White, reportedly triggering a release clause in his contract.
However, after Evangelos Marinakis disputed Tottenham’s approach, Gibbs-White eventually signed a new Forest contract to the relief of all at the City Ground.
A dominant display against Brentford was then followed up by two quieter showings from Gibbs-White this season, potentially leaving his spot in the Forest squad open to be challenged.
James McAtee in action for Nottingham Forest against West Ham.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
James McAtee has an opportunity to take Morgan Gibbs-White’s place
Gibbs-White is on England duty alongside Elliot Anderson in September, a show of strength for the Forest midfield that has often looked so impressive.
However, given the Reds’ transfer spree this summer, competition for places is high, with James McAtee a threat to Gibbs-White in particular.
McAtee signed from Man City in a deal worth a potential £30m. He can cover multiple areas of the Forest attacking midfield area, but excels centrally in the position that Gibbs-White occupies.
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Clearly, Gibbs-White is the default first-choice, but his performance against West Ham was particularly wasteful and concerning, coinciding with McAtee’s more promising efforts from the bench.
What’s most interesting, though, is that McAtee has remained at the Forest training ground as he’s now too old to feature for the England U21s, giving Espírito Santo plenty of time to work with him in particular in a sort of mini pre-season, something the Forest manager values highly.
Nuno now has the time he needs to work with James McAtee
He’s only made two substitute cameos, but Forest fans were impressed by McAtee when he came on against Crystal Palace in particular.
McAtee joined at a difficult time for Espírito Santo, though, who prefers to spend plenty of time in pre-season building bonds between the players and the coaching staff.
In his now infamous interview with Sky Sports ahead of the new season where he raised concerns about Forest’s transfer business, he said: “We are very far, very, very far. The plans that we had didn’t come through, the preparation in terms of squad was not ideal.
“We didn’t have the chance to create the bond because we didn’t know what squad we’d have.”
Over the international break, though, Nuno now has that opportunity with those who haven’t travelled, including time with McAtee where he could very well begin to see what the former City man offers that may see Gibbs-White looking over his shoulder.